When Modernity and Nationalism Intersect: Textiles for Dress in Republican China

Abstract

This essay examines the multivalent political and cultural meanings embedded in the production, design, materiality, and representations of clothing textiles in the Republic of China (1912-1949). Undergoing industrialization and design reform, Republican textiles were an important marker of Chinese modernity and played a prominent role in fashioning new Chinese appearances. At a time when China was going through intense national crises, ideas and discourses on Republican textiles crystalized the inherent paradox between China’s endeavor for modernization in the Western mode and resistance to foreign imperialism.