Introduction
From an anthropological perspective, humans are increasingly distinguishable by culture, unlike other living creatures. As a people’s way of life, culture includes human characteristics such as values, learned behavior, attitudes, language, morality, and concepts of spirituality among others. Nonetheless, the most significant behavioral attribute in all humans remains to be clothing. Modern cultures further reiterate this fact, as nudity often comes across as obnoxious, offensive, disgusting, and disrespectful. The sole nudity tolerated among most cultures remains that of infants due to their nature of being asexual. On the other hand, some communities tolerate nudity beyond infancy and well into puberty. Generally, while parents admit to their infants’ joy of playing nude, timely acculturation initiates children into the dictates of their societies; effectively attuning their clothing to culture. Therefore, clothing remains an imperative component within our daily lives. Through clothing, one establishes not only a sense of self-well-being but also earns a place within society. Presently, social dictate indicates the correlation between dress and both collective and individual identities, as of immense interest to scholars as well as practitioners within dress and fashion environs.
Since by looking at one’s cloth, one can learn various things about the way of life of the observed, the dress code remains a sure measure of culture. Fundamentally, clothing differs from one country to another. With each culture having its unique style, various cultural attributes as ascribed within clothing become known. Such include beliefs, customs, skills, and values among others. A long-accepted practice or tradition, customs often define clothing as seen within the contrast of the West and the East. In the West, for example, brides wear long white dresses while the East, other colors are a preferred option. Similarly, it was once the norm for only men to wear pants; however, current modernization has altered this custom to allow women pants.
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Moreover, since culture incorporates both beliefs and values, clothing also reflects the values and beliefs of individuals within certain groupsets. In a belief system, religious groups often adopt certain clothing styles that differ significantly. Also, through the expression of value within particular communities, clothing differ to reflect what individuals consider righteous and good. An example was in the past when women wore low-cut dresses below their ankles, which reflected modesty. Contrariwise, present dress code among women encourages miniskirts indicating morality decadence, a sure sign of present dilapidating values within the society. Therefore, the combination of values, beliefs, customs, economics, and technology among others form culture, which inevitably affects both individuals as well as communal dressing.
With a world-renowned reputation of being an exquisite silk producer, the art, and science of textile and clothing in China continues to be time-honored. As the first country to cultivate silkworms intentionally, China developed silk weaving during the Neolithic ages and has continually diversified its clothing prowess to date. To understand the influence of clothing on culture, ancient feudal societies within China often wore clothing according to their social status, which is also apparent in China today. While no “typical” Chinese costume exists presently, the Cheongsam stands out as the most popular Chinese attire, repeatedly adapted throughout the world. Nonetheless, within China itself, clothing has undergone immense metamorphoses, further delineating the country, thereby, bringing about regional changes such as the South vs. the North. Moreover, As China develops; it is becoming more tolerant and autonomous. This difference in the growing environment has led to dissimilar opinions on fashion dress. Nonetheless, through cultural background, a commonality ensues among the differences.
Cultural Expectations
My friend Fiona was born in the United States, but she is able to speak Chinese because her parents originated from China and settled in the United States. She is the only child in her family who is similar to me. Her parents are from Beijing, China, and I am from Ningbo, a second-tier city. However, the difference between the two cities is equivalent to the North-South difference, with Beijing in the north and Ningbo in the south. As the environment of birth and growth are different, our preference for color is vastly different. She likes a variety of different colors, while I like dark colors.
Nationality/Color
My friend is quite outgoing, and her parents are very encouraging. In the United States, parents show respect for the decision made by their children, which encourages her to try a lot of new things. The choice of color is also diversified, which is because she can choose what cloth she wants and decide how to match colors that will look better. Besides, the price of many cloth brands is within a reasonable range, and she will not choose to go shopping due to the high price.
The restraint system of China for thousands of years and the traditional thought of not breaking the bondage has continued into the school uniform system. The school prevents students from paying too much attention to appearance and comparison psychology and use uniforms to constrain students’ choice of clothes. Besides, the students who choose not to wear a school uniform would be punished. Therefore, all the school days come with the requirement of wearing school uniforms. What is even more exaggerated is that on weekends, students will continue wearing school uniforms as they have become unaware of clothes and colors with the assumption that they are wearing the same cloth. In addition, the clothes in Chinese shopping malls are highly priced in most cases, making cloth unaffordable for students to buy, for which parents will assist us in choosing clothes. Then, we wear them, which make the black and white clothes very safe and error-free. “If a young woman tried to look different, she was castigated as being a “bad girl” not only in relation to sexual mores but also in terms of social and political nationalist norms”(McWilliams, S.E. 2013). Although Koreans and Japanese are also wearing school uniforms, their school uniforms are very stylish and include skirts. It is impossible to have skirt included as part of the school uniform in China. Therefore, as compared with Asian countries, China remains quite conservative, and the school uniform culture has unconsciously affected us, being buried for the diversity of clothing and coloration.
Label Issue
My friend does not have any idea of the label. Although it is popular, she will want it. However, if she can't afford to buy it, she won't. It doesn't have to be the case, and for her usual wear, what is most important is that she likes it and it feels comfortable, not for show-off. In the United States, buying things cannot be more convenient, and there will not be too strong a comparison, because everyone can buy things at normal prices.
For the Chinese, there is a lot of label issue psychology, because many of the Chinese prefer Adidas and Nike. These sports brands are not available in every single Chinese city, even if it is sold for higher prices than in the United States. Besides, after buying new products, people like sharing them online, then many people would be prompted to have a desire to buy it, even if they have no plan to buy it right now or they are prohibitively expensive to buy. Despite this, once everyone around them has owned it, they will choose to buy even they are highly-priced. For example, when every pair of Yeezy was released, it would emerge in the cities where Adidas is present. The number of people who line up to buy it is simply unimaginable. People who can't afford to buy them will resort to foreign purchases to obtain them. They pay several times the original price to buy the latest ones. They intend to show off before others. Also, the label issue affects me that I will care about the social media for people sharing the products are hard to buy then I will buy it in the United States for a reasonable price. Even though I do not need it. Rich psychology will outweigh the desire to own such things. This is because buying can make us attach great importance to the label. The first one is the desire for such things, and the second one is to show off their unique taste of fashion.
Similarity
Me and my friends don't like wearing jewelry, because in Chinese culture when it comes to jewelry, it is inevitable to make mention of gold. Gold is considered to be the highest-leveled symbol of wealth in ancient China, for which gold could symbolize the social standing of people and the wealthy possessed by them. And now, it is like marriage. When a child reaches the full moon, the family will buy jewelry as a way of blessings. Although gold is popular among Chinese, it is rare for people to wear it in public, because gold robberies are frequent to happen in China, whether in the store or on the road. Pedestrians are often robbed for wearing gold jewelry, which was easy to snatch if they wear it around the neck or ear. There are plenty of cases as the robbers believe that gold is the most valuable item. Therefore, everyone is used to having gold but not wearing it. Instead, they choose to hide it at home due to the influence of parents and elderly people. My friends and I don't like jewelry, although plenty of jewelries are affordable now. However, there is no such consciousness to wear jewelry as the hidden consciousness of the parents has changed subtly.
References
McWilliams, S. E. (2013). "People Don’t Attack You If You Dress Fancy": Consuming Femininity in Contemporary China. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly,41 (1-2), 162-181. doi:10.1353/wsq.2013.0051
