Promotional Information

"This is the long-awaited, authoritative, and definitive study of fashion in modern China. Antonia Finnane, a pioneer in this area, has accomplished an incredible feat& mdash;producing a vigorously-argued book that would advance intellectual debates while remaining accessible to the general reader. This is the first book-length work that situates 'fashion' in historical contexts, from the world trading system and urban development to revolutionary movements in modern China. It will launch fashion study as a serious intellectual endeavor in the field of Chinese studies while appealing to scholars in comparative fields (fashion studies, socioeconomic history, cultural history, and postcolonial studies) and the general reader alike." -- Dorothy Ko, Columbia University "This attractive and approachable book is to be welcomed as a contribution to the debates about culture, modernity, and gender in twentieth-century China, and, more widely, to the growing body of work on clothing and identity." -- Verity Wilson, former Curator of Costume, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Table of Contents

Acknowlegments List of Illustrations 1. Introduction: Fashion, History, Nation 2. Ways of Seeing 3. Fashions in Late Imperial China 4. Soldiers and Citizens 5. The Fashion Industry in Shanghai 6. Qipao China 7. Her Brother's Clothes 8. The New Look in the New China 9. Dressed to Kill in the Cultural Revolution 10. Breaking with the Past 11. Conclusion: Fashion, History, Time List of Chinese Characters Technical Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

Antonia Finnane is reader in history in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She studied at Sydney University, the Beijing Language Institute, and Nanjing University before completing a Ph.D. in Chinese history at the Australian National University. She is the author of Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550-1850, which was awarded the 2006 Joseph Levenson Book Award for a work on pre-1900 China.

Reviews

"It is clear from these pages how frequently the world of fashion has turned to China for inspiration." -- Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times