• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

31 JV\ade by Chinese: Shanghai Tang j development of Contemporary Chinese Cnutiirp san san kwan c ro c m(0 c ni to They have been calling it Poon- on the arms of every chair in photo- Tang corner (Williams 107). Ever since graphs of official Communist summit Hong Kong impresario David Tang set meetings. Chinese revolutionary - up shop on Madison Avenue right anthems, intermingled with 1930s across from Barney's, which is con- Shanghai lounge-pop, blare from trolled colorful: by fellow Hong Kong mogul lime green, acid purple, candy speakers throughout the store. - apple Dickson Poon fashion watchers have red, fuchsia, Day-glo orange. An David Tang claims as his main been quick to make colorful remarks, enormous bat design, representing objective the introduction to the world good luck, curls its undoubtedly inspired by Tang's own lemon yellow way of China's first recognizable brand the elevator brash style. David Tang is a profane, along cab that pierces the (Elegant 62). Tang wants to establish tri-level space. - cocky Hong Kong socialite with an Chinese antiques China on the global market, not as a uppercrust colonial upbringing. cherry wood tables and matching stiff- manufacturer of electronics or auto- backed chairs, Owner of the China Club, a super- herbalist cabinets, old mobiles or the like, but as a leader in mirrors, - exclusive hub for the monied, famous, and calligraphy brush stands the elite and glamorous fashion indus- and well-heeled in are scattered amid louder versions Hong Kong and of try. The question is whether he can Beijing, Orientalia, like he also founded the new retail bulbous red lanterns initiate a new Chinese style (Alexander store, Shanghai Tang, a hip, upwardly and gold-tinted folding screens. On B30) without risking the old tendency mobile emporium that sells Chinese the racks hang traditional Chinese qi towards Orientalism. In the West, haute couture, gifts, and products for pao's in the same vibrant shades of the images of China are driven by colonial the home. Shanghai Tang opened its store. constructs, opium-steeped fantasies of doors to Hong Kong in 1994 and then The dresses are hand-tailored and Oriental mystique and submission. unveiled its York come in the conventional silk New location in or bro- Traditionally, it is this vision of the November of 1997, just in time for the cade, as well as any number of furry, East that sells on Madison Avenue - post-Thanksgiving rush. fuzzy, scratchy, shiny, shimmery, or home of the etablishment consumer. Shanghai Tang sells Chinoiserie- squeaky synthetic fabrics. For men, So how can Shanghai Tang escape the gone-chic and revolution-turned- there are Mao suits in quilted leather cultural associations which customers camp. The store irreverently appropri- or green velvet. To match the suits, are bound to carry with them into the ates from a dizzying mix of eras and Shanghai Tang sells Red Guard caps, store? forms: icons from Communist revolu- reminiscent of the 'good old days' of The question raises a more theo- tionary propaganda, fashions from the Cultural Revolution. In the display retical concern regarding the project of colonial 1930s Shanghai, ancient cases sit watches with hand-waving postmodernism as an agent for social dynastic designs, Tibetan color images of Deng Xiao Ping, fluorescent change. Critics of postmodernism sus- schemes, Buddhist imagery, Chinese Mao mugs, napkins depicting happy tain little faith that the postmodern superstitious coolie laborers, symbols, etc. The new furry Manchu hats, form is anything more than a pastiche Madison Avenue store is blindingly and the white crocheted doilies seen of styles juxtaposed without integrity Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00511 by guest on 27 September 2021 32 cen c (0 (1) (0 c o difference for its own sake. But per- that preoccupation with image is haps the postmodern aesthetic of sty- empty of political import. On the con- 0) a listic multiphcity can serve a political trary, postmodernism uses image pre- CD E purpose. Perhaps one should consider cisely to enact political change for the the possibility that David Tang's ironic traditionally marginalized; those who send-up of Orientalia, his hipped-out have been constructed by their mien Mao and electrified Confucius, actually ity for emergent voices, minority voic- now look to masks to reconstruct. works to subvert orientalism. This es previously buried by the predomi- Critics contend that postmod- postmodern pastiche would serve to nance of Euro-American authority. Of ernism exercises pastiche and not par- overturn traditional ideas of China in course, the field of postcolonialism ody. While parody conveys an ulterior favor of d>Tiamic and contemporary presents one forum for these new voic- motive, pastiche is pure imitation, ones. es, and since Shanghai Tang haUs relieved of the satiric impulse. directly from the recently decolonized Sometimes, though, postmodernists