Counter Orientalism: Fashion in Altermodern China
Can China Fashion Escape the Orientalist Discourse in an Altermodern Context?

Abstract

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Building on the work of scholars such as Edward Said and Ziauddin Sardar, and decades of discussing Orientalism, we are well aware of the dangers of Orientalism as a colonial legacy to these presumed “Others”; as Orientalism holds that “the Orient” was fundamentally different from the West and was used as a tool to contain and manage these cultures and civilizations. When applied to fashion and dress, Orientalism is expressed in a Western-dominated, Eurocentric fashion world that believes only the West has the authority to define fashion and overemphasizes the traditions and differences of “the Other’s” attire. 

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Although the East and the West can no longer be clearly distinguished in the current era of globalization, the issue of Orientalism remains important. For even though Chinese designs are gradually rising and gaining international attention, they are still placed under a Eurocentric design discourse system. Orientalism, to a large extent, has caused the aphasia of Chinese fashion in terms of the expression and representation of Chinese culture. It is important to note that the reference to “Orient” and “West” is not intended to emphasize or exacerbate the dichotomy between the two, but rather to reflect a power relationship – a Euro-American power over the Orient is still reflected in contemporary fashion systems. This study intends to investigate the remaining and continuing role that Orientalism is playing in the current fashion system in terms of designs, representations, branding, and marketing, etc. This study does not dismiss or exclude the existence and relevance of Orientalism in history and in fashion, for a denial to which may lead to a desocialized and dehistoricized conceptualization of culture. Rather, the study aims, based on the recognition of Orientalism’s influence on Chinese fashion and expression, to explore the possibility of escaping the burden of Orientalism and establishing a new narrative of “Chineseness”. 

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To answer the question, the study borrows insights from altermodernism, which itself counters the discourse of Orientalism as the essence of the altermodern is to provide alternatives to modernity and acknowledge the multiple viewpoints. This study finds the potential of the idea of altermodernism in helping to think critically about the Chinese fashion system. To get rid of the impact of the Orientalist narrative, one key point is to establish China’s own discourse, which is not a discourse existing to counter the current discourse, but one that integrates and enriches the universal discourse. The altermodern allows for coexistence of multiple times and spaces,  which can also be used to build a more inclusive discourse and design aesthetic. Furthermore, designers and brands must think about what Chinese fashion and culture can bring to global fashion.

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Key Words: Orientalism, altermodernism, China fashion, cultural aphasia

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Introduction

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China was objects. And absence. M. had a mustard-gold liquescent silk robe that belonged to a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Dowager Empress, she said.

– Susan Sontag, “Project for a Trip to China”, 1973

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Orientalism was used as a way of seeing and perceiving to support colonial dominance throughout the colonial period, believing that “the Orient” was fundamentally different from the West and defining it as always Other, feminine, and inferior to the West. When Orientalism was applied to dress, the difference in appearance and clothing was interpreted as a reflection of deeper differences. As the colonizers enforced dress codes locally, Western dress and its variants became standard fare, equivalent to modernity; whereas native attire was regarded backward and became economically and socially unviable, and as resistance faded, Western clothing became the everyday norm for non-Westerners. 

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There appear to be two Chinas: the conceptual “China” and the geographical China. The imaginary and conceptual “China” gave birth to a phantasmagorical projection of the continent, where “Chinoiserie” was popular from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, where key figures in fashion history such as Paul Poiret, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano referred it as romantic yet erotic, where the “Asian Chic” became a global trend in the nineties. Such a “China” was full of illusion and lust, forever stuck in the distant past, out of the control of the Chinese. While in the geographical China, where “China is not an unchanging, homogeneous entity and that Chineseness is a continuing process of self-constitution”,  contemporary Chinese are attempting to establish their own fashion system as well as define a new “Chineseness” and a  “Chinese identity” that are expressed and controlled by the Chinese.

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At such moments, the representation of China by a well-established Euro-American-dominated, Eurocentric fashion system continues to collide and clash with efforts by the Chinese to establish a new Chineseness and a Chinese identity. The year 2018 saw the release of three videos by Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana promoting its upcoming show in Shanghai. The video features a Chinese model attempting to eat pizza, spaghetti and cannoli with chopsticks, while the narrator taught her how to eat in a patronizing tone. Though removed after less than 24 hours, screenshots of this video were still widely shared on both Chinese and Western social media platforms, and a boycott against the brand ensued amid racism accusations. In 2021,a photo at the Lady Dior Exhibition drew criticism from Chinese netizens for its portrayal of Asian women. The picture features a freckled Chinese woman with a gloomy visage, spooky eyes, and nail armor in the style of the Qing dynasty holding a Dior bag. The picture was criticized for allegedly smearing Asian women and contributing to the stereotype of Asian women. Such cases have not been uncommon on Chinese social media in recent years. The question of Orientalism in the fashion industry has been brought into the spotlight, together with issues that are entangled with it.

