Home | China Through Fashion and Urban Culture

China Fashion

- The Temper Fact Checker: Loved Up With Louis Shengtao Chen
  
  Daniel MagunjeApril 18, 2021
- The LABELHOOD Fact Checker: Time to Wonderrr About PONDER.ER
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonApril 12, 2021
- The LABELHOOD Fact Checker: Peng Tai, Peppered With Romance and Balance
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonApril 10, 2021
- The LABELHOOD Fact Checker: Mum mum mum mah — Momonary
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonApril 8, 2021
- Label Lickin’ Good: Shanghai Fashion Week AW21 Is A-Coming
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 29, 2021
- The Temper Top Ten Meets Date Night China: Taobao Sex Toys Under 30RMB
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 19, 2021
- HaiDiWOW — Hot Pot in Xi’An Adds a Little Fresh Meat… to The Staff
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 17, 2021
- Using Tantan as a Yáng Niū: An American Woman’s Experience Using a Chinese Dating App
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 12, 2021
- Close-Up: Hear Her — Hot on the Heels of China’s Female Urbanite
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 8, 2021
- The Temper Fact Checker: Shie Lyu, One Man’s Trash Is This Woman’s Treasure
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonFebruary 17, 2021
- Oh Là Là, Quel Scandale! Sexual Dynamite That Rocked the Chinese Web
  
  Elsbeth van ParidonFebruary 11, 2021
- Coining Chen Peng: The Deviant Defiance Of Fashion, Vision And Design
  
  Misha MarumaJanuary 30, 2021

Major Tantrums: The Close-Ups

Close-Up: About Kathrin Von Rechenberg, Xiang Yun Sha And Mud Dye

Natalie LuoAugust 6, 2020
Close-Up: Hans Galliker, A Smorgasbord Of Ecopreneurial Skills.

Elsbeth van ParidonApril 25, 2018
Close-Up: Clickbait AKA Seven Contemporary Chinese Must-See Photographers

Elsbeth van ParidonJuly 3, 2020
China’s Lingerie Movement And A Nation’s Exploration Of Femininity

Emily AspinallDecember 14, 2018
A Temper Case Study: Two Women Of Harvard Vs 14k Herders Of Yak

Elsbeth van ParidonJune 10, 2019
Q To The R, From Tùzi (兔子) To Tù (吐): Eating Disorders In Online China

Jessica LaiterSeptember 24, 2020
Close-Up: The Capitalism Of Maximalism.

Aya AspanAugust 30, 2017
Blemish BB Gone: China’s Male Beauty Loosens the Rigid Reigns of Gender

Emily AspinallNovember 7, 2020
Close-Up: Exploring The Notes Of The Unconscious

Sandy ChuFebruary 2, 2018
Close-Up: Knowledgeable And Sustainable Fashion Incubation With Vincent Djen

Elsbeth van ParidonFebruary 21, 2018
Close-Up: Hear Her — Hot on the Heels of China’s Female Urbanite

Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 8, 2021
Close-Up: The Art Of Body Painting And That Chinese Touche Eclat

Emily AspinallNovember 4, 2020

China Urban

unitlondon-jacky-tsai-pleasure-of-roaming-2018

Using Tantan as a Yáng Niū: An American Woman’s Experience Using a Chinese Dating App

Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 12, 2021

Beijing-based Rochelle Beiersdorfer tells her story of wading through all the zhānáns, wife hunters and xiǎosān seekers on China's equivalent to Tinder: Tantan.... Read More

China Urban CultureChinese SocietyGender1 Comment

Close-Up: Hear Her — Hot on the Heels of China’s Female Urbanite

Elsbeth van ParidonMarch 8, 2021

As China's new urban woman is re-writing society's traditional narrative, she is also re-visiting her own consumer values and virtues.... Read More

China Urban CultureClose-UpsGender0 Comments

Oh Là Là, Quel Scandale! Sexual Dynamite That Rocked the Chinese Web

Elsbeth van ParidonFebruary 11, 2021

Take a look at three of the most outrageous, most piquant sex scandals to hit the Chinese web in the past five years!... Read More

China ControversyChina Urban CultureChinese Society1 Comment

CHEN PENG, November 2018. All rights reserved

Coining Chen Peng: The Deviant Defiance Of Fashion, Vision And Design

Misha MarumaJanuary 30, 2021

Huff, puff, and bring the house down! Chen Peng's take on Chinese tradition paired with a millennial psyche blows a fresh wind into fashion.... Read More

