Mystery box fever and symbolic value in contemporary Chinese consumer society
Published online on July 11, 2026
Abstract
Journal of Consumer Culture, Ahead of Print.
Mystery boxes are probabilistic consumer products with no practical utility, but have become a multi-billion-dollar phenomenon in China. Existing scholarship largely treats them through psychological and behavioural lenses without interrogating their ...
Mystery boxes are probabilistic consumer products with no practical utility, but have become a multi-billion-dollar phenomenon in China. Existing scholarship largely treats them through psychological and behavioural lenses without interrogating their ...