Changing Clothes in China
Fashion, History, Nation
Format:Hardback
Publisher:C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Published:9th Jan '08
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£16.99(9781787387225)
This insightful book explores the evolution of fashion in China, revealing how clothing reflects the nation's complex history and modernization. Changing Clothes in China offers a detailed examination of changing styles.
Historians have traditionally viewed fashion as a distinctly Western phenomenon. In Changing Clothes in China, Antonia Finnane challenges this perception, arguing that it stems from outdated nineteenth- and twentieth-century interpretations of Chinese attire as static and unchanging. Through her extensive research, she illustrates that fashion has always been an integral part of Chinese life, particularly during the late imperial era, even if a formal fashion industry was not readily visible at the time.
As the narrative unfolds, Finnane highlights the emergence of modern fashion in early twentieth-century China, particularly in the vibrant city of Shanghai. She points out how rapidly evolving styles reflected the socio-political changes of the era. The book meticulously details the transformations in clothing, from the fitted jackets and high collars of the 1911 Revolutionary period to the skirt and jacket-blouse combinations of the May Fourth movement, and later, the military styles that gained prominence during the Cultural Revolution.
In Changing Clothes in China, Finnane skillfully connects the threads of modernization and global influence to the evolution of dress in China. She provides a rich and nuanced portrait of how the Chinese people have expressed their identities through clothing, revealing the complex, subtle, and sometimes contradictory ways in which they have worn their nation on their backs throughout history.
'It is clear from these pages how frequently the world of fashion has turned to China for inspiration.' -- Los Angeles Times
'[A] beautifully illustrated book... with delightful analysis of how gender, class,and nationalism have influenced Chinese fashions through the ages.' -- The China Beat
'Finnane has produced an impressive history of modern Chinese fashion and much more. It will be a vital cores text for students of Chinese cultural history for decades to come.' -- -- The Journal of Asian Studies
'Changing Clothes in China is beautifully produced, offering readers a splendid visual presentation of its rich content.' -- Business History Review
'This book makes important contributions to scholarship in the areas of both history and fashion.' -- American Historical Review
'This attractive and approachable book presents an overview of Chinese dress, both male and female, from the late imperial period to the present. ... It is a significant addition to the literature and ... I know of no immediate competitors with which this can be compared.Its publication is to be welcomed as a contribution to the debates about culture, modernity and gender in twentieth-century China, and, more widely, to the growing body of work on clothing and identity. ' * Verity Wilson, formerly Curator of Costume, Victoria and Albert Museum, London' *
'This is the long-awaited, authoritative and definitive study of fashion in modern China, a topic if not a nascent field that has attracted recent scholarly and media attention. The author, a pioneer in this area, has accomplished an incredible feat-producing a vigorously-argued book that would advance intellectual debates while remaining accessible to the general reader. This book has a great many strengths. Previous Anglophone monographs on Chinese dress-by Vollmer, Garrett and Wilson for example-were works of collectors and museum curators. They focus on the material construction of dress and their regional or social variations at the expense of systemic cultural and economic analyses. As a result, the meaning of "fashion" as a cultural-economic phenomenon in China remains dimly understood. This is the first book-length work that situates "fashion" in historical contexts, from the world trading system and urban development to revolutionary movements in modern China. ... The book will launch fashion study as a serious intellectual endeavor in the field of Chinese studies while appealing to scholars in comparative fields (fashion studies, socio-economic history, cultural history, and post-colonial studies) and the general reader alike. It would make an appropriate textbook in an advanced undergraduate class on modern Chinese history or comparative history of fashion.' - * Professor Dorothy Ko, Columbia University *
ISBN: 9781850658603
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
360 pages