Re-Negotiating National Identity Through Chinese Fashion

Xin Gu

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Fashion and Cultural Textiles Cultural Industries and Urban Development Cultural and Historical Studies

Abstract

As cultural and creative industries have been used by china to modernize the country, it is critical to talk about the emergence of new creative subjectivity. The lack of creative agency in China is a deficit position from which these industries began to gain attention within the policy circle. Much of the research and understandings on Chinese creative industries have been at the periphery of scholarly discussion on agency, identity, social class and so on. It has not been concerned with the question of how creatives deal with the conflicts between economic rationality and cultural esthetics. O’Connor and Gu’s research in China on this is an exception (c.f. O’Connor and Gu). In relation to fashion, scholarly attentions concern overwhelmingly with national identity (c.f. Tsui; Clark; Kunz) rather than how fashion identity is increasingly shaped by universal cultural values. Segre-Reinach’s works on the influence of international fashion industry (esp. Italian fashion) on Chinese national identity are of particular interests here (c.f. 2009). In this paper, we explore meaning making process within the emergent sustainable fashion field, drawing interests primarily from small independent labels in China. Their attempts to connect with universal cultural values in the field of sustainable fashion are testimonies to how creative subjectivity is evolving within contemporary China. We argue that whether Chinese creatives are going to break through is dependent on the following three aspects: availability of a symbolic space nurturing source of imaginary for creative subjectivity; the exchange structures attached to local imaginaries; and creative’s esthetic reflexivity framed by sense of belonging to this symbolic space—“Chineseness”.

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References

1992Fashion, Culture, and Identity 2019Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime 2013Sustainable Fashion and Textiles 2006A new modernity?2008Changing clothes in China: fashion, history, nation 2004The Global Reach of a New Discourse 2007The emerging (national) popular music culture in China 2009Chinese Fashion

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