How to Make a Mao Suit: Clothing the People of Communist China, 1949–1976 (Cambridge Studies in the History of the People's Republic of China) - Hardcover

Finnane, Antonia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1009359959 ISBN 13: 9781009359955

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2023

Synopsis

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, new clothing protocols for state employees resulted in far-reaching changes in what people wore. In a pioneering history of dress in the Mao years (1949–1976), Antonia Finnane traces the transformation, using industry archives and personal stories to reveal a clothing regime pivoted on the so-called 'Mao suit'. The time of the Mao suit was the time of sewing schools and sewing machines, pattern books and homemade clothes. It was also a time of close economic planning, when rationing meant a limited range of clothes made, usually by women, from limited amounts of cloth. In an area of scholarship dominated by attention to consumption, Finnane presents a revisionist account focused instead on production. How to Make a Mao Suit provides a richly illustrated account of clothing that links the material culture of the Mao years to broader cultural and technological changes of the twentieth century.

About this title

About the Author

Antonia Finnane is honorary professorial fellow in history at the University of Melbourne. She is internationally known for her work on the history of dress and fashion in modern China.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009359959
• ISBN 13: 9781009359955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 386