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Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture in a Chinese Diaspora

by Cheryl Sim
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹4,204.00
Original price ₹5,045.00
Original price ₹5,045.00
Original price ₹5,045.00
(-17%)
₹4,204.00
Current price ₹4,204.00

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Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9781350238060
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
  • Publisher Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 216
  • Original Price: GBP 32.99
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 259 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Fashion & Accessories, Cultural & Ethnic Studies / General, and Gender Studies

Associations between the cheongsam dress and Chinese cultural identity are well known but what are the meanings of the cheongsam for members of the Chinese diaspora? In a study grounded in first-hand accounts of wearing, Cheryl Sim explores the practices and experiences of women in Canada, a major Chinese diaspora, and carries out the first in-depth study of the cheongsam from this critical point of view.

Questions explored over the course of 20 interviews, as well as during personal reflections on the author's own experiences of wearing, include: is there a desire to re-claim or appropriate the cheongsam? Does this desire risk perpetuating stereotypes of Asian women? Does it undermine one's identification with one's host country? Can erased heritage(s) be accessed through dress? And how does wearing the cheongsam interact with the male gaze? Revealing feelings of repulsion and attraction, Sim combines personal stories with an authoritative use of theoretical frameworks such as feminism, post-colonialism and autoethnography.

Covering issues such as heritage, ethnic identity, authenticity, nationalism, patriarchy and assimilation, Sim demonstrates that the meanings of the cheongsam are multifarious. Readable but with strong academic underpinnings, this book is the entry point into discussions of Chinese dress and diaspora.

Lewis, Reina: - Reina Lewis is Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, UAL, UK.

Sim, Cheryl: - Cheryl Sim is Managing Director and Curator at Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada.

Wilson, Elizabeth: - Elizabeth Wilson is a pioneer in the development of fashion studies, and has been a university professor, feminist campaigner and activist. Her writing career began in the 'underground' magazines of the early 1970s, (Frendz, Red Rag, Spare Rib, Come Together) before she became an academic. She's written for the Guardian and her non-fiction books include Adorned in Dreams (1985, 2003), The Sphinx in the City (1992) (shortlisted for the Manchester Odd Fellows Prize), Bohemians (2000) and Love Game (2014) (long listed for the William Hill sportswriting prize), as well as six crime novels, including War Damage (2009) and The Girl in Berlin (2012) (long listed for the Golden Dagger Award).

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