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Orientalism and Chinoiserie: Chinese culture in the western fashion industry

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Orientalism and Chinoiserie: Chinese culture in the western fashion industry

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ORIENTALISM AND CHINOISERIE:
CHINESE CULTURE IN THE WESTERN FASHION INDUSTRY

by

Jiayi Hu

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSKI SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(CURATORIAL PRACTICES AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE)

May 2023

Copyright 2022 Jiayi Hu
ii
Table Of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ ii
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTALISM AND CHINA: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS .......... 12
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION AND CHINA: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS .................................. 14
GUO PEI, HER SUCCESS, AND THE EXHIBITION .......................................................................... 26
CHAPTER TWO: CHINOISERIE AND ORIENTALISM IN CHEN MAN’S
COLLABORATION WITH CHRISTIAN DIOR ........................................................................ 29
COMPARISON: ARTHUR ELGORT ................................................................................................ 35
CHAPTER THREE: CULTURAL APPRECIATION AND CHINESE CULTURE IN QEELIN
AND LOEWE ............................................................................................................................... 38
SYMBOLS: CONVENTIONS AND MODERN CHINA ........................................................................ 38
LOEWE AND CHINESE MONOCHROME CERAMICS ....................................................................... 40
QEELIN AND KERING .................................................................................................................. 44
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 47
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 49

iii
List of Figures
Fig. 1. Three Lidded Vases, 1775 – 1776, Sèvres porcelain manufactory. Hard-paste
porcelain with gilt-bronze mounts. National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and
Trianon. Image courtesy of RMN-Grand-Palais / Art Resource, NY / Christophe Fouin ............ 3

Fig. 2. Lid, 1775 – 1776, Sèvres porcelain manufactory. Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-
bronze mounts. National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon. Image courtesy
of RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY / Christophe Fouin .................................................... 4

Fig. 3. The New Necklace, William McGregor Paxton (American, 1869–1941), 1910,
technique Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts Boston ................................. 5

Fig. 4. Woman’s Dress (Robe à la française), Amsterdam Netherlands (1740-1760), silk
satin with silk and metallic-thread supplementary weft-float patterning. Image courtesy of
Los Angeles County Museum of Art ............................................................................................ 6

Fig. 5. Embroideries detail of Woman’s Dress (Robe à la française). Image courtesy of Los
Angeles County Museum of Art ................................................................................................... 6

Fig. 6. Woman’s Ceremonial Robe (清早期刺繡百蝠紋女吉服袍), Qing dynasty (1644–
1911), first half 18th century, China, Silk and metallic thread embroidery on silk satin, 54 x
75 in. (137.2 x 190.5 cm). Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art ............................... 6

Fig. 7. White-glazed Jar (唐邢窑白瓷罐), Tang dynasty (618 CE–907 CE), porcelain with
white glaze (Xing ware). Image courtesy of The Palace Museum (故宫博物院) ........................ 20

Fig. 8. Covered Jar (西汉云气纹彩绘陶壶), first century BCE, Western Han dynasty (206
BCE–9 CE), Earthenware with painted decoration. Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum
of Art ............................................................................................................................................. 20

Fig. 9. Lotus celadon wine bowl (北宋汝窑青瓷莲花式温碗), Northern Song dynasty (960
CE–1127 CE). Image courtesy of National Palace Museum (国立故宫博物院) ........................ 20

Fig. 10. Evening dress by Yves Saint Laurent in autumn/winter 2004-2005 by Tom Ford.
Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art .......................................................................... 21

Fig. 11. “Quiproquo” cocktail dress by Christian Dior in 1951. Image courtesy of
Metropolitan Museum of Art ........................................................................................................ 24

Fig. 12. Da Jin (Magnificent Gold, 2005) by Guo Pei in China: Through the Looking Glass.
Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art .......................................................................... 26

Fig. 13. The image from Dior’s Shanghai exhibition, Art’n’Dior, by Chen Man/Dior. Image
courtesy of Chen Man ................................................................................................................... 29
iv
Fig. 14. Details of Zan Hua Shi Nv Tu (簪花仕女图) by Zhou Fang. Image courtesy of
Liaoning Provincial Museum (辽宁省博物馆) ............................................................................ 31

Fig. 15. Details of Zhuang Jing Shi Nv Tu (妆靓仕女图) by Su Hanchen. Image courtesy of
The Palace Museum (故宫博物院) .............................................................................................. 31

Fig. 16. Details of Chun Ge Juan Du Tu (春阁倦读图) by Leng Mu. Image courtesy of
Tianjin Museum (天津博物馆) .................................................................................................... 31

Fig. 17. The photography of model Liu Wen by Sun Jun. Image courtesy of Sun Jun ................ 32

Fig. 18. Arthur Elgort, Eastern Light, Vogue; New York Vol. 183, Iss. 12, (Dec 1, 1993)
_243. Image courtesy of the Vogue magazine .............................................................................. 35

Fig. 19. Arthur Elgort, Eastern Light, Vogue; New York Vol. 183, Iss. 12, (Dec 1, 1993)
_246. Image courtesy of the Vogue magazine .............................................................................. 36

Fig. 20. Pale Celadon Glazed Wulu vase (浅青釉葫芦花瓶) and Hammock bag in Pale
Celadon Glaze color. Image courtesy of Loewe ........................................................................... 40

Fig. 21. Yellow glazed cup (黄釉杯) and Puzzle bag in Pale Yellow Glaze color. Image
courtesy of Loewe ......................................................................................................................... 40

Fig. 22. Copper red (Sang De Boeuf) glazed vase (郎红釉瓶) and Luna bag in Sang De
Boeuf Glaze color. Image courtesy of Loewe .............................................................................. 40

Fig. 23. Dragon and Phoenix Pattern Pale Aubergine Glazed bowl (划龙凤纹浅茄皮紫釉
碗) and Goya bag in Pale Aubergine Glaze color. Image courtesy of Loewe .............................. 40

Fig. 24. Wulu Lotus Lace necklace from Qeelin in 2021. Image courtesy of Qeelin .................. 45

1

Introduction
References to Chinese culture and aesthetics have appeared in Western fashion for
hundreds of years. The recent opening of the Chinese economy since the 1990s has drawn more
attention to China and Chinese culture from Western fashion designers, fashion photographers,
and art curators. Chinese-influenced designs by Western (specifically Western European and
North American) fashion designers have raised controversial issues. How has Chinese culture
been presented and perceived on the global stage outside of China? How has the Western fashion
industry Orientalized Chinese culture?
Since the establishment of the ancient Silk Road trade route, first constructed during the
second century BC in the Han dynasty (Western Han 202 BCE–9 CE, Eastern Han 25–220 CE),
Eastern and Western civilizations have exchanged fabric, fashion, trade, and trends. During this
time, Europe viewed China as a mysterious and distant country. In the thirteenth century,
Western curiosity about China kept growing until Marco Polo traveled to Asia.
1
The description
of Asia in his c. 1300 book The Travels of Marco Polo (Book of the Marvels of the World and Il
Milione) gave Western audiences some of their first glimpses into China and Chinese culture.
2

Due to lack of transportation, the understanding of China in Western Europe was limited
primarily to Marco Polo’s book and to the presence in Europe of various traded goods, such as
silk, ceramics, tea, and a variety of crafts. China’s ability to produce high-quality textiles made
fabrics a popular luxury item coveted by the European aristocracy. These silks came to be more

1
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant and explorer. He went to China in the thirteenth century, during the Yuan Dynasty of
China, and later wrote The Travels of Marco Polo. This book which recorded his travel experiences gave Europeans a
preliminary understanding of Asia and China.
2
Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1300), ed. Milton Rugoff (New York, N.Y: Signet Classics, 2004).
2

strictly used in the construction of ceremonial garb: hats, capes, chasubles, surplices.
3
Chinese
influence in European clothing can also be found in the pattern of European embroidery since the
fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century, Matteo Ricci,
4
a pioneer of Catholic missions in
China, facilitated the exchange of ideologies and cultures.
5
Scarce resources, limited
information, and erroneous transmission promoted exoticist and Orientalist stereotypes, while
also advancing European curiosity of and towards China. Orientalism refers to the discipline of
Oriental study, which is the study, imitation and description on Eastern world by Western
scholars, historians, artists, and designers. As such, a European-Chinese style, known as
Chinoiserie,
6
appeared in European art following the Renaissance. Chinoiserie grew in
popularity in the eighteenth-century with the rise of Orientalism, and was especially reflected in
garden design, decorative arts, architecture, drama, and literature.
Chinoiserie is rooted in and perpetuates cultural generalizations. The formation of
Chinoiserie and Orientalism influenced each other. According to Adam Geczy, the decorative art
style Chinoiserie, or more broadly Orientalism as a concept, mirrors the history of self-conscious
separation between cultures:
The conquests of Alexander the Great (334—335 BC) expanded
the possibilities for trade. East and West were not yet divided but
mutually reliant concepts, and cultural fascination was less
important than military and economic opportunities […] The
notion of a pre- or early orientalism derives from the presumption,
held by the majority of orientalist scholars, that orientalism begins
with a deliberate, qualitative and self-conscious separation

3
Adam Geczy, Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century, (Oxford, U.K: Berg,
2013).
4
In the sixteenth century, Matteo Ricci went to China during the Ming Dynasty. He was a Western scholar who studied Chinese
literature, and one of the pioneers of Catholic missionary worked in China, while at the same time spreading Western scientific
knowledge.
5
杭泽宇, 浅谈十八世纪欧洲的“中国风”, 雕塑, No.141, 2021. Hang Zeyu, “About Chinese style in Europe in the Eighteenth
Century”, Sculpture, (No.141, 2021).
6
According to Stacey Sloboda, Chinoiserie: Commerce and Critical Ornament in Eighteenth-Century Britain, “Chinoiserie was
a decorative style that emerged as a product of networks of commercial trade and artistic exchange within and between Europe
and China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014.)
3

between cultures. This begins to take shape with the age of
exploration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is well
and truly in place by the eighteenth century with Enlightenment
ideals of self-determination and national identity.
7

At the peak of Chinoiserie in Europe, the Manchu government, the rulers of the Qing dynasty
(1636 BCE–1912 BCE), gave citizens a restricted dress code depending on their class and status.
Selected Chinese luxury goods representing the difference between the common citizens and
aristocracy were imitated and arbitrarily synthesized into Europeans profitable styles that
appealed to European customers. From the sixteenth to nineteenth century, designers of
European garments emphasized the “exoticism” of stylistic elements, or “more specifically the
repository of ways they had of describing what they saw,”
8
rather than actual Chinese cultural
influences.

