HONG Kong may be the Asian model for a shopper's paradise where everyone lives for the bright lights and glitz. But people here still won't openly admit to enjoying the hedonistic lifestyle.
According to David Tse, professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Department of Marketing, conspicuous consumption has never been an acceptable social norm in traditional Chinese society He says that Confucian philosophers taught people to live quiet lives within their means: the high life should have no place in the Chinese intellectual world.
In a study titled ''Understanding Chinese as Consumers'', Prof Tse found more than 80 per cent of people in a survey agreed that they should enjoy life if he or she was successful.
However, when he put the same question in a way which challenged traditional Chinese modesty, the result was quite different, with only 60 per cent of his subjects saying they should ''work hard and play hard''.
The bottom line might be the same, but enjoying the benefits of success does not, in Chinese minds, mean the same thing as living life to the full.
There are times when Hong Kong people think extravagance is justified.