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As a component of Eurocentrism that arose in tandem with European capitalist modernization and colonialism, the Orientalist framework contributed to the West/Rest dichotomy and its legacies of viewing the Orient Other as timeless, exotic, impressed, untouched, passive and feminine persist today. Jones and Leshkowich use the term “homogenized heterogeneity” to explain how Asian dress styles and practices have been reworked: as Asian clothing tries to fit into the global fashion, its differences are constantly identified and assessed, leading to it being defined as somehow “lesser than”, “Other to” and “more feminized” than Western dresses. They also employ homogenized heterogeneity to reflect on the Other in a globalized context: 

Difference is appreciated, but it is also characterized and commodified globally through flows of knowledge, money, and people structured in accordance with relations of power. In the process, difference is transformed... Certain groups and activities thus come to embody “tradition” more than others, a move that seems to reflect appreciation for diversity, but that can also position the groups in question as Other to global modernity.

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The emphasis on the tradition and differences of the Other places tradition and fashion under a dichotomy. In this either/or relationship, the Other’s clothing must cross the border to become fashion, and it is the Western fashion elite that takes it across the border. In other words, clothing needs to be recognized by the West in order to become “fashion”. Similarly, Sarah Cheang, Erica De Greff and Yoko Takaki claim that “the globalization of fashion is a notion that too often is understood as the global spread of Western fashion”, with which “the Other” becomes a passive recipient of fashion, denying and erasing their culture’s influence and contribution to fashion, and worse, fashion became exclusive to the West, to the exclusion of other cultures. While China is responsible for the majority of global apparel manufacturing and has emerged as the world’s largest consumer market, as Hazel Clark argues, the fashion capital’s reputation is built more on designers’ creativity than on manufacturing. As a result, the West retains control of the  fashion debate. Emerging brands and designers need Western recognition to grow their international reputations.

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Therefore, it is necessary and relevant to discuss Orientalism and related topics in the contemporary Chinese context. Moreover, Orientalism has an impact not only on how the West views “the Orient”, but also on how “the Orient” perceives its own culture. Orientalism has to some extent hindered China’s self-expression and self-representation. The rich cultural heritage of China has inspired designers and led to a culture-led approach to design, but scholars have also observed the difficulties Chinese fashion designers have in demarcating their “national representative style and identity”. I believe this confusion about identity expression is not only seen in Chinese designers, but also in diasporic designers with Chinese heritage and in the Chinese fashion system as a whole. Asia has become a commodified identity, through which designers appeal to Western expectations, that is, to “stage themselves as its exotic Other”. Iwabuchi, as incited in Jansen and Craik, defines self-Orientalism as deliberately turning oneself into the Other by adopting and absorbing the Western gaze. With a long history of the Orientalist gaze, Asian designers may have internalized this gaze or even self-gazed. For example, the aforementioned controversial photo at the Lady Dior Exhibition was actually taken by a contemporary Chinese photographer, Chen Man. 

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The study aims, based on the recognition of Orientalism’s influence on Chinese fashion and expression, to explore the possibility of escaping the burden of Orientalism and establishing a new narrative of “Chineseness”. It asks if fashion and dress can be used as an articulation of native culture against Euro-American cultural hegemony, and if so, how? The study also considers how to view Orientalism in the contemporary fashion system, taking into account its influence, benefits and drawbacks, as well as its unequal power and economy. To address the guiding research questions, some sub-questions will be discussed, including but not limited to, the issue of self-Orientalism, cultural nationalism, cultural appropriation, discrimination.

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In this thesis, the first chapter will provide research contexts for the topic, including a literature review on Orientalism, self-Orientalism and their relationship to the contemporary fashion system, with a focus on the Chinese context. Orientalism, as a theory and a discourse, has received a variety of criticism. However, as Arif Dirlik claims:

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What  I  would  like  to  propose  instead  is  that  what  has  changed is  the  power  relationship  between  China  and Euro-America,  rather than  the abolition  of  orientalism.  On  the  contrary,  the  very  transformation  of  power may  have  culminated in the  reification of  orientalism  at  the  level  of  a  global ideology.  

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By examining the influence of Orientalism on contemporary Chinese fashion and its interrelationships, this thesis seeks to bring new possibilities to the discourse, in terms of looking at fashion studies through the discourse of Orientalism.

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Chapter II will examine some of the most recent fashion magazines in China, paying particular attention to the ways in which Chinese culture has been represented through or with fashion – whether they have shed the burden of Orientalism and established new narratives, or whether they have reinscribed differences and “Otherness”, contributing to an Orientalist discourse. The study subjects were derived from Vogue China November 2022, and Glass China January 2022, both of which have a section (or sections) dedicated to Chinese culture.

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Chapter III will look at fashion designers and brands that adopt a Chinese-culture-led design and branding approach and play with their Chinese identities. This chapter will focus on Alexander Wang, the brand founded by its eponymous Chinese-American designer, known for its off-duty model aesthetic. 

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Chapter IV explores how two brands have drawn on and incorporated Chinese aesthetics and culture into their designs without emphasizing “Otherness”. Founded in early 2010 by designer Min Liu, MsMIN is a brand that focuses on the basics and strives to combine the classic with the modern. Spanish fashion brand LOEWE released its Chinese Monochrome collection in fall 2022, which was inspired by Chinese monochrome ceramics; the collection has received high praise on the Chinese internet.

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* This page only contains experts from my graduation thesis. For details and further information, please contact me through email. 

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