All belong to the nianqing shechizu (luxurious youth) born in the late 1970s and early '80s, the first generation to grow up in a consumer culture.

Certainly Ms Lin knows where her values lie. 'Let me put it this way, no money equals no shopping, which equals no fun. If I didn't spend money, I would feel lost, empty, depressed.'

Last year, total consumer spending on the mainland fell just short of US$1 trillion, according to Access Asia, a market research company. Over the past decade, retail sales have more than doubled and now account for about 90 per cent of total consumer spending. In a sign that mainland savers are beginning to open their wallets, overall spending as a proportion of income increased from 77 per cent to 83 per cent between 2002 and 2004.

A recent survey by ACNielsen, a market information provider, places mainland consumers within the top three nations internationally for consumer confidence. Nielsen expects the mainland's advertising market to overtake Japan's to become the world's second largest by 2010, with international brands emerging as important players after suffering for years at the hands of low-cost domestic competitors.

A quick glance around the shopping malls of Wanfujing, Beijing's major high street, or a stroll down Shanghai's Huaihai Road confirms that much of the impetus for the urban retail boom comes from young mainlanders buying the latest fashions, cosmetics and electronic goods.

Although the mainland as a whole is far from becoming a consumer-led economy, there are signs that young urban mainlanders are growing up with consumerist values at odds with those of earlier, more prudent generations.

Li Jingya, a stylist at Beijing's Aria fashion design studio, laughs that her father, an official in the Beijing municipal government, complains he has raised 'a young capitalist seedling'. Last week, Ms Li, 22, spent half her month's earnings on a 4,680 yuan dress by Jean-Paul Gaultier. 'What you wear shows what kind of taste you have,' she said. 'Many young Chinese want other people to see they're fashionable or rich. But older Chinese people and parents find this kind of one-upmanship exasperating.'

A survey of mainland 20-year-olds by CLSA, a brokerage firm, finds a deepening awareness of international brands and a growing association between purchasing power and status among young urban mainlanders. But Ms Li said she was motivated less by expensive labels than good design. Young mainland professionals, she said, were moving beyond the flashy and tasteless ostentation of the 1990s.

Her partner, Yun Xi, 26, who moved from Inner Mongolia to Beijing 10 years ago to set up a clothing business, agreed. 'Before, labels were very important,' she said. 'Ten years ago, when people first had money, it was important to show other people what brand you could buy. But more discerning women now care more about quality and design and less about brand for brand's sake. Personally, I look for quality clothes that show great attention to detail, label or no label.'

CLSA's survey concludes the 20-year-olds 'appear to be caught between their past and their future - attributing status to achievement on the one hand, but increasingly to consumption and global brands on the other'.

Yet achievement and consumption are increasingly linked, as achievement becomes equated with financial success. A good job means the spending power to buy the good life.

Aria's Ms Li detects hidden tradition in the conspicuous consumption of young mainlanders. 'Traditionally, Chinese people associated success and happiness with good clothes and good food,' she said. 'People still think this way, even if they are unaware of it. Actually, the way young people think is not so different from their parents and grandparents; you can see it from the importance they attach to what they wear and what they eat. Anyone with money buys expensive clothes and eats at the best restaurants.'

Nor has mainland youth completely abandoned traditional prudent virtues. The CLSA survey repeatedly points out that the 'budding consumer culture' among the 20-year-olds is 'balanced by conservative financial tendencies' - the continued belief in the value of saving.

Alanis Qin, who works as an editor's assistant for a foreign magazine in Beijing, said she saved 20 per cent of her 5,000 yuan monthly salary and gave a portion to her mother. 'Most people I know give their parents money every month. It shows respect, and is an important source of income for them when they retire,' she said.

Ms Qin, 24, said that only a minority of rich young mainlanders could afford to throw their cash around. 'Most people don't have lots of family money and have to save carefully. I would say roughly 70 per cent of young Beijingers fall into this category.' She said family background was the most important factor in determining how much young mainlanders spent.

A poll of 1,200 university students in Beijing and Shanghai last year by Hill and Knowlton, a public relations firm, underlines the large disparities between youth incomes. More than 60 per cent of the students, who originated from 27 different provinces, spent 500 yuan or more a month, with 10 per cent passing the 1,000 yuan mark. Yet more than half of the male students surveyed in Beijing had less than 500 yuan to spend, while the mean disposable income of female students in both cities was only about 300 yuan.

For university graduates who are lucky enough to find a well-paid job, student penury may give way to the occasional shopping binge. But, even in the mainland's richest cities, only a relatively small slice of the population will choose the yueguangzu lifestyle.

Shopaholic Ms Lin said young mainlanders today had a fundamentally different outlook from older generations. 'People my age live for today; my parents always lived for tomorrow.'

But Ms Qin said many young people saved so they could invest in bricks and mortar, and a solid future. Arguably the most significant marker between the generations is the willingness of young urban mainlanders to finance major purchases with debt. Ms Qin recently bought a two-bedroom flat on the outskirts of east Beijing for 310,000 yuan. She borrowed 250,000 yuan from the bank, which she pays back at 700 yuan per month. Property purchases make the link between financial prudence and modern consumerism.

CLSA's survey compares the responsibility of young mainland consumers favourably with Japan's rampantly consumerist youth culture. 'In direct contrast to 20-year-olds in Japan, who view consumption and style as cool ... interviewees in China display a remarkable willingness to put off short-term fun in exchange for expected longer-term gains,' it concludes.

Not that such good sense will put off the big spenders. Ms Lin is planning to splurge this month's wages on household accessories at Ikea, while Ms Li has booked a weekend shopping trip to Hong Kong. In the autumn she will take a three-week tour of India, where she hopes to pick up a tasteful sari or two to offset the new Gaultier.