Asian Studies Theses and Dissertations

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The Evolving Fashion of Taiwan from 1949-1987: Expression, Consumption, and Futurity
(University of Oregon, 2020-12-08) DiFonzo, Nakota; Buck, Daniel
The martial law era was an important period for the development of the fashion market in Taiwan. Due to economic and/or cultural influence from China, Japan, Western Europe, and, importantly, the United States, Taiwan was transformed into a consumer-capitalist society where the GMD increasingly predicated its legitimacy as a governing body on its ability to provide an economically comfortable, and consumer-oriented lifestyle for its citizens. In turn, the Taiwanese population, whose standard of living and disposable income increased over the course of the martial law period, had a progressively greater capacity to don a variety of new fashions. The beneficiaries of the fashion market also increasingly exposed Taiwanese to more fashion advertisements and articles in order to entice them into purchasing certain fashion products. This thesis draws on fashion advertisements and fashion articles from newspapers, literary sources from acclaimed writers such as Zhu Tianwen, and interviews from anonymous participants who share stories about the factors that informed the fashion that they donned.