Fig. 1. Three Lidded Vases, 1775 – 1776, Sèvres porcelain manufactory. Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mounts

7
Geczy, Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century, 2013.
8
Geczy, Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century, 2013.
4

Fig. 2. Lid, 1775 – 1776, Sèvres porcelain manufactory. Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mounts.
In addition, the use of imagery such as European porcelain in East Asia motifs and floral
silk fabrics reflected a distinction between actual Chinese culture and the European perception of
the Orient, manifesting visually through Chinoiserie and other Chinese motifs. For example,
Three Lidded Vases which body were decorated with scenes evocative of East Asia was
originally owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI (see Fig. 1). The
European-shaped vase is decorated with “Chinese red” with gilded bronze. The figures with
Asian faces are in the scene, wearing a bamboo hat (斗笠)
9
and the other playing lute (see Fig.
2).
10
The phenomenon of using selected partial elements to represent an entire “Oriental” culture
was not exclusive to the Chinese style. For instance, in the eighteenth century, Italian designs of
the “Arabesque”
11
floral curvilinear were used in churches, on the chintz wallpapers, and
embroidered on velvets and silks, which are larger and bolder with added floral clusters and
fruits.
12
The relationship between fashion and power was reflected in the seventeenth century
when events like masquerades showing power and imperial dominion evolved in the courts.

9
The Asian conical bamboo hat is widely used in East Southern Asian countries. In China, its function is to avoid rain and
sunshine for farmers when working. The association of conical bamboo hats comes from the description of the image of the
warrior folk heroes in Chinese film and television works. They often wear conical bamboo hats to hide their faces and rescue
people anonymously.
10
Lute is a plucked string instrument that mainly refers to this family of musical instruments used in Europe from the Middle
Ages to the Baroque period.
11
A French term came from the Italian word arabesco which means “in the Arabic style.”
12
Alois Riegl, et al, Problems of Style: Foundations for a History of Ornament, (Princeton University Press, 2018).
5

Europeans’ pursuit of Oriental-inspired clothing was influenced by court fashions and developed
to new levels. Fashion was used to distinguish classes and reflect privilege in the period of Louis
XIV in France (most of the seventeenth century). Sumptuary laws restricted the use of red to the
King, for example. However, Oriental fashion did not appear in clothing worn by the aristocrats,
nor in that worn by the non-aristocrats. Rather, this special fashion trend was a symbol of power
and a visual tool for aristocrats to affirm their privileges during their leisure time.
13

Fig. 3. The New Necklace, William McGregor Paxton (American, 1869–1941), 1910, technique Oil on canvas

13
Geczy, Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century, 2013.
6

(From left to right): Fig. 4. Woman’s Dress (Robe à la française), Amsterdam Netherlands (1740-1760), silk satin with silk and
metallic-thread supplementary weft-float patterning
Fig. 5. Embroideries detail of Woman’s Dress (Robe à la française)

Fig. 6. Woman’s Ceremonial Robe (清早期刺繡百蝠紋女吉服袍), Qing dynasty (1644–1911), first half 18th century, China,
Silk and metallic thread embroidery on silk satin, 54 x 75 in. (137.2 x 190.5 cm)
Chinoiserie fashion merged Chinese culture and Western aesthetics, but the design served
European tastes. For example, in the oil painting, The New Necklace (See Fig. 3), the sitting
woman wears a Chinoiserie dress. The design adopts the popular Chinese costume shapes and
7

materials from the Ming dynasty and Qing Dynasty, such as Pankou (盘扣),
14
Chinese standing
collar (斜襟),
15
and slanted collar (中式立领),
16
but the combination of satin and pleated yarn
materials was a popular combination in the European court. Woman’s Dress (Robe à la
française) (see Fig. 4) applies the European dress shape with a volume skirt and basque waist.
Compared to the Chinese robe with Pankou, Chinese slanted collar, symmetrical auspicious
patterns of clouds, bat,
17
and the character of Shou (寿)
18
(see Fig. 6), the embroideries in
Chinoiserie design usually appropriate some of the traditional patterns but removed the original
meaning and break them apart as purely decorative patterns: a phoenix beside a figure with a
pointy hat without meaning, surrounded by floral-and-foliate motifs and birds (see Fig. 5). These
Chinoiserie products meet the needs of Europeans for exotic desire while meeting the domestic
aesthetic, which is familiar enough to be recognized by the old customers. Stacey Sloboda
argues:
This imaging of Chinese culture was persuasive not because eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century audiences lacked credible information about actual Chinese
culture, but because chinoiserie provided a seductive, commercially viable
model for imagining an imperial commercial culture. [...] Chinoiserie continues
to inform Western understandings of China and Chinese objects within a global
commodity culture. Like the porcelain exports of the early modern period, the
signification of contemporary objects labelled 'Made in China' remains at once
cheap and sophisticated, abundant and exotic, a boon and a burden to domestic
economies.
19

The influences of Chinese culture and history kept developing, which is also shown in
film production. By the twentieth century, Westerners began paying attention to Chinese politics

14
Pankou (盘扣), or Frog button, is a traditional Chinese braiding knots button that has auspicious meaning and decorative
function.
15
Chinese standing collar (中式立领) is a short unfolded collar that are usually used in shirt and jacket.
16
Slanted collar (斜襟) is an asymmetrical shaped collar that designed to be open from left shoulder to right waist.
17
Bat has similar pronunciation with Fu (福) which means happiness and fortune.
18
Shou (寿) means longevity.
19
Sloboda, Chinoiserie: Commerce and Critical Ornament in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 2014, 205.
8

and history, including showing an interest in the history of ancient dynasties during the feudal
period. Scholar Rey Chow
20
compared two films’ reflections on modern China; one of the films,
The Last Emperor (1987)
21
by Bernardo Bertolucci, tells a story that takes place during the Qing
Dynasty and communist China, with Puyi, the last Manchu emperor of the Qing dynasty, as the
protagonist. The movie follows the vicissitudes of people around him, through the historical
turmoil and changes in Chinese society in the twentieth century. This Western-made film left an
impression on China. It was praised from an artistic point of view, while there were other
critiques for its Orientalism. Aspects of the film offer reminders of “a bygone imperial order”
and exemplify a typical example of how Chinese history was displayed and represented from the
Western perspective.
Edward Said defined and critiqued Orientalism in his 1978 book, Orientalism, Edward
Said defined, theorized, and critiqued Western European writers’ and artists’ exoticization
dividing the West and the East. He linked it to imperialism and the colonization of non-Western
people and cultures. He argues:
Under the general heading of knowledge of the Orient, and within the umbrella of
Western hegemony over the Orient during the period from the end of the
eighteenth century, there emerged a complex Orient suitable for study in the
academy. […T]he imaginative examination of things Oriental was based more or
less exclusively upon a sovereign Western consciousness out of whose
unchallenged centrality an Oriental world emerged, first according to general ideas
about who or what was an Oriental, then according to a detailed logic governed
not simply by empirical reality but by a battery of desires, repressions,
investments, and projections.
22

Said considers Orientalism as a hegemonic discourse of the West, manipulating and dominating
the East, and constructing a mythical, uneven division between East and West.

20
Rey Chow, “Where Do We Go From Here: The Global Visual Economy,” (Frieze, 31 OCT 18).
21
Bernardo Bertolucci, et al, The Last Emperor, (Santa Monica, Calif.: Artisan Entertainment, 1998).
22
Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978).
9

This thesis will discuss the issue of Chinese culture being appropriated and Orientalized by
the Western fashion industry, while also presenting positive cases of cultural appreciation. As
cultural theorist Richard Rogers defines cultural appropriation,
Cultural appropriation, defined broadly as the use of a culture’s symbols,
artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture, is
inescapable when cultures come into contact, including virtual or
representational contact. Cultural appropriation is also inescapably intertwined
with cultural politics. It is involved in the assimilation and exploitation of
marginalized and colonized cultures and in the survival of subordinated cultures
and their resistance to dominant cultures.
23

Cultural appropriation, based on misinterpretation, refers to elements of a cultural origin being
extracted and placed in a new context, by a completely different comprehension structure,
causing a connotation transformation of the context of the original source. Cultural appropriation
is different from cultural appreciation. Cultural appreciation is learning, exploring, and
developing cultural understanding, while preserving the original meaning of said culture.
Many scholars have addressed issues of cross-cultural “East meets West” identities and
Orientalism in relation to art and fashion. Jenny Lin’s book, Above Sea: Contemporary Art,
Urban Culture, and the Fashioning of Global Shanghai, focuses on the cosmopolitan city of
Shanghai and investigates complex issues of contemporary Chinese art—sculpture, painting,
film, and fashion—in the global contexts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
24
Lin
analyzes economic, capitalist, and sociopolitical influences on Chinese contemporary art, and the
impact of legacies of foreign colonialism and twentieth-century Maoist political contexts in
China on Shanghai’s artistic environment in the 1990s-2000s. Lin’s analysis of fashion and art
focuses on Shanghai’s past as a semi-colonial treaty port and how this relates to the city’s

23
Rogers, Richard A. “From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation: A Review and Reconceptualization of Cultural
Appropriation.” Communication theory 16, no. 4 (2006): 474–503.
24
Jenny Lin, Above Sea: Contemporary Art, Urban Culture, and the Fashioning of Global Shanghai (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2019).
10

subsequent internationalization. Using case studies—Shanghai Tang’s branding and advertising,
Christian Dior’s exhibitions that promote contemporary Chinese art, and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art’s 2015 exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass—Lin investigates and
examines instances of Orientalism that arise when Western and Chinese cultures meet on a
global stage.
Scholar Anne Anlin Cheng also discusses the exhibition, China: Through the Looking
Glass in her book, Ornamentalism:
In China: Through the Looking Glass the ornament, as artifact and gesture,
acts as a medium through which the human is simultaneously invoked and
displaced and powerful ideas of personhood, race, and objectness are
transferred.
25

