Research Colloquium:
Cultural power: the socio-cultural study of fashion system in contemporary China

Ms Christine Tsui /CUI Tao
PhD Candidate

Date: 7 May 2012 (Monday)
Time: 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Venue: KK Leung Room 1105

Abstract:
The thesis primarily studies how China can entrench her cultural power in the global scene by studying the fashion system in contemporary China in a socio-cultural context with a focal point on the key creators and producers of ‘fashion’ – fashion designers and their brands.

The project intergrates the four sub-systems - Education (who educates designers talents), Production (who produces designers’ products), Distribution (who distributes designers’ products) and Conumption (who consumes designers’ products) into one comprehensive Fashion System. It studies the role of each key player - educator, entrepreneur, designer, producer, media, trade organizer and consumer in the system, their partnership and interaction with fashion designers and how they affect the work of designers. It also decodes the material and cultural processing of fashion products and flow of fashion products from concept to final consumption. The thesis eventually analyzes how the external factors - social force, political force, economic forces and global force, plus the internal factors of fashion system have shaped the formation and development of the fashion system, and how the growth in economic and political power of China will affect its future development in the global fashion regime.