百货商场作为民国时期开始兴起的商业公共空间，在经济史和城市文化史上都具有重要的地位，同时也有很高的文化研究价值。民国时期以来百货商场的发展经历了从充满惊奇和眩晕的空间到常态化市民生活空间的变化过程，而在当下，老牌百货商场和新兴百货商场产生了分野。在这个发展过程中，百货商场的空间角色发生了从民国时期单纯的消费空间到建国初期外力的控制和消解下职能简单化的商品供给空间再到西方化、都市化冲击下五光十色的都市空间的转变。尤其是在当下，百货商场在消费社会的大环境下发生异化，产生了反抗传统的消费主义倾向，而其空间本身也处于被消费的状态并由此受到冲击。

Department stores, which are of a kind of commercial public space emerged in the period of the Republic of China, take a crucial position in both economic and urban culture history with a great value of cultural studies. Since the early 1900s, the department stores have experienced a change from a surprising and dazzling place to a common space for daily life. At the present time, the old-styled and new-fashioned department stores begin to diverge. During the development, the role of department stores transforms from a place for simple consumption in the period of the Republic of China to the space for goods supply with the function simplification under the external control in the early stage after the foundation of New China, then to the appealing metropolis recreation with the impact of westernization and urbanization. Especially in the consumer society, department stores, undergoing alienation, nourish a trend of consumerism inclination that resists the traditions. Thus, the space is impacted itself being consumed.