Cheng explores culture and Orientalism from the perspectives of history, feminism, race, and
visual vocabularies. Cheng also raises the issue of cultural stereotypes of Asian women in the
West, the myth of “yellow women,” as ultra-feminine, and abstracted notions of Oriental beauty
dictated from a dominant position.
Building on this scholarship, my thesis discusses problems of the representation of
Chinese culture in Western fashion, integrating related historical and theoretical perspectives.
The first section begins with an introduction to Edward Said’s definition of Orientalism. I then
trace the impact of Chinese culture on the Western fashion industry from the twentieth century to
the twenty-first century using the case study of the exhibition, China: Through the Looking
Glass. The exhibition had more than 140 displays depicting haute couture and ready-to-wear
garments that integrated references to Chinese culture, such as American designer Tom Ford’s
evening dress for French brand Yves Saint Laurent and Chinese designer Guo Pei’s silk evening
dress. Pairing these examples with more historical objects from the Metropolitan Museum’s

25
Anne Anlin Cheng, Ornamentalism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).
11

Asian Art Collection or borrowed from Chinese institutions, such as old costumes from the Qing
dynasty, the exhibition aimed to critically address and deconstruct notions of Orientalism.
Despite their efforts however, various aspects of the exhibition perpetuate Orientalism by
exoticizing China and Chinese culture.
The second section discusses stereotypes of Chinese culture in Western fashion, even
within China, through the controversial 2021 collaboration between photographer Chen Man and
Christian Dior. The collaboration sparked online debates and the Chinese media accused Chen
Man’s fashion photographs of vilifying Chinese culture and perpetuating Western stereotypes of
Chinese identity by using features such as feudal-style costumes and narrow eyes. Chen Man’s
photographs and intentions help illuminate a discussion of stereotypes and exoticism. I will
further consider the origins of Chinese stereotypes, integrating research about the emergence and
development of Chinoiserie in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I will ask: how have
European-Asian decorative styles generalized cultures? How have Chinoiserie and Orientalism
influenced each other, while constructing a self-conscious separation between cultures?
Despite numerous examples enforcing stereotypes through Orientalist fashion, we can also find
positive cases of cooperation between Western and Chinese designers and artists. The third
section of this thesis discusses generative interpretations of Chinese culture within the fashion
industry. Some designers with comprehensive and profound understandings of China incorporate
contemporary Chinese elements into their designs and break down stereotypes, as demonstrated
by the brand Qeelin and Loewe. As designer Guo Pei says: “we might see symbols differently in
different ages […] I think there needs to be new creativity on the basis of traditions so that the
humanities can progress.”
26

26
“Asian Heritage” Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy, (Published by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with Yale
University Press, Exhibition Catalogue), 146.
12

Chapter One: Orientalism and China: Through the Looking Glass
This section discusses the definition of Orientalism and exoticism based on Edward
Said’s theorization. I explore how the Western fashion industry perpetuates Orientalism by
examining the museum exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass, which reflects these
Orientalist features and a stereotyping and imprecise understanding of Chinese culture. To
discuss Orientalism in the fashion industry, let us begin by defining the two words: fashion and
Orientalism. The Oxford Dictionary defines “fashion” as “a popular or the latest style of
clothing, hair, decoration, or behaviour,” or “a manner of doing something: the work is done in a
rather casual fashion.”
27
It originates from the French “façon” and, further back, the Latin
“facere”: shape, appearance, style, do, and make. According to scholar Yali Chen (陈雅莉), “the
internalization and sharing of fashion concepts in groups […] continuously lead to active
changes in many aspects of society.”
28
Fashion can also be understood as linked to globalization
and processes of industrialization and internationalization. Fashion objects and their symbols and
meanings are produced, promoted, sanctified, consumed, experienced, and imitated by and
through social groups. As fashion spreads, designers and professionals in the Western world of
high fashion often promote stylized innovations by incorporating and collecting non-Western
cultural symbols.
Symbols from Eastern nations, such as China, became cultivated and integrated into
fashion collections, often in ways critics deem orientalist. Orientalism arguably emerged and
developed simultaneously with colonial activities before the publication of Edward Said’s 1978

27
Angus Stevenson, “Fashion.” ed. Angus Stevenson, (Oxford Dictionary of English. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010).
28
陈雅莉, 再东方化:欧洲高级时尚对中国形象的意义生产及传播研究, 中国传媒大学学报, 2020, 10:64-70. Chen Yali, “Re-
Orientalism: Study on the Significance Production and Communication of European High Fashion to China's Image,” Journal of
Communication University of China, (October 2020, 64-70).
13

book Orientalism, a critique of how the West sees the Middle East. Said’s consideration of
Orientalism as a hegemonic discourse of the West lays out three aspects or modes of
Orientalism, shaped by the interrelationships and interdependencies between the three types. The
first meaning is that Orientalism is an academic field in the West and includes various dogmas
and theories about the Orient. The second is “a style of thought based upon an ontological and
epistemological distinction between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident’”: it poses a binary difference
between “Occident,” the West, and “Orient,” the East, as the basis for the long-term
understanding or definition of the midway location of the Middle East. This understanding refers
to the longstanding outlook of the Occident toward the Orient. The West is the standard, and the
exotic Orient deviating from it, is defined as the other. The third meaning is that Orientalism is a
powerful discourse of domination and cultural hegemony: “Orientalism is never far from what
Denys Hay has called the idea of Europe, a collective notion identifying ‘us’ Europeans as
against all ‘those’ non-Europeans.”
29
In this action of putting the two cultures in binary
opposition to one another, the East is placed in a minor and backward position from the
dominant cultural perspective, while the West condescends to judge the East. The Western
descriptions of the East, such as the barbarism, backwardness, and exoticization of the East,
create a theory that the West is superior to the East. The West regards itself as the subject and
needs the East as the object, in order to verify itself as superior rather than to understand another
culture. These inaccurate descriptions of the East provide a rationale for Western colonization
and violent behavior toward the colonized. The crime of colonization is covered with
rationalization and justice because the West is identified as superior to the East. Nirmal Puwar
describes the relationship between Orientalism and exoticism in the Western fashion industry,

29
Said, Orientalism, 1978.
14

arguing that Orientalism “offers a taste of different parts of the ‘East’ in digestible portions for
the Orientalist palate of speeded-up multicultural capitalism” since “the fondness of these flavors
has long routes embedded in highly ‘civilized’ parts of genteel society.”
30
One phenomenon that
derived from this fondness for exotic “oriental” objects is a nostalgia for the impenetrable
mystery of the old Chinese imperial rule as imagined by Westerners, reflected in Western
fashion designs’ frequent use of Chinese dynastic elements.
Cultural Appropriation and China: Through the Looking Glass
In 2015, the fashion exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass, hosted by the
Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art features a collection of traditional Chinese
clothes, accessories, ceramics, examples of calligraphy, and Western fashion designs inspired by
Chinese culture. It included 14 galleries in different themes: Emperor to Citizen, Hu Die
(Butterfly Wu), People’s Republic of China, Empire of Signs, Moon in the Water, Ming
furniture, export silk, calligraphy, blue-and-white porcelain, perfume, Saint Laurent & Opium,
ancient China, Guo Pei, Wuxia. The exhibition aimed to reveal the impacts of Chinese culture
and aesthetics on Western fashion and reflected a centuries-long history of the Western
imagination of China. “Mirror Flower Water Moon” (镜花水月) is the Chinese title of the
exhibition. This title originally referred to the poems from Si Ming Shi Hua (四溟诗话) by Xie
Zhen (谢榛), “诗有可解, 不可解, 不必解, 若水月镜花, 勿泥其迹可也,”
31
Ethereal artistic
conception and later refers to the illusory scene, resonating with the curatorial concept, which

30
Nirmal Puwar and Nandi Bhatia, “Letter from the Editors.” Fashion Theory 7, (no. 3-4, 2003), 249–251.
31
Si Ming Shi Hua (四溟诗话): “诗有可解，不可解，不必解，若水月镜花，勿泥其迹可也。” It means that poems can be
explained, some cannot be explained, and some do not have to be explained, like flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water,
it is not necessary to find out their traces (as they are beautiful and artistic). The scene of “flowers in the mirror and the moon in
the water” in the sentence was originally used as a metaphor to describe the abstract meaning of a poem that hard to be explain or
unnecessary to be explain, and later used to describe unreal or ethereal illusions and scenes.
15

aimed to reflect the Western imagination of the unreal fantasy of China, , more than cultural
exchange. Chinese film director Wong Kar Wai was invited to be the artistic director for the
exhibition to provide suggestions from a Chinese person’s perspective. He wrote in the
exhibition catalogue:
As the Tang dynasty poet Pei Xiu wrote in the ninth century: “Like moon in
the water, image on a mirror/It comes and goes, with no inherent reality.”
The couplet suggests the subtle nuances that separate cultures—as when the
bright moon of the East finds its reflection on Western waters. What appears
does not correlate with reality. The aesthetic experience might also be at
variance.
32

The introduction to the exhibition catalogue indicates that the curators aimed to reduce the
imbalance of cultural differences between East and West and recognizing “the importance of
cinema as a medium through which to understand the richness of Chinese history.”
33
The
concept of the Western imagination of China relates to Edward Said’s idea of Orientalism, but
the exhibition, as Jenny Lin argues, aimed to “rethink […] Orientalism as an appreciative
cultural response to its encounters with the East.”
34

In line with the introduction of the exhibition, the exhibition itself and a documentary
film made about it, The First Monday in May, both highlight the Western appreciation of and
curiosity towards diverse aspects of Chinese culture: fabric, design, craft, and architecture. “The
curators in the Asian art department were worried about some of the topics the exhibition was
addressing. It opens up debates about colonialism, Orientalism, which could be interpreted as
being racist.”
35
Says Andrew Bolton, the curator of the exhibition. Curators realized that holding

