The Chinese fashion industry - Jianhua Zhao

Less than three decades ago, when the Chinese bought cloth or clothes,
they would have had to use a government-issued coupon. Today the Chinese
fashion industry is one of the most dynamic in the world - it not only
supplies fashions to the increasingly discerning domestic market, but
also provides one-third of the clothing sold in the global market. How
did this phenomenal transition come about? What can the growth of the
Chinese fashion industry tell us about the post-Mao China? What roles do
the local and the global play in the dramatic changes?
This book offers a historically informed, ethnographically grounded and
interpretive analysis of contemporary Chinese fashion and the fashion
industry. It examines the interplay of state politics, market forces,
local social and cultural factors, and the global political economy,
both in the rise of the Chinese fashion industry and in the life and
work of Chinese fashion professionals.
As the first ethnographic account of the Chinese fashion industry in the
post-Mao era, The Chinese Fashion
Industry combines first-hand accounts with sophisticated cultural
analysis to offer new insights, and will be of interest to students and
scholars of fashion, anthropology and China.