Fashioning China

Sara Liao

Description

'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.

List of Figures

Series preface

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: Fashion Work, Precarious Labor, and Women Designers in Shanzhai Culture

2. Shanzhai Fashion and Precarious Creativity in China

3. The Digital Labor and Production Culture of Shanzhai Fashion

4. The Shanzhai of Shanzhai: The Politics of Copying and Creativity

5. Shanzhai Dreams and the Chinese Dream

6. Shanzhai Culture, National Ideologies, and Transnational Capitalism: A Double-edged Sword

Appendix: Demographics of Informants

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Women's Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• E-commerce
• Operaísmo
• Precarity
• Shanzhai
• Fashionistas
• Workerism
• Globalization
• Fashion
• Electronic commerce
• China
• Mode (habillement)
• Commerce électronique

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786805904
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

Fashioning China

Digital Barricades: Interventions in Digital Culture and Politics Series editors: Professor Jodi Dean, Hobart and William Smith Colleges Dr Joss Hands, Newcastle University Professor Tim Jordan, University of Sussex

Also available:

Furious: Technological Feminism and Digital Futures Caroline Bassett, Sarah Kember and Kate O’Riordan

Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria Donatella Della Ratta

Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism Nick Dyer-Witheford, Atle Mikkola Kjosen and James Steinhoff

Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex Nick Dyer-Witheford

The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy Paolo Gerbaudo

Gadget Consciousness: Collective Thought, Will and Action in the Age of Social Media Joss Hands

Information Politics: Liberation and Exploitation in the Digital Society Tim Jordan

Sad by Design: On Platform Nihilism Geert Lovink

Unreal Objects: Digital Materialities, Technoscientific Projects and Political Realities Kate O’Riordan