Curating a vibrant, complicated image of Asia through garments
"When it comes to Asian culture or Chinese culture, what most Westerners may immediately think of are symbols like Yin and Yang, Chinese knots, auspicious cloud patterns, and fortune cookies," said Wu, who spent some of her most formative years studying in Britain.
The young curator also frowns upon the popular marketing concept guochao, literally "national trend", as a form of flattening Chinese culture. Starting in the fashion industry and having spread to many other consumer markets such as the food and beverage industry, guochao is a phenomenon where homegrown brands weave Chinese cultural elements into their design and branding that appeal to the younger generation's love for traditional Chinese culture.
"The concept has reduced many rich historical and cultural materials into a few simple images and is served to create hashtags on social media," Wu said.
Intending to de-flatten and decode the 'totality' of Chinese-ness and Asian-ness, Wu and Ugelvig curated a lineup comprising young designers, fashion photographers, and artists. Nearly all participants are of Asian descent, with most of them now working and living in the West.
