FASHIONING CHANGE: THE CULTURAL ECONOMY OF CLOTHING IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA by Jianhua (Andrew) Zhao B.A., Wuhan University of Hydro-Electric Engineering, 1997 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Jianhua (Andrew) Zhao It was defended on April 18, 2008 and approved by Dr. Joseph Alter, Professor, Department of Anthropology Dr. Evelyn Rawski, University Professor, Department of History Dr. Harry Sanabria, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Dr. Andrew Strathern, Mellon Professor, Department of Anthropology Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Nicole Constable, Professor, Department of Anthropology ii Copyright © by Jianhua (Andrew) Zhao 2008 iii FASHIONING CHANGE: THE CULTURAL ECONOMY OF CLOTHING IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA Jianhua (Andrew) Zhao, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 This dissertation is based on fifteen months of field research in Shanghai and Beijing conducted in 2002 and 2004. The central question with which this dissertation is concerned is how clothing and the clothing industry is constituted by and constitutive of the phenomenal changes that have taken place in contemporary China, especially in the post-1978 reform period. Specifically, this dissertation addresses two major questions: 1) Are the changes in Chinese clothing and the clothing industry merely a part of China’s economic development or modernization? And 2) does China’s integration with the global economy translate into a Westernization of China? The development of China’s textile and apparel industries is a process of liberalization in which the socialist state cultivates and encourages market competition in China’s economy. The development of China’s textile and clothing industries is thus a part of the state’s agenda to modernize China’s economy. The economic modernization in China, however, is not intended to be an imitation of the West, but a means to an end. Similarly, the Chinese notion of modernity, which is reflected in the official narratives of the evolution of clothing styles, is not modeled after the West; instead, it is a story the Chinese tell themselves about themselves in relation to their own past. Therefore, modernization and modernity as reflected by the changes in Chinese clothing and clothing industry are vested with Chinese meanings. Intertwined with the issues of modernization and modernity, this dissertation also examines the ways in which Western styles of clothing, design techniques, business models, iv fashion shows and fashion weeks become localized in China. Thus, this dissertation challenges the Westernization thesis in the study of globalization. In addition, the dissertation also explores the integration of China’s clothing industry with the global clothing industry through the examination of the exportation of Chinese made garments to the United States that is predicated on the global political economy. All in all, this dissertation argues that clothing is not just a business, but one that involves cultural logics, and that it is not just economics, but also is endowed with meanings. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................XIII 1.0 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 RESEARCH QUESTION................................................................................... 1 1.2 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MODERNIZATION.......................... 4 1.3 GLOBABLIZATION THEORIES .................................................................... 6 1.4 CLOTHING AND MATERIAL CULTURE MATTER................................ 11 1.5 WHY THE CULTURAL ECONOMY OF CLOTHING?............................. 16 1.6 FIELD RESEARCH.......................................................................................... 19 1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE TEXT ................................................................. 22 2.0 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRIES IN THE PRC..................................................................................................................................... 27 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 27 2.2 TERMINOLOGY.............................................................................................. 29 2.3 INFANCY: CHINESE TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRY BEFORE 1949…………… .................................................................................................................. 31 2.4 DEVELOPMENT: CHINESE TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRIES IN THE PRE-1978 PRC..................................................................................................... 33 vi 2.5 TAKE-OFF: CHINESE TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRIES IN THE POST-1978 REFORM ERA .............................................................................................. 36 2.6 THE INTRICATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE MARKET ............................................................................................................................ 52 2.7 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 55 3.0 EVOLUTION OF CLOTHING STYLES IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA: A TALE OF MODERNITY?......................................................................................................... 57 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 57 3.2 MODERNITY AND TEMPORALITY ........................................................... 59 3.3 CLOTHING STYLES AND MORALITY OF TIME.................................... 62 3.4 EVOLUTION OF CLOTHING STYLES IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA64 3.4.1 Late Qing ..................................................................................................... 64 3.4.2 The Republican Period............................................................................... 66 3.4.3 The Mao Era................................................................................................ 68 3.4.4 The Reform Period ..................................................................................... 71 3.5 A TALE OF MODERNITY?............................................................................ 80 3.6 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 87 4.0 FOR THE SAKE OF ART OR FOR THE MARKET? THE CULTURAL ECONOMY OF FASHION DESIGN ....................................................................................... 89 4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 89 4.2 FASHION AS A FIELD.................................................................................... 91 4.3 DIVERSE VIEWS AMONG CHINESE FASHION DESIGNERS .............. 95 vii 4.4 THE EMERGENCE OF FASHION DESIGN AS A PRESTIGIOUS PROFESSION IN CHINA................................................................................................. 97 4.5 MS. YE AND MR. YUAN............................................................................... 102 4.6 THEIR BUSINESS MODELS........................................................................ 107 4.7 THEIR BUSINESS MODELS IN CONTRAST TO HAUTE COUTURE AND FAST FASHION..................................................................................................... 112 4.8 WHAT IS A (CHINESE) FASHION DESIGNER? ..................................... 115 4.9 WHAT IS A FASHION DESIGN? ................................................................ 117 4.10 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 121 5.0 CHINA FASHION WEEK: THE OBJECTIFICATION OF THE CHINESE FIELD OF FASHION............................................................................................................... 124 5.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 124 5.2 FASHION SHOWS AND MODELING IN CHINA .................................... 126 5.3 THE HISTORY AND AGENDA OF THE CHINA FASHION WEEK .... 130 5.4 CHINA FASHION WEEK, FALL 2004........................................................ 133 5.5 THE FINALE OF CFW 2004: MARK CHEUNG’S JIANGNAN .............. 136 5.6 THE CULTURAL ECONOMY OF CHINA FASHION WEEK................ 140 5.7 CFW AS THE OBJECTIFICATION OF THE CHINESE FIELD OF FASHION.......................................................................................................................... 148 5.8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 151 6.0 GLOBALIZATION: A CLOTHING PERSPECTIVE ........................................ 156 6.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 156 viii 6.2 TRANSNATIONAL FLOW OF GOODS, GLOBALIZATION THEORIES, AND NETWORK ANALYSIS........................................................................................ 158 6.3 “AN IMPERFECT INDUSTRY”................................................................... 162 6.4 IMPERFECT INTERNATIONAL TRADE REGIMES ............................. 164 6.5 THE U.S.-CHINA TEXTILE AND APPAREL TRADE DISPUTE IN 2005 …………………………………………………………………………………167