32
Wong Kar Wai, “A Note on Film and Fashion”, China: Through The Looking Glass, 2015, 10.
33
“China: Through the Looking Glass - Exhibition Overview,” Met Museum. 2015. URL:
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/china-through-the-looking-glass
34
Jenny Lin, Above Sea: Contemporary Art, Urban Culture, and the Fashioning of Global Shanghai (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2019), 150.
35
Andrew Rossi, The First Monday in May, Produced by Fabiola Beracasa Beckman, et al, Distributed by Magnolia Pictures,
(2016).
16

a fashion exhibition about Chinese culture would create controversy, especially when
Orientalism is brought into view of the public, exhibited, and discussed.
36
Bolton, together with
Wong Kar Wai and Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, artistic director of Condé Nast,
chair of the annual Met Gala, and consultant to the Metropolitan Museum’s Anna Wintour
Costume Institute, traveled to Beijing to conduct research and find inspiration. The exhibition
was divided into several galleries, and each gallery theme was drawn from Western fashion
designers’ first impressions of China, as also noted in the accompanying documentary. One of
the purposes of this exhibition was to provide a historical overview of how Western designers
perceived Chinese cultures differently from how Chinese people perceive themselves.
37

According to the exhibition website, catalogue and documentary The First Monday in
May, considering the comparison of Western versus Chinese perceptions, the exhibition,
however, focuses more on how Western designers developed their ideas from original Chinese
cultural elements. Western designs were displayed alongside Chinese antiques, the latter
appearing as points of inspiration. Western designs were compared to the clothes from hundreds
of years ago juxtaposing different thoughts and ideologies about Chinese culture. There is a
contradiction about the time difference: the exhibition only had a relatively small numver of
original Chinese designs developed from the Chinese original cultural elements, so the
comparison proves asymmetrical. This absence of substantial cultural references allows the
audience to misunderstand that these designs, which developed from Chinese culture, can
comprehensively and accurately represent contemporary designs inspired by Chinese culture in
the world, turning the “rethinking of Orientalism,” and “cultural exchange and appreciation” into
pure fantasy. For example, in addition to choosing clothing designs based on the

36
Rossi, The First Monday in May, 2016.
37
Rossi, The First Monday in May, 2016.
17

misinterpretation of Chinese culture, the interior design of the gallery room—such as the room’s
wallpaper—were mostly designed to match the Orientalist designs. The wallpaper pattern cannot
be traced back to the cultural origin in Chinese history, but it is prevalent on items of
Chinoiserie. Indeed, the exhibition presented, albeit with limitations, the history of Chinoiserie,
Orientalism, and the influence of Chinese culture on Western design, that deviated from part of
the original intentions of the exhibition. Nathan Crowley, the production designer for the
exhibition, stated in the documentary of China: Through the Looking Glass: “We tried to show
Chinese art from the perspective of the Chinese themselves.”
38
While museum-goers were likely
drawn to the exhibition’s dazzling objects, it is doubtful that the displays inspired them to rethink
Orientalism from a culturally appreciative perspective.
The exhibition wall text asserted: “Through careful juxtaposition of Western fashions and
Chinese costumes and decorative arts, it presents a rethinking of Orientalism as an appreciative
cultural response to its encounters with the East.”
39
Although one of the aims of the exhibition
was to highlight the appreciative attitude of the West toward the East, it is also important that the
cultural origins are properly researched, presented, and displayed, rather than ignored throughout
the exhibition. The origins here not only refer to original inspirational objects, like antique
Chinese dresses, but also traditional cultural values. As such, the show imagined a spirit of China
through cultural appropriation and Orientalist stereotypes.
This selection of traditional Chinese artifacts and points of inspiration was limited and
reflected the taste of both Western curators and Western designers. The Chinese objects on
display – blue-and-white porcelain, calligraphy, dynastic robes, etc. – almost all came from the
pre-twentieth century and stood as symbols of an old, imperial, pre-modern China. The repetition

38
Rossi, The First Monday in May, 2016.
39
Lin, Above Sea: Contemporary Art, Urban Culture, and the Fashioning of Global Shanghai, 2019, 150.
18

of these pre-modern Chinese symbols made them feel akin to souvenirs reducing Chinese history
and culture to stereotypical symbols: dragons, porcelain, red, gold, silk, and embroidery. The
frequency with which particular Chinese motifs appeared may be considered according to the
table below, which I drafted, is based on the the checklist in the exhibition catalogue:
Chinese symbols
which frequently
appear
Times
of use in
designs
Percentage to
garments and
accessories
Examples
Embroidered
silk or satin
texture fabric
53 44% Cristobal Balenciaga evening dress, 1962. White
silk dupioni embroidered with polychrome silk
floral motifs.
Red fabric as the
base (not
including red
embroidery)
23 19% House of Dior dress by John Galliano,
spring/summer 2003 haute couture. Red and
polychrome silk brocade, gold lamé, and red
synthetic crinoline.
Dragon patterns 20 16% Dries Van Noten ensemble, autumn/winter
2012-2013. Jacket of black wool-silk hammered
satin printed with polychrome dragon motifs;
pants of black wool twill.
Qipao (旗袍)
dress shape
14 12% House of Dior dress by John Galliano,
autumn/winter 1997-1998. Gold silk jacquard
embroidered with synthetic pearl beads; green
silk jacquard and blue, white and red silk
jacquard.
Blue-and-white
porcelain
13 11% Alexander McQueen evening dress by Sarah
Burton, autumn/winter 2011-2012. Cream silk
satin embroidered with shards of blue and white
porcelain; white silk organza.
Gold-based (not
including gold
embroidery)
11 9% Yves Saint Laurent evening coat, autumn/winter
1977-1978 haute couture. Gold lamé matelassé;
black fox fur.

Many of the designs showcased in the exhibition referenced blue-and-white porcelain, as
displayed in one gallery. Most of those designs are based on the unique blue-and-white color of
the fired porcelain body, or re-collaged and combined original porcelain patterns as the pattern
19

printed on the garments’ fabric.
The emergence of blue-and-white porcelain in China itself showed influences from
foreign cultures. There have been records of blue-and-white porcelain in Tang and Song
literature, but the production technology of blue-and-white porcelain was not particularly
advanced at that time. However, the porcelain produced during the Song Dynasty laid the
foundation for the more developed techniques of craftsmanship for blue-and-white porcelain in
later periods. The prosperity of the production and trade of blue-and-white porcelain began in the
Yuan Dynasty, when the economic and cultural exchanges between China and surrounding areas
were frequent. The distinct patterns of the porcelain are heavily derived from the Islamic culture
of West and Central Asia, conforming to the aesthetics and customs of these regions. These
cultures determined the basic characteristics of the blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty
with multiple composite and rich layers: most blue-and-white porcelains of the Yuan Dynasty
have as many as 7 to 10 layers of slip and glazes, and the composition is densely applied to the
surface with little blank space. These complex patterns and white and blue color themes were
later introduced to Europe, leaving a deep and lasting cultural impression.
40

The design combined the pattern of blue-and-white porcelain with the Western
perspective “Chinese-style” shape. Besides the appropriation of the special pattern of blue-and-
white porcelain, the designs of the garments in the blue-and-white Porcelain gallery are similar
to the displays in other galleries of the exhibition: embroidery on silk, the shape of the
cheongsam, and the characteristics of the Chinese cloud collar (云肩). That being said, there are
some divergent designs in this gallery according to the catalogue. For the piece Beijing Memory

40
刘明珠 (Mingzhu, Liu).元代青花瓷的历史背景及纹样特征.收藏与投资,2022(02):46-48. Liu Mingzhu. “Historical
Background and Pattern Characteristics of Blue-and-White Porcelain in Yuan Dynasty”, Collection and Investment, February
2022, 46-48.
20

No. 5, Chinese designer Li Xiaofeng breaks the porcelain and uses the porcelain itself as the
material, reassembling the pieces into a new abstract pattern and endowing the clothes with more
meaning of memory, history, and humanity. There is also an evening dress from Chanel’s
spring/summer 1984 haute couture by Karl Lagerfeld, a tube top dress in symmetrical blue-and-
white porcelain patterns and the shape of porcelain vases. Although the pattern is a simplified
version of the pattern of blue-and-white porcelain, without complex patterns with auspicious
meanings, the pattern still retains the original characteristics, structure, and composition. For
example, the designer’s understanding of Chinese aesthetics is evident in the distinction between
major patterns and minor patterns, the simplified Kui pattern
41
and floral pattern, the symmetry
of the vest, and the rhythm of leaving blank space. The fabric is embroidered with crystal beads,
simulating the subtle reflection from the glossy high-fired glaze of a porcelain vase.

(From left to right)
Fig. 7. White-glazed Jar (唐邢窑白瓷罐), Tang dynasty (618 CE–907 CE), porcelain with white glaze (Xing ware)
Fig. 8. Covered Jar (西汉云气纹彩绘陶壶), first century BCE, Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE), Earthenware
with painted decoration
Fig. 9. Lotus celadon wine bowl (北宋汝窑青瓷莲花式温碗), Northern Song dynasty (960 CE–1127 CE)
This gallery informs viewers about the popularity of blue-and-white porcelain and its
widespread influence in Western designs. The Western taste for this style of porcelain stimulated

41
Kui (夔) is an ancient Chinese mythology character. Kui pattern is a type of abstract coiled pattern that came from Kui.
21

a vast export market in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and became one of the most
representative symbols of Chinese culture from the perspective of Western aesthetics. The
popularity of blue-and-white porcelain has greatly overshadowed the many other types of
Chinese ceramics, such as pottery from the Han Dynasty (see Fig. 8), white-glazed porcelain (白
瓷) from Tang Xing kiln (邢窑) of the Tang Dynasty (see Fig. 7), and celadon (青瓷) from Ru
kiln (汝窑) of the Song Dynasty (see Fig. 9). The overwhelming trend of this western fascination
aesthetics marks a major component of the Chinoiserie style that lasted through the end of the
nineteenth century. “I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.”
42
says
Oscar Wilde. Blue-and-white porcelain developed into a pervasive Chinese symbol that, albeit
only one part of Chinese ceramic history, continues to dominate Western imaging of Chinese
culture today.

