Fashion and Cultural Identity in China and Japan

Introduction: Fashion as a Cultural and Social Construct

Fashion, as it relates to culture, has initiated a relatively new and complex area of research into society and societal history. The concept of fashion has come to mean more than merely the history of dress and style for its own sake. Consequently, the study of fashion has developed into a multidisciplinary field that includes cultural, historical, and sociological analyses of the role of fashion in societies.

The emerging field of fashion studies, sometimes known as the "new" fashion history, differs significantly from traditional dress history, which tended to focus on the stylistic analysis of elite fashions. By contrast, contemporary fashion studies asks new questions, approaches a much wider range of topics, and draws on the expertise of scholars across disciplines.

This view, which refers to the analysis and understanding of fashion in terms of cultural traits and constructions, is also evident in many modern interpretations of the concept of fashion. It is also related to the interrogation of the meaning of fashion outside a purely Western context. In modern analysis, "full recognition is given to fashion-oriented cultures such as Tang dynasty China and Heian period Japan."

Scholars have been concerned with studying the interaction and correlations between dress, fashion, and the cultural construction of reality. Researchers and theorists have realized that dress and fashion in a society was "not only a part of daily life, but that the ways people choose, acquire, wear, and vary their dress can say a great deal about such issues as class, gender, sexual reference, ethnicity, group identity and behavior, and aesthetics."

Therefore, the question of fashion has become a part of cultural studies, semiotics, sociology, and history.

Concomitant with the above theoretical stance regarding the role of fashion in society is the realization that culture is socially constructed. The contemporary tendency in numerous disciplines is to view culture as a creation or construction, relative to historical and other factors within society. This view of culture has been reinforced by intercultural travel and the sharing of ideas, which has opened up an understanding of the importance of factors like fashion in shaping and expressing social and cultural attitudes. Japanese culture, for example, has been changed and its boundaries enlarged due to travel and cultural exchange. "Japan and its culture has been constructed through various types of travel interaction." These include the making of modern Japan through encounters with nineteenth-century travelers and the modern transformation of Japanese and Chinese society in the light of modern consumer economics and the information age.

All of the above aspects are considered in this paper. The central focus is, firstly, to establish the importance of the relative nature of fashion and cultural patterns of expression. Secondly, the focus is to highlight specific examples from Japan and China and to compare and contrast these examples in order to show how fashion relates to the cultural construction of reality.

Cultural Construction and the Relativity of Fashion

The most important aspect in understanding fashion as a social and cultural construct is understanding culture as a relative construct. Social constructions are not sacrosanct and "fixed" but are invented and created by the social milieu and context in which they occur. "By definition, cultural constructions are arbitrary in that they are created and maintained by each culture. As a result, cultural constructions are not fixed forever; rather they are dynamic and change over time and through space."

The concept of fashion can be seen in broad context in terms of various fads and fashions that can add to or transform cultures and traditions, such as the penchant for technology in Japan. However, in a more specific sense, fashion in terms of dress and apparel has also played a role in the construction of social reality and national identity.

Researchers emphasize that culture is not a stable part of society but is fluid and dependent on various factors such as technology and historical circumstance. This sense of culture as a creation or construct — one which is often intentionally developed — is also emphasized in some studies.

Chinese merchant elites have long enriched their worldly business practices with the ability to buy cultural orthodoxy. By contributing to their real or imagined native places, to charity, and in particular to education, they sought legitimate places in the imperial order and quickly joined the ranks of the literati. In the late twentieth century, as global citizens, Hong Kong business elites extended these cultural priorities by generously contributing to educational institutions in the West as well. In a sense, culture is not a durable, enclosed system of rules for people to follow; instead, it is an arena for dialogue and improvisation.