China's New YouthChinese SocietyGen Z0 Comments

Robert Wun: Emotional Puzzles. Social Pieces. Gender Politics

Elsbeth van ParidonJanuary 25, 2021

Designer Robert Wun attempts to reinvent the fashion industry by challenging the beauty, identity and sexual standards set by and in society.... Read More

Genderhong kongPolitics0 Comments

The Xander Zhou Universe: A Virtual Immortality of Techno Orientalism

Jessica LaiterJanuary 18, 2021

Creativity has all the space it could possibly desire in order to flourish. Xander Zhou's designs lean neither to the East nor the West.... Read More

BejingGenderThe Temper Fact Checker2 Comments

Close-Up: Tighten Those Straps, There’s a New Power Suit in Town

Elsbeth van ParidonJanuary 11, 2021

From imperial repression to unisex Mao garb to embracing their feminine power (suit), China's modern women go from cliché to risqué. ... Read More

China Urban CultureChinese SocietyClose-Ups1 Comment

The Temper Fact Checker: Top of the 2020 Pops — Debutante Style

Elsbeth van ParidonDecember 28, 2020

Getting the "debutante" accolade aka mastering the art of mixing understated minimalism with upper-class logo-love.... Read More

China ControversyGen ZThe Temper Fact Checker0 Comments

Close-Up: Teetering in the Trenches of China’s Lower Tier Urbanity

Elsbeth van ParidonDecember 23, 2020

"One can see everything through fashion" (Vreeland), so what does China’s lower tier style scene tell us, from trendy to socio-politico tranches?... Read More

China RetailChina Urban CultureClose-Ups3 Comments

Artists & Visionaries

China Sustainability

Close-Up: The Future Of Fashion Is Looking Brilliant And Bright

Elsbeth van ParidonOctober 28, 2020

Fashion in its very Self is the Mistress of (Optical) Illusion -- just consider the visual effect of a vertical stripe. Nevertheless, the future of this illusion is very much a reality -- a paradoxical yet facetious liaison. ... Read More

AccessorizeClose-UpsTechnology0 Comments

Take Five With The Sustainable Revolutionary: Fashionably Wasted No More

Elsbeth van ParidonSeptember 25, 2020

Getting fashionably wasted is a go-go no more. Not even in China. Sustainability requires revisions across the supply chain, from raw materials to waste management. How to do a successful stint in rehab?... Read More

China's Sustainable SirenssustainabilityTake Five1 Comment

Longhorn Miao Women in Suoga Village, Guizhou province. Image: Paul Craven

The Details Are In The Dress Code — China’s Minority Muses and Musings

Elsbeth van ParidonSeptember 7, 2020

The details in the different ethnic dress make China's minorities truly minors playing in the majors -- the major ‘tude stakes, that is.... Read More

ArtisansClose-UpsDress CodeThe Series0 Comments

9 Partly dyed tea-silk being dipped into the dye once more

Close-Up: About Kathrin Von Rechenberg, Xiang Yun Sha And Mud Dye

Natalie LuoAugust 6, 2020

Its trade once criticized as a breeding ground for capitalism and its traditional manufacturing methods now nearly lost, xiang yun sha lives!... Read More

ArtisansChinese SocietyClose-Ups0 Comments

INSULAiRE Menswear Encapsulates Chinese Tradition and Transformation

Elsbeth van ParidonJuly 25, 2020

Re-interpret, re-use, and re-design. INSULAiRE draws on China's artisanal heritage, producing garments and stories of cross-cultures and globalized design.... Read More

ArtisansThe Temper Fact Checker0 Comments

This picture taken on September 9, 2018 shows a participant at a "Fashion Clinic" workshop mending his old jeans. - Despite Hong Kong's reputation for rampant consumerism, a nascent movement against fast fashion is taking root in the city, with clothes-mending workshops and pop-up swaps growing in popularity, and designers parading recycled fabrics on the catwalk. (Photo by Isaac LAWRENCE / AFP) / TO GO WITH HongKong-fashion-environment-textile-lifestyle, FEATURE by Yan ZHAO (Photo credit should read ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP/Getty Images)

SOS! The Style Doctor Will See You Now — Hong Kong Fashion Clinic

Stephanie LawsonJuly 20, 2020

Save Our Souls! Radical repairs and healing fashion by Hong Kong-based designer duo turned ‘style doctor’s. With a little TC(f)M to tszuj it up. ... Read More

ArtisansClose-Upssustainability0 Comments