Asia is a concept invented by westerners. Is there even a West ? The culture of Calvinist Scandinavia is not that of catholic Spain/italy nor that of America.
Yet there is a huge growth of luxury in Asian countries. But can we make the assumption that the riches from these three widely different countries obey the same motivations ?
Any insight ?
Please take a look at Geert Hofstede website concerning national cultures - very interesting!
In each case the history of those three societies you mention provides a different landscape for luxury consumption. In South Korea's case a careful hypothesis can be that cultural practices around luxury consumption have filled the void that appeared after pre-industrial cultural practices and social identity symbols were quite radically purged at some point. There are quite a few Korea-focused consumption-symbolism studies, from coffee to LV bags.
You may want to look up the "soybean paste girl" symbolism, for example.
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