Fig. 10. Evening dress by Yves Saint Laurent in autumn/winter 2004-2005 by Tom Ford
Similarly, the proportion of Qing official court hats to other kinds of accessories is high
due to the strong influence of The Last Emperor, and the deep impression of China’s Qing

42
Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde, 1st American ed. (New York, Knopf, 1988).
22

Dynasty culture present in the 1987 film, which was directed by Italian auteur Bernardo
Bertolucci for a primarily Western audience. These conical hats are present in many galleries and
not only the one addressing the Qing dynasty. The conical designs covered the mannequin faces,
creating a mysterious fashion element, but they conflated court hats from the Qing Dynasty with
conical bamboo hats. A conical hat placed on the head of the mannequin in the exhibition was
not actually part of the original runway show, which Tom Ford designed for Yves Saint Laurent
in the autumn/winter 2004-2005 collection (see Fig. 10). In the exhibition, the mannequin wears
this golden conical hat at a tilted angle, with a Ruyi (如意) pattern in the middle of the hat. Two
tassels hang from the side with ambiguous cultural origins. Inspiration for this hat is neither the
conical bamboo hat nor the court hat from the Qing Dynasty, and both have a relationship with
the cheongsam design on display. Another historical element from the Qing dynasty that inspired
Western designers is opium. The opium series exhibits from Yves Saint Laurent included his
perfume Opium, advertising photography, and clothing. The expression of addiction and
wildness, associated with opium, echoes the history of the end of the Qing dynasty of the Opium
Wars, two conflicts between China and Western European countries over dominion in trade and
territory in the mid-nineteenth century, which began the Century of Humiliation. It is also when
the western stereotype about opium and China emerged. Focusing on opium as a glamorous
“exotic” Chinese element is a western stereotype, also shown in the exhibition, since opium was
a common element in both China and Europe from the nineteenth to twentieth century.
The remaining exhibits that are not counted in the section “embroidered on silk or satin”
of the table above also mostly use “Chinese inspired” glossy silky fabrics such as silk or satin as
the fabric materials. Most silk or satin fabric embroideries in the exhibition use dragon and floral
patterns. According to the checklist in the exhibition catalogue, the total rate of using silk and
23

satin is high, up to 90 percent. Garments from the House of Dior frequently appear in each
gallery, as either the work of Christian Dior himself or later designers. In the interview with John
Galliano, designer of the house of Dior from 1997 to 2011, about his constant inspiration from
China, he mentions:
In retrospect, I think it was because I knew very little about it. Before I visited
China, it was the fantasy that drew me to it, the sense of danger and mystery
conveyed through Hollywood. Much later, I learned more about the real China
through research—paintings, literature, architecture. My design process involves
in-depth research, and I make a scrapbook for every collection with images that
show my current thinking. But, yes, my initial interest in China was fueled by
movies, by their fantasized and romanticized portrayals.
43

China: Through the Looking Glass featured a dress from Christian Dior’s spring/summer 2003
haute couture collection, which is inspired by both Chinese and Japanese references. The dress’s
mixed allusions to Chinese opera, geishas, and the Queen Mother appears as a jumbled example
of cultural appropriation. Adam Geczy commented on John Galliano’s Asian-inspired designs as
lacking any serious relationship to the original culture.
The comment posted on Geniusbeauty.com is revealingly
transorientalist, especially to the extent that Orient is a free-
associative universe: “The East was always a source of inspiration for
Christian Dior and he travelled a lot through Asian countries. And
John Galliano seems to wander more in his fantasies.”[…] A passing
validation is in suggesting that Dior himself had had a more first-hand
experience— ”he travelled a lot.” What is important to emphasize
here is the tertiary level of Galliano's inspiration. It had no serious
experiential, empirical links to the cultures in question.
44

43
John Galliano, cited in interview, China: Through The Looking Glass (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Mark
Polizzotti Publisher, 2015), 230-237.
44
Geczy, Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century, 2013.
24

Fig. 11. “Quiproquo” cocktail dress by Christian Dior in 1951
Christian Dior’s dress “Quiproquo” cocktail dress in 1951 that used Zhang Xu’s calligraphy
work Du Tong Tie (肚痛帖) as the print pattern on the dress was shown in the calligraphy
section (see Fig. 11). Du tong tie is a letter about a stomachache.
45
The description of a
stomachache in Du tong tie has little relation to the Chinese-styled dress design, except for the
Chinese characters that are used as visual elements. “Quiproquo” in the title refers to “quid pro
quo” which means “to substitute one thing for another” in French, which resonates with the act
of cultural appropriation in the design process itself.
From the 1931 film Daughter of the Dragon directed by Lloyd Corrigan and starring
Anna May Wong, to The Last Emperor by Bernardo Bertolucci, films about China have always
affected Western impressions of Chinese people and culture. As such, exhibits inspired by

45
The content of Du tong tie is “My stomach hurts unbearably. I don't know if it's because of the inappropriate temperature.
Prepare to drink rhubarb soup, which is helpful for diseases caused by either cold or heat. How to do? No bed is available near
me.” (忽肚痛不可堪, 不知是冷热所致, 欲服大黄汤, 冷热俱有益. 如何为计, 非临床.)
25

Chinese culture are inseparable from displays of film. The appreciation for the original culture is
reflected in the invitation of the Chinese director Wong Kar Wai to participate in the curation.
However, it is obviously not comprehensive enough to understand a culture through films that
are the product of artistic interpretation and reflect directors’ subjective understanding. The
selected films and the related designs in the exhibition reflected an imaginative fantasy of China
from Western perspectives, aligned more with Said’s concept of Orientalism rather than with
cultural appreciation. When considering how to “rethink […] Orientalism as an appreciative
cultural response,” an appreciative attitude needs to be present to respectfully explore the
original meaning of Chinese culture. Instead, the display of Chinese designers’ methods is sorely
lacking in this exhibition.
Vivienne Tam and Guo Pei are two of the few Chinese designers included in the
exhibition. Vivienne Tam’s selected works are about Mao Zedong and China in the 1960s, which
were exhibited in People’s Republic of China gallery. The gallery also included designs inspired
by China in the twentieth century, related to war, revolution, and politics, with visual elements of
the Zhongshan, or Mao suit. The introduction of this gallery mentions: “During the late 1960s, a
time of international political and cultural upheaval, the Mao suit in the West became a symbol
of an anticapitalist proletariat.”
46
From this period onward, China gradually began to become a
“new China” at the center of the controversy over human rights from the perspective of the West.
Discussions about Chinese political issues have been lingering on the world stage for a long
time. This gallery indeed reflects a popular discussion on China in the West, while supporting
Western frameworks for thinking of modern China.
Scholar Rey Chow observes how modern China has been exhibited, by certain sources,

46
“China: Through the Looking Glass - Exhibition Overview,” Met Museum, 2015.
26

such as The New York Times, “in a certain overdetermined light,” a relationship between seeing
and being seen, “an older paradigm of seeing—of demonizing—a non-Western culture.”
47
Chow
observes,
Practices of seeing and being seen have much to do with those criteria of
comparison: those asymmetrical terms of judgment, or double standards,
which undergird viewings and discussions and continue to direct the
way particular images are activated, assessed and trafficked around the
world. […] China is always displayed as a primitive Other that must be
monitored and tamed […] the only viable visibility they are willing to
grant China, in other words, is that of a transgressor of human rights.
48

While the exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass addressed historical Western concerns
about China and aimed to rethink Orientalism from a perspective of appreciation, the focus on
stereotypical symbols and politics dilutes this goal of appreciation.
Guo Pei, Her Success, and The Exhibition

Fig. 12. Da Jin (Magnificent Gold, 2005) by Guo Pei in China: Through the Looking Glass
Guo Pei is the first and the only Chinese designer to have debuted in the Paris Chambre
syndicale de couture, which suggests which proves that she is one of the most accepted Chinese

47
Chow, “Where Do We Go From Here: The Global Visual Economy,” 2018.
48
Chow, “Where Do We Go From Here: The Global Visual Economy,” 2018.
27

haute couture designers in the West.
49
In Guo Pei’s garments, one sees the designer’s awareness
of traditional Chinese cultures and the link between tradition and her personal experience.
Included in China: Through the Looking Glass was Guo Pei’s dress, Da Jin (Magnificent Gold,
2005) from her Samsara collection (see Fig. 12).
50
The dress combines unified golden tones
expressing sacred religious content, and a huge round arched skirt to simulate a dome, echoing
the repetition (or life cycle and reincarnation) of Samsara. The texture of the dress changes with
the lighting in the gallery and the viewing angle of the audience. Da Jin not only reflects Guo
Pei’s comprehension of religion, Chinese history, world history, and tradition as a designer, but
also her consideration of life and death as an individual. This is the interdependency between her
personal experiences, her inspirations, and the finished products. She introduced her experiences
and inspirations for the Samsara collection in an interview:
The whole series was because I went to the Musée de l’Armée in Paris
and saw Napoleon’s uniform. I remember that when I stood in front of his
uniform, embroidered with metallic threads, I was especially moved. It
was at the end of the twentieth century, and China was entering the
twenty-first century. I was really only able to visit a lot of countries after
2000, and that’s when I first visited Europe. I went to all the museums in
Paris. But I didn’t know that what would move me the most, in the face
of all the exhibits about the cruelty of war […] would be the clothing. I
realized that when a person was facing death, they could still dress in
such a fastidious and exquisite way. It was a kind of dignity in human
life.
51

Da Jin was displayed in a gallery devoted to Buddhism in China: Through the Looking
Glass. The display of this dress expressed the curators’ thinking about the cultural exchange
between the East and the West, particularly how the West perceived Chinese designs and Asian

49
Haute Couture is a French term means “high-end making” in French, which refers to custom-fitted clothing for customers.
Nowadays, a brand becoming a member of Paris Haute Couture requires certification from the fashion organization Chambre
Syndicale de la Couture with highly strict standards.
50
Samsara means “world” in Sanskrit. It refers to the concept of the reincarnation of life and cyclicality of manners in Buddhism.
51
Jill D’Alessandro, “Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy”, Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy, 8.
28

cultures. Guo Pei, as a Chinese designer, researched traditional elements from the cultural origins
of China and India, contextualized with her personal feelings and experiences in the West, and
reflected cultural exchange in the dress. Guo Pei’s display stood as one of the exhibition’s
primary examples of positive cultural exchange, providing a more cross-cultural consideration of
the concept of Orientalism.

