Fashioning China: Precarious Creativity and Women Designers in Shanzhai Culture

by Sara Liao

Overview

'Shanzhai'  from Cantonese slang, refers to the production of fake goods in China, which enjoy an anti-authoritarian-like dissemination across the global market. Starting with mobile phones, now fashion brands are subverted in this way, with many women at the helm of design and production. Fashioning China looks at the women designers simultaneously subverting and reinforcing the nationalist-developmentalist, masculinist and technocratic dream of brands that are 'Made in China'.

Broadening the digital labour debate beyond typical masculine and techno-utopic readings, Sara Liao studies the precarious practices of women trying to create sustainable and creative lives, vividly illustrating a fashion culture that exists online as a significant part of the digital economy.

Drawing on material from interviews, participant observation, archives, policy documents, films and advertisements, Liao takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic, charting out the politics of intellectual property rights, globalisation, technocracy, patriarchy and nationalism in a non-Western context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745340692
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Publication date:	02/20/2020
Series:	Digital Barricades
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.32(w) x 8.46(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sara Liao is Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has published in several journals including, Fashion Theory, International Journal of Communication, Communication, Culture, Critique, and Chinese Journal of Communication.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Shanzhai Fashion: A Conjuncture Analysis of Precarious Creativity in China
2. Digital Labor in Shanzhai Fashion: Women Designers, Fashion Work, and Production Culture
3. The Shanzhai of Shanzhai: The Politics of Copying and Creativity
4. Shanzhai Dreams: Dangling the Chinese Dream
5. Shanzhai Culture, National Ideologies, Transnational Capitalism: A Double-edged Sword

Editorial Reviews

'Sara Liao shows how shanzhai is much more than faking: she rethinks what it means to be creative in today's globalised China. The book presents a sensitive and detailed account of the gendered and precarious aspirations of fashion designers, offering a timely view on a multiplicity of China Dreams.'

Jeroen de Kloet

"'Sara Liao shows how shanzhai is much more than faking: she rethinks what it means to be creative in today's globalised China. The book presents a sensitive and detailed account of the gendered and precarious aspirations of fashion designers, offering a timely view on a multiplicity of China Dreams'" - Jeroen de Kloet, author of 'China with a Cut: Globalisation, Urban Youth and Popular Music'

From the Publisher