Photo Essay: China’s Shopaholics Discover Less is More

Even after two cleanouts of her apartment, Zhong Yi still has 14 pairs of shoes left to donate or sell, including a pair of high heels worth more than 6,000 yuan ($884). She used to own more than 60 pairs.

Zhong is a recovering shopaholic. She was able to earn more than 10,000 yuan a month as a part-time photographer during college, which funded her shopping sprees. But that work dried up due to the pandemic and instead of finding new ways to fund her buying habits she has chosen to say goodbye to consumerism. She is parting ways with the things she spent so much money accumulating in search of happiness beyond shopping.