Parody: Surface with Depth territory of Hong Kong, its presence choose specific quotes toward specific Skeptics claim that postmod- almost inherently invokes postcolonial ends. Sometimes, though, parodic ernism's preoccupation with appear- discourse. In his bid for Chinese fash- quoting presents the most effective, if ance and its perhaps irresponsible dis- ion. Tang, a former colonial subject not the only, way to express resistance. missal of history reduce forms to mere and self-admitted Anglophile, carefully A re-working of surfaces can be the simulacra. By this argument, post- maneuvers between two dominant most clever method of re-working modern art reproduces without creat- powers - a postmodern-style postion hegemonic perspectives. Shanghai ing, and is in that respect the end of made comprehensible only through Tang, as a Hong Kong-based company the distinctive individual brush stroke the context of Hong Kong's postcolo- poised at the beginning of Hong (Jameson 15). Empty of any unique nial moment. Kong's new phase under mainland style, postmodernism has no ego. The postmodern aesthetic, relying Chinese rule, employs postmodern Without an ego, a subject who feels, on notions of 'aspect' and 'simulacra', parody as a form of quiet political cri- there is no emotional content or pull. provides an ideal forum for minority tique. In her essay on the documentary (15) While Shanghai Tang undoubted- empowerment. As Dorinne Kondo, in Paris is Burning, Judith Butler discusses ly indulges in pretty pictures and her book, About Face: Performing Race parodys subversive effect: imaginative histories, this effect need in Fashion and Tlieater, argues, gender, where the uniformity of the subject not imply that the store lacks an ego. sexuality, and race may condition the is expected, where the behavioral Postmodernism is not simply ran- degree to which we are conscious of conformity of the subject is com- dom difference. Ideally, it is driven by the ways we perform ourselves in manded, there might be produced the theory that the master narrative of everyday life (16). Kondo argues that the refusal of the law in the form of the parodic inhabiting of conformity- history is an illusion. There is no linear minority communities implicitly rec- that subtly calls into question the ognize identity as performance. Only a progression or advancement of society legitimacy- of the command, a repeti- (a belief upon which imperialism was white heterosexual patriarchy can sus- tion of the law- into h\-perbole, a founded), only synchronic repetition tain the belief that surface and depth, rearticulation of the law against the authority of the one who delivers it. and reiteration. There are no essential appearance and reality, are separate: (Bodies That Matter 122) (White) truths, only multiple perspec- After all, who can afford to be uncon- tives. these ideas portray cerned about his/her appearance? Who While seem- Butler's use of the term law here is a is allowed to ignore it with impunity? ingly bleak prospects, postmodern Lacanian reference to the system of thought actually opens up the possibil- (15). Kondo attacks the moral stance Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00511 by guest on 27 September 2021 33 c I TO (0 c m(D utterance by which a subject becomes ed, simultaneously admiring yet bitter, socially constituted. Ideally, that sub- proud yet fearful. ject can refuse the law which names her through hyperbolic imitation. By Mimicry: over-aping law, performing it perhaps Global Capitalism with a too well, she reveals its constructed- Difference ness, its superficiality, and thereby Modernist hold-outs might still to be passionately Chinese (Bogert 48), resignifies its power over her. If it is argue that such underhanded, mincing though at the same time exuding rab- constructed, it can be deconstructed. criticism avoids any real political brav- idly Angiophiliac (Yaeger 14) tastes. The crucial characteristic of paro- ery. The kind of parody identifiable in And so the Mao caps are faithful dy, the thing that separates it from postmodernism only obscures the copies, except that they come in blue pastiche and gives it critical import, is truth that postmodernism does not velvet. The Deng Xiao Ping watches hyperbole. Shanghai Tang attacks really represent Utopian transforma- both honor China's deceased leader Orientalism with excess. The qi pao's, tion. Despite the theoretical pretense and make him a laughing stock. The dresses traditionally associated with that it will overturn hegemonic narra- filigreed silver glass holders are identi- dragon ladies, Suzie Wong, Shanghai tives, postmodernism is actually the cal to those used for official fiinctions Lil, Miss Saigon, any Asian whore, cultural manifestation of capitalism's in communist-socialist led China, only come in glow-in-the-dark hues and third phase: late, or multinational, cap- Shanghai Tang sells them at competi- out-of-this-world fabrics. They are italism.

Load more

  5

Copy Link