Gen Z and Millennials in China are starting to embrace minimalist lifestyles.

Gen Z and Millennials in China are starting to embrace minimalist lifestyles. Minimalism has been trending the U.S. for some time as young consumers welcome less-is-more mentalities when it comes to beauty, fashion, and home decor. While maximalism is now on the rise here, China’s young influencers are leaning into the minimalist lifestyle as they encourage eco-conscious spending. China’s search engine Baidu reports that searches for wardrobe organization and decluttering content tripled from 2019 to 2021, and a wave of “cleanfluencers” have taken to Bilibili (a Shanghai-based social platform popular among China’s youth) to share their home cleaning routines and how to live a fuller life with less stuff. The trend isn’t just about limiting consumption; influencers portray how the movement can inspire life-changing regimes by changing how they think about the things they purchase. According to Gloria Gao, a minimalism advocate on social media, “Many of us have started to get tired of being constantly bombarded with new things to shop…[minimalism] normalizes that it is okay not to buy the things that are being marketed to ‘make our lives better.’” (Vogue Business)