29

Chapter Two: Chinoiserie and Orientalism in Chen Man’s
Collaboration with Christian Dior

Fig. 13. The image from Dior's Shanghai exhibition, Art’n’Dior, by Chen Man/Dior
In November 2021, French luxury fashion brand Christian Dior held the exhibition
Art’n’Dior at the Shanghai West Bund Art Center. The exhibition’s display of a photograph,
taken in 2012 by famous Chinese fashion photographer Chen Man, stirred controversy (see Fig.
13).
52
In the photograph, a Chinese woman with wide, narrow eyes stares at the camera. She
wears black nail armor on two fingers and holds a black “Lady Dior” handbag.
53
A Chinese
editorial, Beijing Daily, criticized and described the figure in the picture as having a gloomy face
and sinister eyes. Author Qian Feifan (钱绯璠) writes: “Chen Man is playing up to the brand and
the western perspective of China […] Chinese aesthetics and Asian women cannot be vilified in
this way.”
54
Chen Man posted a paragraph of writing on the social platform Weibo to apologize
for her photograph, saying:
I was raised in China, our motherland, which I deeply love. I also know

52
Chen Man is a visual artist, photographer and graphic designer. She has had a huge impact in China, shooted for many famous
Chinese people including Gong Li and Fan Bingbing, cooperated with Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire for the
magazine fashion photographs.
53
Nail armor (护甲套) is a popular fingernail decoration in Qing dynasty (1636–1912) of China. In the period that long
fingernails reflect a person’s power and taste of beauty, it functions as protecting the female’s fingernails. Noble ladies covering
the nails by this gem-set metal piece for decoration at the same time.
54
Qian Feifan, “Is This the Asian Woman in Dior’s Eyes?” Beijing Daily, (16 November 2021).
30

that as an artist, I should be aware of my mission and responsibility to
spread Chinese culture and use my works to show the beauty of China.
When I participated in the exhibition, I was still exploring my artistic
concept and visual language… I apologize for my lack of consideration.
55

Chen Man’s behavior provoked heated debate. Two opposing views appeared on the
Internet. Most Chinese citizens who commented were outraged and accused Chen Man’s
photographs of stereotyping China and Chinese faces by emphasizing the model’s small eyes.
Chinese netizens argued that the photograph should not represent Asian women and Chinese
beauty because most Chinese people do not accept the photograph, or the woman pictured as
“beautiful.” Other comments stated that Chen Man photographed the truth, which Chinese
people avoid. Chen Man’s supporters called for a rethinking and diversification of conventional
definitions of beauty. They described challenging beauty standards as part of the job of fashion
photography and art, noting how the twenty-first century Chinese preference for big round eyes
was highly influenced by imported Western beauty ideals, beginning in the late 1970s. From
Chen Man’s supporters’ perspective, those who accused the photographer of uglifying and
distorting Chinese females capitulate to the Western-influenced preference for big eyes.
Following the controversy surrounding Chen Man’s photograph, more and more people
began debating whether portraying Chinese people with small eyes was based in truth, if a
fashion photographer must cooperate with current beauty expectations, and if using a model with
smaller eyes aligned with Western stereotypes of Chinese people. A similar incident occurred in
2019, when Chinese snack brand, Three Squirrels, used a model with wide and narrow eyes in an
advertisement. The model Cai Niangniang posted on social media Instagram: “Do I not deserve
to be Chinese just because I have small eyes?”
56
Discussions of the advertisement became overly

55
Chen Man, “I was raised in China” Weibo. November 23, 2021.
56
Niangniang, Cai. “Hello, I am Cai Niangniang” Weibo. December 26, 2021.
31

focused on the model’s face, and the model in turn felt attacked and insulted. Rejecting small
eyes as “ugly” is a very dangerous position because it negates aesthetic pluralism. Did Chen
Man’s photograph really offend Chinese people simply by utilizing a Chinese model without big
eyes? Why did this debate take on nationalist tones, and how did it ignore historical precedent?

(From left to right)
Fig. 14. Details of Zan Hua Shi Nv Tu (簪花仕女图) by Zhou Fang
Fig. 15. details of Zhuang Jing Shi Nv Tu (妆靓仕女图) by Su Hanchen
Fig. 16. details of Chun Ge Juan Du Tu (春阁倦读图) by Leng Mu
“Despite some variations across different dynasties, more narrow eyes were preferred in
ancient China,” Dr. Jaehee Jung argued on the BBC News in 2022.
57
The aesthetic preference of
ancient China still continues to influence contemporary young populations. Long and narrow
eyes frequently appear in ancient Chinese paintings from various dynastic periods. In the Tang
dynasty (618—907 CE), which was famous for its openness and diversity of aesthetics, Zhou
Fang in his painting Hua Shi Nv Tu (簪花仕女图), depicted the women with long narrow eyes
viewing flowers in a garden (see Fig. 14). In the most economically developed Song dynasty
(960–1279 CE), which paid close attention to the exquisiteness of handicrafts and art, Su
Hanchen depicted a lady with long narrow eyes dressing up in front of a mirror in the painting
Zhuang Jing Shi Nv Tu (妆靓仕女图) (see Fig. 15). In the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty (1636–

57
Waiyee Yip, “China: Why some think ‘small eyes’ are not beautiful,” BBC News, (3 January 2022).
32

1912 CE), the last dynasty in ancient Chinese history, Leng Mu painted a lady with long narrow
eyes reading in Chun Ge Juan Du Tu (春阁倦读图) (see Fig. 16). With the development of
dynasties and cultures, narrow eyes have always been a consistent feature of the courtly women
in ancient Chinese painting. Although the women in the ancient Chinese paintings have long,
narrow eyes, this eye shape has never been emphasized by color or composition. In contrast to
the wide dark eye makeup, eye expression, and upward gaze of the model in Chen Man’s
photograph that makes model’s eyes the visual center, the eyes in the ancient paintings have an
unremarkable on women’s faces; although the paintings depict harmonious beauty, the eye shape
is not the critical factor in these images.

Fig. 17. The photography of model Liu Wen by Sun Jun
The gracefulness of the women and the depiction of their lifestyles have been passed
down and is evident in paintings throughout the ages, inspiring many artists and photographers.
Chinese people still praise photography inspired by the meticulous painting technique called
Gongbi.
58
Photographer Sun Jun is famous for his Neo-Literati Painting Photography (see Fig.

58
Gongbi (工笔), meticulous painting, is a traditional Chinese painting technique. It is a realistic painting expression, the
opposite with Xieyi (写意), freely expressive style.
33

17). When audiences look at the photographs, they do not focus on whether the models have big
eyes or whether or not they meet contemporary beauty ideals, because such characteristics as the
eyes are not visually emphasized by the photographer. Rather, audiences focus on the entire
photograph with its composition, color, and harmonious emotional expression. Model Liu Wen
does not have a “double eyelid” crease that conforms to the contemporary ideal beauty standard,
but she is often regarded as an example of powerful Chinese women and their beauty. Her eyes
are not attacked because the photographer thinks of her as a model, rather than a model with
small eyes, and thus Liu Wen can represent China in images.
People in China today are not rejecting the use of models with narrow eyes in art and
fashion photographs. Instead, the small eye is understood as a stereotypical visual element and
symbol in photography and film that depicts Asians from a Western perspective. Editor Waiyee
Yip, in a BBC News article entitled “China: Why Some Think ‘Small Eyes’ Are Not Beautiful,”
discussed the narrow-eye model problems in Chen Man’s photography and Three Squirrels
advertisement:
At the heart of the controversy is the perception that such
depictions invoke the “slanted eyes” stereotype of Asian people
which emerged in Western culture in the 19
th
century, and which is
considered hugely offensive by many Asians today. In Hollywood,
the quintessential Asian villain Fu Manchu was pictured with thin
and narrow eyes. The character embodied and perpetuated “yellow
peril,” the racist idea that Asian cultures threatened Western
society.
59

“There is indeed a long history in the use of ‘slanted eyes’ to discriminate against Asians,”
Dr. Liu Wen from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica told BBC China.
60
Rejection of small eyes is not
equivalent to the complete acceptance of big round eyes. Without an open mind, uplifting either

59
Yip, “China: Why some think ‘small eyes’ are not beautiful,” 2022.
60
Yip, “China: Why some think ‘small eyes’ are not beautiful,” 2022.
34

feature proves problematic. Highlighting the feature of a “slanted eye” has become associated
with discrimination against Asians. Therefore, some feel that an emphasis on small eyes,
especially in the context of Western fashion photography, enforces Western aesthetic control of
the East through visual mechanisms of Orientalism.
Said criticized Orientalism for placing Western theories in the central position of
civilization while placing the East as backward, ignorant, and marginal. Europe today maintains
its status as a global cultural power with a monopoly on luxury fashion brands, thus further
problematizing the Western-controlled industry’s attempts at producing Chinese visions and
styles. The act of centering the West while selectively reproducing Eastern culture in Europe was
when Chinoiserie emerged. Chinoiserie is a French term used to describe the style of crafts and
artworks made in a “Chinese style.” However, this kind of Chinese style is a result of subjective
West taste. It features Western notions of Chinese symbols, reflecting Chinese cultural
perceptions and impressions understood and produced by the gaze of European elites based on
their own cultural identity and values.
In the case of Chen Man and Christian Dior, instead of judging the aesthetics in
photographic terms, or critiquing the aim to sell French fashion through an image that implied a
relationship between beauty and danger in the exaggerated makeup and pose with finger armor
and, Chinese people questioned the meaning behind the model’s eyes as a symbol of power.
Such controversies abound as Western brands continue to emphasize Chinese faces with typical
features that some see as linked to stereotypical representations. How are Western countries
seeing and observing China? Has the impression of China changed or developed over time from
the perspective of the West? Awareness of this bias, at least the existence of bias, is paramount
35

to being, as Said argues, “responsive to the material and not to a doctrinal preconception.”
61
The
pattern of using a supposedly “typical” Chinese face with stereotypical Chinese elements is a
behavior of chasing the “shadow,” the shadow left by the European predecessors, with their
mistaken experience. It reflects the brand’s attitude of conflating Asian cultures and indolence
toward properly learning about and exploring non-Western cultures more deeply: “how the
Orient is remains generalized and indiscriminate: ‘Asian countries.’”
62
From the perspective of
some Chinese citizens, emphasis on the small Chinese eye is a sign of solidifying and
accentuating the existing stereotypes, while restricting opportunities for China to deliver the
diversity and specificity of Chinese faces and cultures. Narrow-eyes are indeed a feature of some
Asians but not the only feature. Similarly, Chinese culture is not limited to dragons, red, and
porcelains from ancient China and The Forbidden City.
Comparison: Arthur Elgort

