Dress for Success: A Journey from Past to Present Among Tibetans

Abstract

This article examines the problem of what to wear among Tibetans in Qinghai, China. Starting with recent media coverage, which reported how Tibetan traditional attire is becoming a powerful political statement, I will attempt to illustrate how the dramatic transformations in the way Tibetans dress are not a new phenomenon but an ongoing process of the past fifty years. From the analysis of people’s narratives and extended participant observation, it emerges that the choice of garments is of real concern to many Tibetan people as it communicates messages about the self and their position in the world. I contend that Tibetan men especially have strategically taken to wearing Western-style suits in an attempt to enact Han Chinese economic success.

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