Saturday, October 28, 2023

Taking China Seriously

 https://internews.pk/eng/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Biden-Wang-Yi.webp

 internews.pk 

It's impossible to take the leaders, government, business and otherwise, of the world seriously when they insist on wearing clothing that is a remnant of the British elite tailoring of the late nineteenth century. US nabobs, being direct lineal descendants of their British predecessors, can be excused for extending the unimaginative reign of the suit and tie but not the Chinese and other Asians. 

The Chinese elite haven't extended the Anglo haberdashery, they've enthusiastically adopted it. That fact indicates that the fizzling British empire continues to exist, at least in men's fashions and perhaps other things.

Art serves as the most reliable indicator of world hegemony. When Dutch sea power made them the arbiters of not only world trade but men's costumes, others followed their lead.

 

 https://cdn.theculturetrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/the_nightwatch_by_rembrandt.jpg

 theculturetrip.com

Ruffs, like ties now, indicated elite status since no one in the seventeenth century could do manual labor while wearing one. 

Later, as the British superceded the Dutch on the world stage, and up until today, hundreds of years later, the world's honchos are wearing clothes that wouldn't look unusual in pre-Victorian England.

 😍 How was the british parliament reformed during the early 1800s. What ...

inzak.com

Until the twentieth century, the Chinese, the dominant society and culture in Asia, kept their own style of dress.

 

 Sold Price: A CHINESE SCHOOL 19TH CENTURY PAINTING 'CONVENTION OF ...

invaluable.com

Does the Asian adoption of western clothing styles indicate that they're moving toward western ways of thinking? Does it mean that the clothes they wear show subservience or domination in the future?   

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