Fig. 18. Arthur Elgort, Eastern Light, Vogue; New York Vol. 183, no. 12, (Dec 1, 1993), 243

61
Said, Orientalism. 1978, 327.
62
Geczy, Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century, 2013.
36

Fig. 19. Arthur Elgort, Eastern Light, Vogue; New York Vol. 183, no. 12, (Dec 1, 1993) _246
Facing an unfamiliar culture, fashion photographer Arthur Elgort showed an open attitude
and positive curiosity in his photograph Eastern Light for the fashion magazine Vogue in 1993.
In this series of photographs, he collaborated with model Linda Evangelista depicted as a foreign
visitor traveling to China. Under Elgort’s camera, Evangelista experienced the daily life of
Chinese people and explored different cities and landscapes in China: she wore local Chinese
clothes, did morning exercises with the elders, rode a bicycle, asked for directions, laughed and
blew bubbles with a schoolboy, made pastry, styled hair with the locals, walked in the streets
with Chinese people, and stood barefoot on a bamboo raft in the green landscape of China (see
Fig. 18 and Fig. 19). China, under Elgort’s lens, is not pictured as mysterious and distant from
the West, but alive and a living contemporary culture. In Eastern Light, viewers can see the
explicit specificity of China as a country, and even the distinctions between each location and
culture in the various cities emerge. Such distinctions are rarely seen in Western fashion
photographs with Orientalized inspirations. In this photography project, although the camera
focuses on the Western supermodel, the character herself is interpreted as an identity of a curious
foreign tourist. The character is sometimes placed as the focal point in the composition, but her
37

plain relaxing clothes—that are neither luxurious western fashion nor western interpretations of
Chinese fashion—weaken the distinction and create a harmonious environment with Chinese
people and background colors in the picture. Western audiences easily lose the concept of the
distinction between “advanced” Western fashion and “backward” Eastern fashion when they are
introduced to Evangelista’s perspective. As a Western photographer, Elgort still records China
from the first perspective of the West, but he did not keep the old Chinese stereotypes or attempt
to redefine Chinese or oriental cultures. The atmosphere is from a western perspective with an
open attitude, ignoring the “mysterious China” trope and use of stereotypical Chinese elements,
to ultimately explore the unexplored through highlighting more approachable everyday images
of China and Chinese people.
In general, the Western fashion industry creates an imagined fantasy of China by
presenting selected, exotic, generalized Chinese cultural elements. Through the appropriation of
Chinese symbols in time and space, China-inspired Western fashion presents a composite
contradiction. The stagnant image of China generated in the West is traditional, mysterious, and
ancient. The emphasis on China’s mysterious fantasy divides the East and the West and
strengthens the mythical opposition of Orientalism. This slippage into Orientalist imaging can be
avoided by focusing more on the diversity and multiplicity of modern and contemporary China,
as Elgort does in this series.

38

Chapter Three: Cultural Appreciation and Chinese Culture in
Qeelin and Loewe
Symbols: Conventions and Modern China
According to scholar Yali Chen, fashion communication must reach a certain consensus
with the social groups in the traditional cultural field in order to form a large-scale audience
base.
63
When spreading culture, there are always certain visual elements that become readily
attached to Chinese culture: calligraphy, floral patterns, the colors of red and gold, dragon
patterns, blue-and-white porcelain, and embroidery on silk. The Metropolitan Museum’s
Costume Institute curators Richard Martin and Harold Koda discussed the historical relationship
between clothing, society, hierarchy, and cultures in the 1995 Exhibition, Orientalism: Visions of
the East in Western Dress:
It is clothing—so close to and expressive of the body—that the West has
most joyously appropriated from the East. The guilt of body difference, racial
intolerance, and exploitation that has customarily defined the discussion of
colonialism as a political strategy would seem to inhibit any exchanges in
clothing if bodies are, in fact, perceived so differently and so hierarchically.
Any presumption of body supremacy and racial prerogative would seem to
be mitigated by a constant Western history of assimilating global dress. Of
course, the process of assimilation was on the West’s terms and safely within
the West’s own precinct.
64

From the thirteenth century to the twenty-first century, Chinese imagery in the West has
transformed from a mysterious utopia with an imaginative fantasy, known as Cathay, to the
“other” under a West-centrist ideology. In this process, Chinese culture was an important carrier
of exoticism and nostalgia for the West to construct a multicultural society in both, historical and
modern discourses. When people start to pay attention to the carrier itself and the origins of these

63
陈雅莉, 再东方化:欧洲高级时尚对中国形象的意义生产及传播研究, 中国传媒大学学报, 2020. Yali, “Re-Orientalism:
Study on the Significance Production and Communication of European High Fashion to China's Image,” 2020.
64
Martin, Richard (Richard Harrison), and Harold. Koda. Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress. New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994.
39

symbols, they realize the monotonous, repeatable, inauthentic, and subjective Western
stereotypes employed through these symbols. As such, these tropes and symbols are far removed
from their original meaning and resistant to change. They become superficial, and easier to
appropriate, continually rooted in designers’ brains and designs, thus strengthening a limited
Orientalist understanding of China. Some Western designers follow the memory and imagination
of a general understanding of Asia rather than Chinese or any particular culture specifically. As
fashion designer Guo Pei says about Chinese symbols in conventions and modern society,
traditional culture is about not only inheritance but also how people reinterpret traditions in
modern life:
The traditional craftsmanship in my work provides a connection with
history. It gives the work a much deeper legacy—a sense of inheritance of
times past, and in carrying it forward. In the future I hope that people will
see it as a footprint of human memory…I use my work to share my China
with the whole world and to explore how Chinese cultural traditions affect
people today. Some symbols, such as the dragon, phoenix, and peony, are
known to all Chinese people and, in a way, represent China. But we might
see symbols differently in different ages…I think there needs to be new
creativity on the basis of tradition, so that the humanities can progress.
65

More and more people have begun to rethink the problem of Orientalism and rediscover modern
and contemporary Chinese culture and society. Some of the explorations inevitably still fall into
the stereotypes or focus only on political issues. However, some people are willing to escape
from their comfort zone, the fantasy versions of China defined by their predecessors, to explore
the Chinese culture and aspects of society that have not been discovered by the West or have not
yet been popular.

65
Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy, Published by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with Yale University Press,
Exhibition Catalogue.
40

Loewe and Chinese Monochrome Ceramics

Loewe’s The Chinese Monochrome collection (from left to right)
Fig. 20. Pale Celadon Glazed Wulu vase (浅青釉葫芦花瓶) and Hammock bag in Pale Celadon Glaze color
Fig. 21. Yellow glazed cup (黄釉杯) and Puzzle bag in Pale Yellow Glaze color
Fig. 22. Copper red (Sang De Boeuf) glazed vase (郎红釉瓶) and Luna bag in Sang De Boeuf Glaze color
Fig. 23. Dragon and Phoenix Pattern Pale Aubergine Glazed bowl (划龙凤纹浅茄皮紫釉碗) and Goya bag in Pale Aubergine
Glaze color
In November 2022, Spanish luxury fashion brand Loewe launched their new collection,
The Chinese Monochrome collection, inspired by traditional Chinese monochrome ceramics and
in collaboration with professor and research fellow at the Palace Museum, Wang Guang Yao,
and contemporary ceramic artists Deng Xiping and Natasha Daintry. This new collection
included handbags, leather goods and accessories in ten classical colors with a monochrome
ceramic glaze finish (see Fig. 20, Fig. 21, Fig. 22, and Fig. 23). The advertising photos for this
collection adopted the lighting of the museum display. Juxtaposing luxury handbags with antique
Chinese porcelains in similar shapes and colors form a harmonious atmosphere, foregrounding
41

historical collisions between conventional and contemporary, and exchanges between the East
and the West. The contrast between the colorful leather of the handbag and the white color of the
Loewe logo match the interior and exterior color contrast of the monochrome ceramics. The
smooth texture of the leather itself retained the original design of the Loewe handbags, imitating
the use of bright colors and the material texture of Chinese monochrome glaze at the same time.
The design and fashion photography fit with the concept of this collection according to Loewe:
to showcase how Chinese monochrome glazed ceramics are similar to Loewe’s leather crafts,
which is that both of them are made from nature, incorporating the contemporary style with the
unique wisdom of the craftsman. Many of the antique porcelains selected in the fashion
photography are from the Qing Dynasty—from the Kangxi period in the seventeenth century to
the Qianlong period in the eighteenth century—when Chinoiserie was popular in the West.
However, in the advertising video for this new collection, the Chinese historians invited by the
producer mentioned that the history of monochrome ceramic could be traced back as early as
Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties, according to the archaeological findings. This video
also introduced the characteristics of Chinese monochrome glaze—the 0.5 millimeters thickness
of the three-layer glaze and the choice of color—and its relationship with nature. The glazes are
made from unpurified raw ore, and the colors can be found in nature: from the sky, the ocean,
and plant life. Additionally, Loewe also held an exhibition of handbags and Chinese
monochrome ceramics in Shanghai and will sponsor another project in Jingdezhen, the porcelain
capital in China.
LOEWE will sponsor the creation of a new monochrome ceramics educational program
at the Jingdezhen Ceramic University that seeks to preserve this ancient craft and its
cultural heritage. Located in the thousand-year-old porcelain capital of Jingdezhen, the
Jingdezhen Ceramic University is the only multidisciplinary undergraduate college in
China that features ceramics studies.
66

66
“LOEWE’s new collection inspired in Chinese monochrome ceramics.” LOEWE. 2022.
42

