Martin Jacques - When China Rules the World

The Western-style dress now preferred by the Japanese nonetheless retains important elements of national individuality. One example is the ubiquitous soft hat with round brim much favoured as casual wear by Japanese women. The choice of dress and footwear is also influenced by the fact that the Japanese are relatively small. Young Japanese women dress with a marked femininity, reflecting the conservative gender roles that still characterize Japanese society. For men and women alike, in dress as in so much else, there is also a strong group mentality, with less stress on individualism than is the case in the West. Thus, up to a point, there is a distinctive Japanese look, as exemplified by the kawaii child-woman cuteness, a girlie look which has also enjoyed some popularity outside Japan in recent years. [355] [355] Suzy Menkes, ‘Hitting the High Cs: Cool, Cute and Creative’, International Herald Tribune , 21 March 2006. The three most famous Japanese design houses — Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake — all of which arrived on the global fashion scene in the 1970s — lie broadly within the Western tradition. However, they demonstrate a marked distinctiveness in comparison with European and American designers. Although each is very different, they are all distinguished by a strong emphasis on materials, the use of sombre and austere colours, a greater willingness to play with the boundaries, and an extremely rapid cycle of collections. While Western fashion is preoccupied with clothes that reveal and emphasize the female form, for these designers the shape of the body and the display of flesh are of much less concern. Indeed, Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo avoids representing the body as overtly sexual. Collectively they can be seen as representing a modestly distinctive Japanese sartorial aesthetic within a global fashion world which remains Western-dominated. [356] [356] Lise Skov, ‘Fashion Trends, Japonisme and Postmodernism, or What Is So Japanese About Comme des Garçons?’, in John Whittier Treat, ed., Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1996), pp. 137-65. Also interview with Valerie Koehn, Tokyo, May-June 1999; Menkes, ‘Hitting the High Cs’.

The Chinese story is different from the Japanese but ends up in a rather similar place. For thousands of years, Chinese dress was deeply entwined with social hierarchy, being one of its more important and visible expressions. Only the emperor, for example, was allowed to wear yellow; his sons were required to wear golden yellow, while nobles wore blue-black. [357] [357] Valery M. Garrett, Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 35. As Valerie Steel and John S. Major write:

Clothing was considered a matter of great importance in ancient China. It was an instrument of the magical aura of power through which the emperor ruled the world: in addition, it served to distinguish the civilized from the barbarous, the male from the female, the high from the base, the proper from the improper — in short, it was an instrument of order in a society dedicated to hierarchy, harmony and moderation. [358] [358] Valerie Steele and John S. Major, China Chic: East Meets West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), p. 16; also pp. 13–35. Also, Garrett, Chinese Clothing ; interview with Qiao Yiyi, fashion designer, Shanghai, April 1999.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew dynastic rule, was also the occasion for a sartorial revolution. The demise of the Qing court led to the dissolution of the old rules. Foot-binding for women, which had persisted for a thousand years, disappeared as did the tradition of male queues (hair worn in a long ponytail), which had been introduced by the Manchus. Chinese dress had been the subject of growing Western influence after the Opium Wars and the establishment of the treaty ports, but the rise of nationalism after 1911 made Western dress more problematic for both sexes. [359] [359] See Karl Gerth, China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Centre, 2003), Chapter 2. The result was a hybrid, the most famous example being the woman’s qipao , better known in the West as the cheongsam, which combined Chinese, Manchu and Western elements, and which became indelibly associated with Shanghai in the 1930s. Its heyday was between 1930 and 1950, though it persisted for rather longer amongst the overseas Chinese, especially in Hong Kong. [360] [360] Steele and Major, China Chic , pp. 31-5, 37–53; also Chapter 9.

The 1949 Revolution ushered in a new sartorial era. The Communist regime regarded the old styles of Chinese dress as a relic of the feudal past. In their place, the regime encouraged an egalitarian mode of dress that was loosely based around the Sun Yat-sen uniform, wrongly described in the West as the Mao suit. The Sun Yat-sen uniform, featuring a high-collared tunic, was, like the qipao , a hybrid style, and drew on Japanese, German and Soviet military influences. The ubiquitous Maoist style of dress, in contrast, was partly inspired by the traditional trousers, tunic and black cotton shoes of the Chinese peasant. There were no government edicts concerning dress, but the new Maoist style clearly reflected the egalitarian principles of the regime, as well as the poverty of the country. [361] [361] Ibid., pp. 55–62; also Chapter 10. Only after 1978 did this state of affairs slowly begin to change to the point where Chinese cities are now overwhelmingly dominated by Western-style dress. [362] [362] Ibid., pp. 63-7. The Maoist style of dress has almost entirely disappeared, as has the Sun Yat-sen uniform previously worn by government officials — to be largely replaced by the Western suit. The only element of traditional Chinese dress that persists amongst ordinary people is the Chinese jacket, which still remains popular, especially amongst the old. Trousers are very widely worn by women, more so than in the West, which is in part a continuation of a much older Chinese tradition, trousers never having had the masculine connotation they once did in the West. [363] [363] Ibid., p. 44. Otherwise there is little evidence of traditional Chinese wear, in either traditional or modernized form, for men or women. The only exception is a recent minor revival of the quipao amongst waitresses and hotel staff.

Various designers have sought to reintroduce traditional themes into modern Chinese dress. The best known example is David Tang’s Shanghai Tang label, but it has experienced only limited success, with the clothes in its Hong Kong shops mainly bought by Westerners. Blanc de Chine, another Hong Kong firm, has similar ambitions, as does Shiatzy Chen in Taipei. Designers like Vivienne Tam, Amy Chan and Anna Sui — based mainly in the West — have also explored the use of Chinese elements in their designs. Notwithstanding these efforts, the striking feature of modern Chinese dress — certainly in contrast to India — is how Westernized it is and how little it incorporates traditional Chinese elements. [364] [364] Ibid., Chapter 4; interview with Shiatzy Chen, Taipei, March 1999; seminar on Chinese dress, Hong Kong, September 1999 (including Blanc de Chine). Over the last decade, meanwhile, various features, such as the distinctive Chinese-style collar and buttons, have become increasingly conspicuous in Western women’s fashion, reflecting the growing influence of a Chinese aesthetic. [365] [365] Steele and Major, China Chic , Chapter 4; ‘Asian Ideas Seep into Creations on the West Coast’, International Herald Tribune , 11 March 2002. In addition, the enhanced importance of the East Asian market has also led to a small rise in the use of models from the region in Western fashion. [366] [366] Herman Wong, ‘On Global Catwalks, a New Face that’s Hot — Asian’, China Daily , 24 May 2006.