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The Dual Consequences of Cultural Localization: How Exposed Short Stockings Subvert and Sustain Global Cultural Hierarchy

The Dual Consequences of Cultural Localization: How Exposed Short Stockings Subvert and Sustain... positions 11:2 Fall 2003 Figure 1 Exposed short stockings on a young woman in a shopping mall in Beijing, August 2001 Local cultural practices such as exposed short stockings are exciting to cultural critics because of their subversive potential. They challenge the status quo of global culture through deviation from the existing global grammar of a cultural genre. Exposed short stockings transgress the boundary between outerwear and underwear, violating current conventions of decent dressing by displaying a part of dress that is deemed necessary to be kept hidden from public view. The practice represents an act of cultural localization that resists, counteracts, or even neutralizes Western cultural dominance and global homogenization. At least, this is what current theories of cultural Chew The Dual Consequences of Cultural Localization localization would claim. This essay examines in detail the case of exposed short stockings in order to see whether these claims about cultural localization are sustainable. Similar to other instances of popular material culture in contemporary China, the distinctive Chinese way of wearing short stockings has not received serious attention or documentation. Most of my information on the topic was obtained from ethnographic fieldwork in China between May 2000 and August http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

The Dual Consequences of Cultural Localization: How Exposed Short Stockings Subvert and Sustain Global Cultural Hierarchy

Chew, Matthew
positions asia critique , Volume 11 (2) – Sep 1, 2003
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2003 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-11-2-479
Publisher site
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Abstract

positions 11:2 Fall 2003 Figure 1 Exposed short stockings on a young woman in a shopping mall in Beijing, August 2001 Local cultural practices such as exposed short stockings are exciting to cultural critics because of their subversive potential. They challenge the status quo of global culture through deviation from the existing global grammar of a cultural genre. Exposed short stockings transgress the boundary between outerwear and underwear, violating current conventions of decent dressing by displaying a part of dress that is deemed necessary to be kept hidden from public view. The practice represents an act of cultural localization that resists, counteracts, or even neutralizes Western cultural dominance and global homogenization. At least, this is what current theories of cultural Chew The Dual Consequences of Cultural Localization localization would claim. This essay examines in detail the case of exposed short stockings in order to see whether these claims about cultural localization are sustainable. Similar to other instances of popular material culture in contemporary China, the distinctive Chinese way of wearing short stockings has not received serious attention or documentation. Most of my information on the topic was obtained from ethnographic fieldwork in China between May 2000 and August

Journal

positions asia critique – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2003

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