Signs suggest force of Chinese consumers is now awakening

Other such signs include that the 4 trillion yuan that Chinese consumers spent online last year to purchase all kinds of goods from domestic and international retailers and the one-fifth jump, to 120 million, in the number of Chinese tourists who have travelled overseas in 2015.

It is true that all these consumption-led growth stories happened in a year when the Chinese economy probably saw the slowest growth in about a quarter century. As the world's second-largest economy is shifting away from its decades-old dependence on investment and exports for growth, many industrial sectors with serious overcapacity or significant exposure to the turmoil of global markets have felt the pain of China's necessary economic transformation towards more self-sustaining growth driven by consumption and innovation.

The latest Caixin/Markit China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index index fell from 48.6 in November to 48.2 in December, indicating that Chinese manufacturing had contracted for 10 straight months.

It is a real cause for concern that China's traditional growth engines are losing steam and becoming a drag on the country's overall economic growth. But it is not a sufficient reason to cast doubt on the long-term prospects of the Chinese economy, particularly given the increasing signs that Chinese consumers are awakening and their spending is taking up the slack created by these cooling industrial sectors.

In terms of per capita GDP and their preference for saving over spending, Chinese consumers still fall far behind their counterparts in developed countries and can only contribute to a smaller share of their country's overall economic growth. Yet, with their incomes continuously rising, Chinese consumers are showing they are more eager than ever to spend.

But before China's consumption-led growth someday becomes the leading story for global media, let's first wait to see how far Chinese moviegoers can move The Force Awakens up the all-time global box office charts.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily.

zhuqiwen@chinadaily.com.cn