Abstract: In Chinese film aesthetics, imagination as rational experience is derived from art and social practice. In the context of the postindustrial era of consumerism, the integration of this rational experience with economic activities leads further to the practice of business and aesthetics, thus the rise of “imagination consumption”. The research on “imagination consumption”, with a positive and pioneering orientation of aesthetic criticism, should be conducted in the perspective of integrated and interdisciplinary explanation of social structures. The interpretation of “imagination consumption” is centered on boundary expansion in the real society of film arts and on how to realize the interactive unity of commercial and aesthetic value by shifting from economic transactions of film products. In view of this, the perspective of “imagination consumption” is taken as the medium theoretical support. By eliminating the habitual partition at the bottom, the paper sets the pursuit of the whole social structure as the theme of the public and social aesthetics, so that the audience can experience the aesthetical interaction between subjective life experience and objective social cognition. Presently, owing to the mass consumer culture, the research on “imagination consumption” has become an important means of practicing film aesthetics and a pioneering trend of theoretical innovation. With the technological advancement in the new era, it will gain wider recognition as a unique, integrated and multidisciplinary approach. 

Key words:  film aesthetics, film production, imagination consumption, Consumption culture, social practice, social aesthetics