Abstract: Based on the interview with new-middle class consumers in Shanghai, this paper shows that the family-mediated relationship between state and consumer is resolved and concealed in the complicate interaction among state, family and consumer. Nowadays, the tension between state and consumer can be observed in the following two aspects. Firstly, the weakness of societalization in the institutions of provision of public consumer goods causes the new-middle class consumers' relative poverty of disposable income and time, which hinders "de-familization" consumption, the explosion of effective demand of the new-middle class consumers and consequently the achievement of the national target of "expanding domestic demand". Secondly, in the promotion of state's individualization of the provision of public consumer goods, Chinese consumers, actually looking forward to "de-familization", have to face the reality of "familization" and fall into the entanglement of relationships among family members, which cast a shadow over the national governance target of "maintaining social stability". Therefore, the reconstruction of state-consumer relationship should focus on family and its change.

Key words: state, family, consumer, new-middle class