Chinese fashion education : teaching designers in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

This thesis explores fashion education in the People‘s Republic of China (PRC) as it evolved historically, with a concentration on the teaching and learning of undergraduate fashion design programs. I use a mixed methodology that includes discourse analysis, case studies, archival studies and interviews with founders of fashion design programs and fashion design professors. This research is underpinned by a comparative approach in which I explore the similarities and differences between the top Chinese programs and their counterpart fashion institutions in the United States of America and Britain.

This thesis argues that the Chinese government has been the dominant influence on the development of fashion education in the PRC whereas in the United States and Britain the evolution of this sector was initially primarily driven by the fashion industry and currently responds to social movements and activism. I show that despite their different development driving engines, a close examination of the evolving curricula in both of the international and Chinese fashion institutions follow similar paths. The trajectory for curriculum development is the move from being oriented towards “drawing” and the “artistic” aspects of design to a focus on “clothing construction”, “production technologies” and the business of “selling” clothes, through to the current emphasis on “creative thinking” today. Despite their different starting points, the top Chinese fashion schools have achieved the same benchmarks as top international fashion schools in terms of “what should designers design? (form)” and “how do designers complete their designs? (technology).” This thesis shows that today the major difference between the top Chinese schools and their international counterparts lies in the question: “Why should designers design? (objective)” In China, design is still mainly oriented towards promoting Chinese culture and is often expressed as a form of nationalism; while in the international institutions the role of design is expanding from serving the business sector to serving the society—using design to solve social problems is the cutting edge trend.

It took the top international fashion institutions nearly a century to reach their current levels. With the help of the active engagement of the Chinese government, PRC institutions have attained this same level in just 30 years. During these same three decades, this thesis shows that PRC fashion education is experiencing a transition from “serving the people (wei renmin fuwu)” to “serving the individual cadres” who represent the government. The result of this trend is that Chinese institutions have become “cadre-centered” rather than “student-centered.”