Uniformities of Fashion: a Critical Reading of Women’S Clothing in Altermodern China
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University of Southampton Faculty of Arts and Humanities Graduate School Winchester School of Art Uniformities of Fashion: A Critical Reading of Women’s Clothing in Altermodern China By Feng Jie Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2019 2 Research Thesis: Declaration of Authorship Print name: Feng Jie Uniformities of Fashion: A Critical Reading of Women’s Clothing in Altermodern Title of thesis: China I declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Either none of this work has been published before submission, or parts of this work have been published as: [please list references below]: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Signature: Date: 2 3 ABSTRACT This thesis examines key features and particularities of women’s fashion, specifically the cheongsam, which is frequently taken as representative clothing in present-day China. In locating fashion within the contemporary cultural and political context, i.e. understanding the sartorial as situating a set of visible codes and structures of meaning, the thesis characterizes various complexities of Chinese female identity, as well as broader social, economic and political complexities, the significance of the Chinese fashion market in the global economy is analyzed, demonstrating how global brands and styles heavily influence Chinese consumer trends, and yet, equally, how the Chinese fashion system is itself formed of its own internal logics and emergent trends. Adopting the theoretical term ‘altermodern’, China is positioned in terms of its rapid modernization, which presents its own rhythms and logics that cannot be wholly understood in terms of a Western discourse of modernity, postmodernity and the global. As part of its analytical method, the thesis makes reference to Roland Barthes’ The Fashion System. While this work is now arguably out of date, its underlying thesis of fashion as a ‘system of signification’ retains pertinence, and crucially, in this thesis is updated in two important ways. Firstly, in outlining the contemporary, altermodern context of China, the notion of a fashion ‘system’ is greatly expanded, here taking on board new trends in global trade, new technologies (with social media presenting whole new systems of signification and exchange), and the hybridity of designs and consumption of fashion. Secondly, in looking to Barthes’ later work, and in particular his interest in the ‘Neutral’, a key argument of this thesis is of a certain ‘neutrality’ of fashion. This is by no means to suggest of anything banal or insipid. Barthes’ interest in the Neutral radically expands his understanding of signification, breaking away from binary oppositions to instead pay attention to more fluid gradients or intensities of difference and exchange. Notably, he is also heavily influenced by Asian philosophies, including a keen interest in 3 4 Taoism, which provides an important bridge for this thesis in taking on a specific Chinese perspective. While accepting much of the arguments that show how global-local contexts lead to identifiably postmodern and hybrid aesthetics, this thesis also makes a specific argument that for women in contemporary China the flux and mix of available clothing and designs is experienced in a neutral manner. In other words, rather than position new production and consumption trends in China only in terms of ‘hybridity’ (which leans towards a Western bias and a binary logic of host-recipient), there are more fluid ways in which we need to understand how women engage in fashion in China today. As a key ‘figure’ running through this study is a complex notion of ‘uniform’. A literal uniform, the Mao suit, is examined, and shown to represent a specific ‘dream’ of social freedom. This is set in contrast to the Cheongsam (banned under Mao’s leadership), which has gone through multiple evolutions. As a cultural device it represents a rich set of connections, linked to a new, modern China, which offers a more complex ‘dream’ of both a collective and individualized freedom. The cheongsam is the central example of the thesis. It is shown to be infused within the dominant, largely homogenized fashions of globalization, characterized here as a kind of ‘uni-form’ (i.e. the univeralisation of trending styles). Yet, equally, the ‘fluidity’ of the cheongsam, being both flexible and distinctive, presents its own fashion system of more subtle gradients. It is presented, then, in this thesis as both a highly visible example of contemporary, hybridized fashion in China, and as a tool for understanding the more general, everyday ‘neutralities’ of how women – in choosing what to wear - articulate new identities in contemporary China. 4 5 Uniformities of Fashion: A Critical Reading of Women’s Clothing in Altermodern China CONTENTS Abstract 3 Introduction 7 Chinese Fashion Thinking – A Literature Review 9 ‘Uniform’ – A Conceptual Device 19 China in its Geopolitical Context 22 Aims, Value and Method 28 Thesis Overview and Research Questions 31 Chapter 1: Fashion and Complexity in Contemporary China 36 Altermodern China 39 Female Fashion: Attitudes in Contemporary China 48 Fashion Systems 53 From Hybridity to Neutrality 68 Conclusion 84 Chapter 2: Made in China: the Fashioning of ‘Uniform’ 86 Economic dreams 89 Uniform, Uniformities and Gender 94 Mao suit and Collective ‘Freedom’ 106 5 6 After Reform: Changing Uniforms and Feminism 119 Conclusion 125 Chapter 3: Brand Neutral, or the ‘Blandness’ of Local-Global Fashions 128 Brand Neutral 129 Responses to Global Luxury Brands 134 Designed in China 140 Conclusion-Global, Local, Multiple 160 Chapter 4: The Case of the Cheongsam 167 Cultural Renaissance 169 Tradition, Postmodern, Hybrid, Kitsch 179 Conclusion: Neutral Cheongsam 192 Conclusion 200 Bibliography 213 NB. The inclusion of images in this thesis is done so in accordance with the UK’s exceptions to copyright, with regard to non-commercial research and private study, whereby it is permitted to allow students and researchers to make limited copies of all types of copyright works for non-commercial research or private study. In doing so every effort has been made to attribute the source and/or owner of the cited materials. 6 7 Introduction Clothing, with all its attendant attributes and fashions, is a marker of society. As such, clothing does a good deal more than simply clad the body for warmth, modesty or comfort. How we dress is a technical device, a means or form of signification, which articulates the relationship between a particular body and its lived milieu; the space occupied by bodies and constituted by bodily actions. In this way, clothes construct a personal identity, and our various fashions are a way of both influencing identity and capturing a collective sense of identity within particular time periods. The research presented in this thesis is concerned specifically with the relationship between Chinese fashion and changing female identity. It examines key features and particularities of women’s fashion in present-day China, so taking into account recent economic enhancement. In responding to both contemporary circumstances and examining the recent history of China, as read through an analysis of fashion, emphasis can be placed on the emergent feminism of China, in cultural and political terms. Thus, in locating fashion as an indicator of cultural and political expression, i.e. understanding the sartorial as situating a set of visible codes and structures of meaning, the thesis characterizes various complexities of Chinese female identity, as well as broader social, economic and political complexities as they pertain to East-West cultural differences. The significance of the Chinese fashion market in the global economy is analyzed, showing how global brands and styles heavily influence Chinese consumer trends, and yet, equally, how the Chinese fashion system is itself formed of its own internal logics and emergent trends. The research presented here is placed in the context of what has been termed ‘altermodernity’ (see Chapter 1), whereby China is positioned with respect to its rapid modernization, so presenting its own rhythms and logics that cannot be wholly understood in terms of a Western discourse of modernity, postmodernity and the global. Chinese contemporary female clothing borrows greatly from the growing 7 8 field of transnational global fashion trends. The interplay of both local and global leads us to focus on a range of ‘movements’, of distinct historical movements (as we might describe of feminism) and historical periods (and ‘breaks’ between these periods), as well as literal movements of people, goods and consumer trends. This, then, is to consider issues ranging across and between economics, gender politics, feminism and social roles. A key consideration, for example, is the phenomena of hybrid transnational/ national designs, particularly noted in this study with the case of the cheongsam. An associated interest for this thesis is ‘identity’, which must be understood as complex and contested. To identify with an idea, a thing or a person might suggest of a straightforward declaration, i.e. to claim one’s own belief or acceptance in association with something external.