Western designers have always created collections inspired by China. Juanjuan Wu explains that until recently, however, it has been a question of fascination and reciprocal exoticism. Chinese fashion—fashion that has been truly designed, produced, and worn in China since Deng Xiaoping's open-door policy made it possible—has, in fact, received very little attention from Western fashion theorists. This is the first book to deal with Chinese fashion, written from a Chinese perspective and in English. The conceptual and historical slant that marks it achieves the twofold purpose of acquainting the Western reading public with the evolution of Chinese fashion from 1978 to today and offering the Chinese reader an interpretation of fashion as a cultural product and not merely a material object, as it is usually treated in Chinese academic studies.
The first chapter deals with perhaps the most complex subject, on which what follows all depends: the influence of the inheritance of the Cultural Revolution and the recovery of fashion in the early post-Mao years, a very confused period in political and sartorial terms. Squeezed between the residual ideology of the ideal of frugality, simplicity, and sobriety—broken only by the (failed) attempt to supplement the soldier's uniform with the celebrated Jiang Qing dress designed by Mao Zedong's wife—and the new forms of Western imitation, modern Chinese fashion and the debate it has taken shape.
In the Chinese people's desire in the post-Mao era to become “citizens of the world,” the media play a fundamental role. The second chapter is devoted to this theme. By the start of the reform period, the demand for television was growing, and in the 1980s, imports of foreign products were becoming increasingly pervasive, forging the aesthetic expectations of young people in the cities. Ideas on how to dress came largely from television programs from Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. Almost every television series imported in the early 1980s became an event, inviting millions of people to imitate the style of its protagonists.
The third chapter deals with the role of women in the change brought about by fashion and media culture. While the ideology of the Cultural Revolution defined an almost sexless woman imprisoned in a uniform, the new feminine position was aimed not so much at rediscovering femininity, although this was one of its consequences, as creating unisex, and hence modern, models, though with a gender difference, in line with what had happened in the West in the previous decade.
The fourth chapter offers a detailed analysis of how the reopening or launch of local fashion journals and the entrance of Western fashion magazines in China marked the reference framework for the development of modern fashion. An essential part of fashion, as we know, lies in its representation. The relationship between the media and the “fashion icons” is analyzed in the fifth chapter. It is interesting to note that the icons came not only from the United States, but above all from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan.
The sixth chapter is devoted to the “national wardrobe.” The author describes and analyzes the most celebrated sartorial symbols of China: the qipao, the Mao suit, the Tang jacket, the hanfu (traditional Han dress), and the role of these garments, partly linked to tradition and partly reinvented, in the construction of a new national identity after 1978. The seventh chapter offers a detailed picture of the Chinese textile industry: from the first state-employed designers to the recent fashion entrepreneurs and their role, which is both national and international.
The eighth chapter is devoted to the significance of luxury. The imperialism of Western brands is documented: the first major success was Pierre Cardin, and today we find the widespread, capillary presence of all the Western brands. Despite this, the author concludes by hypothesizing a not far-off moment in which the production and not only the manufacture of luxury brands will be Chinese. This might also modify the perception of Western luxury brands in China, today still the favorites, sought after by the so-called Chinese nouveaux riches, who might shortly shift their preferences toward Chinese luxury brands—that is, brands that are constructed according to a vision and aesthetics recognized, inside and outside China, as Chinese. This has already been made possible by recent changes in the textile industry and by the fact that fashion in its cultural dimension, to which the author devotes most of her analysis, is already very Asian, as emerges in the chapters dedicated to the media, pop icons, and the Chinese wardrobe.
The book enables Western readers to understand the recent development of Chinese fashion—and also clarifies for Chinese readers the profound relationship fashion has with the identity of post-Mao China. It is recommended to all those who are interested in fashion theory and the anthropology of fashion and to students of contemporary Chinese culture.
