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.

Cultural Construction and the Relativity of Fashion

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.

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.

Fashion, Class, and Identity in Chinese and Japanese History

Possibly one of the most obvious examples of the connection between fashion and the cultural construction of reality is the dress code that was dominant during the Chinese Maoist Cultural Revolution. Studies and reports of China during the late years of Maoist influence between 1949 and 1976 remark on the congruity between the style of clothing of the time and the communist doctrine of equality for all.

Nearly everything I saw and experienced indicated that this was a poor, quite backward country that happened to have had a glorious past. Goods were scarce. Even the best hotels were dingy. Transportation was inefficient. And the Chinese people dressed in Maoist outfits so indistinguishable that it was often difficult to tell the men from the women. They acted the way you would expect subjects of a communist police state to act — fearfully standoffish with Western visitors.

Later reports on Chinese culture, however, show a marked difference and change from the drab and uniform Maoist attire. While Maoist fashion during the Cultural Revolution was symbolic of a certain sense of identity, later and more modern styles represent a newfound freedom in social and political life. In the 1980s, the Chinese cultural profile had changed dramatically. "The benefits of the market-oriented economic reforms initiated by Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping, were quite visible. Accommodations in the larger cities were now up to Western standards. The quality and quantity of consumer goods had increased sharply." More importantly, "dress was now individualized to the point where you could tell the men from the women, at least most of the time."

In both historical situations, the fashion of the time presents a particular cultural construction of reality. The style of dress and the uniform attire of the Maoist period represent and provide evidence of the Communist cultural ideal of commonality and equality for all, as well as the cultural motivation for a reduction of status differences in society.

However, the cultural context of Chinese society was very different in other periods and was not always concerned with displaying rigid egalitarianism through fashion. The older Chinese dynasties were dependent on a severe and strict status hierarchy in society, which was also represented in the style of dress and fashion.

As with the development of ceremonial control that accompanies the elaboration of political structure, differences of quantity, quality, shape, and color are united to produce dress distinctive of classes. This trait is most marked where rule is most despotic, as in China, where "between the highest mandarin or prime minister and the lowest constable, there are nine classes, each distinguished by a dress peculiar to itself."

The cultural construction of social class structure and systems of status are revealed in the style of some traditional forms of fashion. For example, the attendants of the Mikado were "clad after a particular fashion... and there is so much difference even among themselves, as to their habits, that thereby alone it is easily known what rank they are of, or what employment they have at Court; and as in European countries during times of unchecked personal government, when each class had its distinctive costume." In this sense, costume and fashion are means of social categorization and identity.

A similar example from Japanese history also reveals clothing and fashion that is highly representative of social class and status — for example, in the style of dress of the nobility in Japan during the Heian Period (794–1185 AD).

The twelve-layered ceremonial robe was worn by court ladies and peeresses. This ceremonial robe weighed about 44 lbs or more; therefore, those women had difficulty walking. According to an instructor who teaches how to wear the ceremonial robe, those women often moved on their knees inside rooms and sat on the floor by drawing either side of their knees inward. Men wore the sokutai as their formal clothing. Those clothes were based on clothing from the Tang Dynasty. The color of those clothes was considered important, and people selected appropriate colors for each occasion and season.

In sharp contrast to these elaborate uses of fashion in enforcing perceptions of social class and distinctions of status are the staid uniforms worn in Maoist China. These examples show how clothing and fashion generate and support the social construction of a particular reality in a certain historical period. The uniform of the Chinese people in the Maoist period was a factor in enforcing ideological perceptions in much the same way as the Japanese aristocracy promoted the idea of social status and class through fashion and appearance. The Maoist uniform was effective as a means of reducing class distinctions as well as other sexual and social differences, in order to enforce the essential role of workers within communist ideology.

Conclusion: Fashion, Ambiguity, and Cultural Change

Fashion and the analysis of trends can reveal cultural constructions of social reality in various societies. In the case of Japan and China, the similarities and differences reflect the various cultural goals and ideals in each particular society. At the same time, there is a contrary ambiguity in China with regard to fashion, which is contrasted with the more open and experimental dress style in Japan. Revolutionary fervor still determines style in Chinese culture to some degree. This is expressed in the following statement, which describes the contradiction between modern ideals and more traditional cultural values in fashion: "At a time when everyone in the nation was being urged to focus on the noble goals of self-reliance, thrift, and hard work for the sake of strengthening the country, how could I feel proud of a mother who wore fashionable dresses and high heels?" (Chen 1999: 112).