While many brand designs incorporate Chinese elements indicative of good luck and
fortune—red, lanterns, dragons, and mahjong—Loewe has chosen more modest, restrained, and
quieter elements. This rare approach contrasts with typical Chinese-influenced Western designs,
while still managing to catch the audience’s attention superficially and maintaining the brand’s
concept. Loewe’s collaboration with artist Natasha Daintry and Chinese ceramicist Deng Xiping,
considered the relationship between design and artwork, nature and humanity. Loewe chose to
launch and publicize this Chinese culture-inspired collection globally on the company’s official
website of every country, which meant that the collection not only intended to attract audiences
in China, but also aimed to spread Chinese culture to the world and support traditional Chinese
crafts.
In this collaboration, nevertheless, Loewe was mostly inspired by the ceramics from the
Qing Dynasty, instead of the older dynasty such as the Song and Ming dynasties. This choice
shows a restricted vision of Western fashion—risk of the extension of an older tendency of
Orientalism and Chinoiserie—because the crafts in Qing Dynasty have been deeply influenced
by trade and Western culture, especially during the Qianlong period. Some selections still show
the old aesthetics. For example, the “sang de boeuf” vessel was popular in Europe in the 1880s.
These details established that it is still difficult for Western fashion brands to avoid the inherent
Western-centric European aesthetics and appreciate Chinese culture more objectively. However,
a positive tendency is that many traditional Chinese elements are chosen, such as the gourd shape
vase and celadon glaze that has continued since more than two thousand years ago. Using the
color of the ceramic is a simple cooperation, but Loewe’s activities other than the bag design
have further encouraged the promotion of Chinese culture. These activities include cooperating
with Chinese ceramic artists and scholars, holding Chinese monochrome ceramic exhibitions,
43

funding Jingdezhen Ceramic University, and distributing these cultural advertisements
worldwide rather than selling products only to Chinese customers. Conclusively, this cooperation
has the risk of continuing Orientalism in the consideration of detailed decisions, but its intention
of cultural exchange and support for Jingdezhen ceramics production in China is valuable.
Rather than arbitrarily instilling Chinoiserie aesthetics, it is a platform and a bridge, opening a
door for people who have not familiar with and are willing to know more about Chinese culture.
The designers and leaders of Loewe have long tried to combine art, craft, culture, and
design from different cultures while preserving the characteristics of each element through
cultural collaboration. For example, Loewe sponsored a retrospective exhibition of American
midcentury photographer George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) at the Leica Gallery in Madrid, as
well as The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2022 held at Seoul Museum of Craft Art, and
Chance Encounters series aimed at “bringing together artists from various disciplines in
unexpected conversations.”
67
As with Loewe’s most recent Chinese collaboration for The
Chinese Monochrome collection in 2022, the brand sought to give artists enough space for
artistic creation while also sufficiently researching to ensure the correct use of conventional
handicraft culture. The project integrated the work of historians, artists, scholars, and designers,
and aimed to preserve local cultural characteristics: this can be seen in the adoption of restrained
and pure glaze color of Chinese monochrome ceramics, and the shape of the ceramic artwork
itself. The inclusion of more work of this kind would have helped meet the purported aims of
China: Through the Looking Glass.

67
“Chance Encounters V.” LOEWE. 2019.
44

Qeelin and Kering
Qeelin is a fine jewelry brand founded by Chinese designer Ruilin Dennis Chan (陈瑞麟)
and French entrepreneur Guillaume Brochard in 2004. It launched in Paris and was influenced by
the city of Dunhuang, as well as the auspicious mythological creature, the Qilin from Chinese
mythology.
68
In 1997, Chan visited Dunhuang in the Gansu province of China and was inspired
by this rediscovered city and the ancient religious artworks in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang.
According to Chan, in discussing the founding of Qeelin, “they were inspired by the sense of a
cultural mission: why was there no jewelry brand that could showcase China’s fascinating
cultural heritage to the world?”
69
He believed that Qeelin would become his answer. The figure
of Qilin brings auspiciousness and incorporates traditional Chinese culture within the brand,
drawing inspiration from the Dunhuang caves—the connection between the ancient city of
Dunhuang and the Silk Road.
Qeelin’s first jewelry collection was entitled Wulu. In Chinese, Wulu is pronounced as
Hulu and means gourd. The homonym of Wulu or Hulu is “Fu Lu” (福禄). Fu is good fortune
and positive energy, and Lu is the salary in ancient times, representing wealth. In traditional
Chinese culture, wearing gourd-related accessories brings good fortune and wealth to the wearer.
The Wulu collection linked this conventional connotation with contemporary designs inspired by
the minimalist shape—the contour of both gourd and the cherished number “8”—and combined
the popular materials and stones in China, emeralds, with that of the West, diamonds. The double
meaning of Chinese conventions, Wulu and number eight, and its influence in people’s
contemporary lives echoes Guo Pei’s interpretation of conventional Chinese culture in the

68
As a city located on the Silk Road, the old city of Dunhuang has witnessed a long history of China and exchanges between the
East and West, ancient China to the Western Regions, Central Asia, and Europe. The Mogao Caves of Dunhuang that once
disappeared and became a legend and myth was rediscovered in 1900.
69
“The Tale of Qeelin - Origin and Innovation.” Qeelin. URL: https://qeelin.com/en/about/origin-and-innovation
45

contemporary world: the addition of design elements that keep pace with the times on the basis
of inherited culture, and the designer’s unique thought about the conventional cultures.

Fig. 20. Wulu Lotus Lace necklace from Qeelin in 2021
In 2013, French luxury group Kering acquired Qeelin, which was the first acquisition by
Kering group in China, forming an important fusion of the East and West in the Western fashion
industry.
70
Kering Group’s acquisition generated more attention for Qeelin, representing the
optimistic attitude of the Western fashion industry and Western capital towards not only the
brand itself, but also the traditional Chinese cultural connotations associated with it, including
Chinese modernity and the notion of cultural exchange between the East and the West. After
being acquired, Qeelin launched many new series and developed a classic series. In 2021,
according to Elle China magazine, Qeelin launched the Wulu Lotus Lace necklace that was
inspired by the Chinese spirit of the lotus based on the original design of the Wulu series (see
Fig. 20). The lotus is known for “growing in the mud without [being] sullied, floating on the
waving water without [being] swayed” (出淤泥而不染, 濯清涟而不妖). This is known as the

70
Kering, known as PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), is a French company that specializes in luxury goods. Its owned brands
include many famous luxury fashion brands such as Yves Saint Laurant, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, and Alexander McQueen.
46

spirit of integrity—the ability to find balance while insisting on personal beliefs—pursued by
Chinese people since ancient times. Qeelin combined traditional Chinese paper cutting art with
designs of the Wulu series to show the shape and quality of the lotus, paying homage to
traditional art and craft. The founding and design of the Qeelin brand, the acquisition by Kering
Group and the continuous launch of designs after the acquisition all echo the initial intention of
Qeelin according to co-founder Dennis Chan: “to redefine Chinese traditional symbolism
through a contemporary lens and to let Chinese culture shine in the world of luxury once
more.”
71

As outlined in the preceding and similarly themed Metropolitan Museum exhibition,
Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress, “Significant factors in Orientalism are the
periodic exclusion of the East from the Western gaze and the continual repudiation of the East in
favor of the moral and cultural coordinates of the West.”
72
Loewe, as a European fashion brand,
looks at the East from a foreign perspective but with an open attitude. The development of
Qeelin avoids the traps of Orientalism, offering models of relatively more equal collaboration
and cultural exchange. For Qeelin—the culture and connotation it strives to spread—have been
noticed by the Western market. The products of these cultural exchanges resist Chinese
stereotypes and Orientalism.

71
“The Tale of Qeelin - Origin and Innovation.” Qeelin.
72
Richard (Richard Harrison) Martin and Koda Harold, Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress, (New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994).
47

Conclusion
In recent years, Orientalism has resurfaced as a popular topic of discussion, and it is
often inseparable from art and design encompassing cultural differences and exchanges. This
thesis has explored various examples of cross-cultural, and especially Western European-
Chinese, exchanges, from the Chinoiserie style that was prevalent in Europe hundreds of years
ago, to Said’s theory of Orientalism to various examples of transnational art-fashion
collaborations of the twenty-first century. The exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass,
aimed to rethink the notion of Orientalism from a perspective of cultural appreciation. Yet, the
exhibition still reinforced stereotypes and unequal power dynamics, while showing only a few
contemporary Chinese designers. Debates surrounding Chen Man’s fashion photography for
Christian Dior showed how perceived stereotyping continues to stir controversy as well as
feelings of resentment and nationalism. References to Chinese culture appear ever more
frequently in the Western fashion industry, especially as brands aim to capture consumers in one
of the world’s most economically powerful countries. Another reason for integrating Chinese
references is to increase the cultural diversity and freshness of Western design. Oftentimes, this
focus on novelty and freshness fosters a “Chinese-style design” that resonates with Western
consumers but deviates from original meanings and local contexts of Chinese culture. There are
more examples not included in this thesis—like Dolce & Gabbana’s advertising film in 2018—
which motivated society and fashion designers to rethink these issues.
73

While Orientalism persists, we also find positive examples of cross-cultural exchange,
as in the designs of Qeelin and Loewe. The brands not only reference better researched and less
stereotypical Chinese elements, but also consider and promote the diversity, specificity, and

73
Lin, “Cross-cultural exchanges: Stories of fashion, protest, and contemporary art in China and beyond by Jenny Lin,” 2019.
48

independence of Chinese culture. This approach defies the Orientalist method of generalizing
and reducing Chinese and other Asian cultures, placing them in a minor position relative to the
West. In the future, I hope we will see less stereotypical and more diverse Chinese cultural
elements combined with Western designs, as well as more Chinese designers showcasing their
cross-cultural work around the world.

49

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract References to Chinese culture and aesthetics have appeared in Western fashion for hundreds of years. The recent opening of the Chinese economy since the 1990s has drawn more attention to China and Chinese culture from Western fashion designers, fashion photographers, and art curators. Chinese-influenced designs by Western (specifically Western European and North American) fashion designers have raised controversial issues. How has Chinese culture been presented and perceived on the global stage outside of China? How has the Western fashion industry Orientalized Chinese culture? This thesis talks about the phenomenon of Orientalism, Cultural appropriation, and Chinoiserie, analyzing them from cases studies of fashion exhibition, fashion photography, and fashion collaboration with comparison to traditional Chinese culture.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Hu, Jiayi (author)

Core Title Orientalism and Chinoiserie: Chinese culture in the western fashion industry

School Roski School of Art and Design

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere

Degree Conferral Date 2023-05

Publication Date 03/31/2023

Defense Date 03/31/2023

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Chinese culture,Chinoiserie,Fashion,OAI-PMH Harvest,Orientalism

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lin, Jenny (committee chair), Jones, Amelia (committee member), Ogata, Amy (committee member)

Creator Email hujiayi@usc.edu,hujiayi0920@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC112936717

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Legacy Identifier etd-HuJiayi-11550

Document Type Thesis

Format theses (aat)

Rights Hu, Jiayi

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