It's National Day y'all!

Yup, it's that time of year again!... The day that the great People's Republic of China was founded.

So I thought I'd celebrate by posting some festive pictures of the times. You see, it was recently also the Mid-Autumn Festival (fondly known as "Mooncake Festival" by some of my rounder American counterparts who enjoy a delicious array of whatever-filling mooncake that are widely available/gifted throughout the country the week prior to the actual date), which was a definite turning point in what people were wearing out and about the streets of Shanghai (due mainly to the weather).

So the lunar and national calendars declared September 22nd, 2010 as "Mid-Autumn Day", and it was definitely Autumn (the day before, it was still full-blown summer). The weather coincidentally(?) dropped more than 10 degrees Celsius, and I felt the first nips of the fall/winter season approaching Shanghai.

So luckily, because of the weather, all the shirts of the pot-bellied Chinese men have all been rolled down before my new camera could snap some shots, so you'll have to wait until next summer to witness this ghastly habit (additionally, I think that the Expo's "harmonization" of the city really has changed people and their habits in Shanghai, but I'll be a better judge in retrospect). But yay!, coats and puffy pajamas have started to re-make their appearance (the pajama-wearing outside thang is another habit that the Expo is trying to eradicate), as this holiday season is all about chillaxin' and beating the cold.


I like her, even though I can't see her face... She's got on an appropriately nationalistic ensemble (what could be more Chinese than wearing your puffy, red pajamas on the street?) while still beating the cold.



The two above examples might not be as color-appropriate as the first (actually, the colors are a bit nauseating to be honest), but at least they be comfy. I mean, that's what this great week is all about, right?! (oh ya, did I forget to mention that EVERYONE in the country has a FULL WEEK off from work?)

So sit back, relax, and, out of solidarity with our brethren, get in your pajamas like them Chinese be doin' this October 1-8:


Don't worry, you can still go buy a fish in your pajamas.


You can still have a ciggy on your scooter in your pajamas.


You can still go to the convenience store in your pajamas.


And you can still watch your country's rapid modernization in your pajamas.

But don't you be fooled... even though these people may look comfy and are technically on vacation right now, they still be workin' (meaning, their still trying to portray their "wealth" with their clothing).

In China, pajamas worn outside of the home very clearly communicate to everyone that the pajama-wearing subject lives nearby (and, if it's a ritzy neighborhood, it declares to others that the subject is "wealthy")... And we know Chinese people like to be very literal and clear-cut with their clothing and how it portrays their "wealth", but I actually prefer this method to mindlessly consuming another LV bag.

So as you consider this National Holiday and general Chinese culture you see here, please consider how our own culture (and clothing culture) is interacting and affecting the Chinese people and their culture. I think that now is a better time than ever to make people aware of the mechanisms of cultural imperialism (in fashion, specifically) so that they can be stopped.

Witness Exhibit A:


Brainwashing Exibit B:


Creating, in the future, something like the creature that is Exhibit C
(awkward gait and all):


So..., cultural imperialism = BAD, nationalism (sometimes) = GOOD

Oh ya...and this final pic is a shout out to all of my Chinese brethren embracing AMURICA:

Enter: The Age of Modernity!

Wow, I'm the world's most delinquent blogger ever I think... but in China it's a New Lunar Year, and I resolve/PROMISE (yet again) that I'll be updating on a weekly basis.

Anyway, about Chinese New Year... IT'S 2010 OFFICIALLY on the East Side now, so let's finally bring about the important topic of modernity and how it is related to fashion (a hefty subject to say the least).

"Modernity", or modeng in Chinese, has historically been synonymous with Shanghai, while Beijing has played the traditional role in the dichotomy. It's easy to see in many ways how Shanghai represents the modern and how Beijing represents the traditional, but with specific regard to fashion, it is important to define and analyze what the Chinese population is interpreting as modernity, and thus, fashion.

To be truly modern in fashion is not to exercise exactly fashion, but to interpret it into a personal aesthetic (a style). Another key factor to being modern is a knowledge/understanding of the past so that one can deviate from it (before one can be truly separate from the past, which is non-dynamic, you have to know and understand it). It's more complicated than this, but I hope for now this makes sense.

Anyway, in the 1920s and 1930s in Shanghai, whatever was Western was automatically considered modeng... and I'd say that that simplistic yet foolish equation is used rather extensively today by a majority of the consumer population when trying to obtain so-called "modern fashion".

I can best illustrate this sad and pathetic yet all-too-common phenomenon of equating modernity with what is simply Western with two sets of pictures juxtaposing/contrasting different generations. You see, the problem with young people today is that they only want to be modern, which means rejecting the past before they understand it (I'm guessing for most people that is inconspicuous/homogeneous Communist/Chinesey uniform-esque clothing) and embracing only the Western. Old people, it seems, are content with interpreting their sartorial "references" (another important topic), and have interpreted/adapted/referenced past clothing practices for current use.

Also to note, because Western clothing culture is so new, clothing culture in China is based on the most basic, boring, and OLDDDDDDD Western "styles", and the consumption focus has become largely based on the "peripheral" (meaning accessories). So, in layman's terms, Chinese people (younger generations particularly) wear boring Western clothes and pair it with some terribly gaudy or conspicuous accessory and then... VOILA! They think that they are Western thus modern thus stylish.............

So anyway, enough theory and on to the evidence... or pictures:

These clothes are a terrible fit, and they are the boringest or boring shapes/colors/cuts in Western culture... but the Louis Vuitton bag saves it!


This man, on the other hand, is definitely stylin'... He has a strong sense of self portrayed through his clothing, and has not a single logo that disrupts or dominates his interesting composition. The colors are balanced and even pop a bit, and his hat, glasses, and shoes all add quite a bit of character, while gently referencing some sort of romanticized archetype of an old, dapper Shanghai-er.. appropriately contextualized on the Bund by the way:

And oh my goodness... if this 年轻人 (nianqingren or young-ish person) approaching me in this photograph is a manifestation of sartorial "modernity" in China, then kill me now cause there is no reason to live in the future:


I mean, do I really have to say anything about this guy and why I prefer his personal aesthetic/style to the mindless fashion consumption of the younger generations?


So ironically, I would say that older generations that experienced Communist China under Mao actually have a better sense of personal style... or at least, it is better communicated in today's society; furthermore, in an international sense, I would argue that these two older gentlemen demonstrate a sensibility for style that the young people don't. I would say this because in an international context, fashion is understood through its history (again, it constantly references the past in order to deviate from it), and people that use their personal experiences to create an aesthetic are going to contribute much more to China's fashion culture than the mindless drones that are being brainwashed to consume these terrible, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLEEEEEEEE monogram bags.