Eastern Foreign Beauty
By Kosal Touch
Table of Contents Artist Statement: -------------------------------------- 3 China: -------------------------------------------------- 5 Korea: ------------------------------------------------ 11 Vietnam: --------------------------------------------- 17 Cambodia Thailand: --------------------------------- 23 Malaysia: --------------------------------------------- 29 Credits: ---------------------------------------------- 35
Artist Staement Growing up, I have always been surrounded by aspects of Asian culture. Whether it be how we should act or look, to what we should hold value to, and how to strive for success. And as I grew up, I became more influenced by the youth culture within Asia such as media, styles, and news. I hope that through my work, people will come to understand how great and beautiful my culture is, despite the differences that everyone has. This project was inspired by the app Douyin, which is known to be the Chinese exclusive version of TikTok. On Douyin, there is a trend called Jiē Pāi (街拍), which is essentially Chinese people dressing in a wide range of styles and genres and walking in public as if it as the normal thing while being photographed and recorded along the way. This trend was created as a way for Chinese people to show and take in national pride in who they are and where they are from. Eventually, it became more well-known and became a trend across the world, gaining the universal name “Chinese Street Fashion.” The style I specifically took inspiration from is more on the traditional side, where they would people would sometimes wear traditional cultural garments, the hàn fú (汉服) and qípáo (旗袍), and casually walk in modern settings. The purpose of this project is to show and proclaim national pride within Asians and Asian Americans. For the past year (2020--2021), A movement of Anti-Asian Hate was created to protest against the recent violence on Asians. This series is to help with that movement, but instead of fighting back upfront with more protest, it fights back by presenting the beauty of Asian culture and where these models come from. The hope for this project is that people will become more interested and amazed by the beauty of Asian culture and not hate.
China Qípáo
The dress is made out of all silk and it is in the traditonal red and gold. The designs are of the phoneix and dragon, which both represent power, wealth, and prosperity.
“The qípáo represents my culture by sharing the long history of China, because most of the designs are of dragon or phoneix, or some sort flower that has been part of the Chinese history for a very long time and what it means to me is keeping part of my tradition with me. So I do wear this during the holiday and epsciually during Chinese New Year and family and my sister and mom would wear it from time to time.”
~ Anny Liu
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Korea Hanbok
There are three main parts of a hanbok, there’s the top, which is usually tied with a knot, then you have two pieces to the skirt, the top part and the under part. And then you can always accessorize with tassels or head pieces. It usually matches the accessories and it comes in as a braided thing or a headband with pendents right in the middle of the head.
“The hanbok is a very traditional piece of clothing and it represents all of the history of Korea. And the culture is very important to me because I love embracing where I was born and celebrating traditions and family and being together as one.”
~ Jinsuh Noh
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Vietnam Áo yài
The áo yài sometimes comes in the color red. Normally for red you would wear this to weddings, but there are more causal áo yài too. It is made out of chiffon, but you can also get it made in silk, which is more fancy. The traditional ones include the dress and pants, the more modern ones is shorter and you can wear that with leggings and you can wear that to nightmarkerts and anywhere you go. But the fancy ones are more for family get togethers.
“For me this is important, because I wear this to alot of my family events and this is how we dress up together. And for the girls it’s really important because everyone gets together in the same room and its really cute. Especually for weddings, I think those are the most parts of Vietnamese culture and is a huge part of my culture and I think just wearing this means a lot to me.”
~ Karen Tran
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Cambodia Thailand Ka bun (Cambodian term)
Its made out of silk material and the parts are a blouse and “pants.” The pants are one single piece of cloth that you fold and then manipulate, and then it turns into a pair of pants. The ka bun is used for practices for performances or as causal clothing for going out.
“This clothing is significant to me because its a visual and physical representation of my culture and I think thats really important because as much as you can be Asian and Southeast Asian, to have this physical representation that we take on and take off is very significant and very moving.”
~ Grace Rafferty
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Malaysia Baju kurung
The Baju kurung is the female version of the Malaysian cultural clothing. It is a dress that can reach to the knees or down to the ankles or feet. The knee short versions have pants or skirts that you would wear with it. Its usually made out of lush fabrics like silk and any comfortable material. It comes in many different colors and patterns, with different designs.
“I really enjoyed this opportunity to be able to wear my traditional Malaysian clothing because it was a way for me to embrace this side of my identity. I feel somewhat disconnected to this side because here in America it’s so much harder to find Malaysian people, to have opportunities to speak Malay and eat Malaysian food. And with this opportunity to wear this clothing I feel like I am able to say ‘Hey, I am not only Chinese American, but I am Malaysian Chinese American.’ So I was grateful for this and I’m sure my parents are happy to see me wear the traditional clothing as well.”
~ Jasmine Foo
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Credits Photographyer/Editer: Kosal Touch Models:
China: Korea: Vietnam: Cambodia Thailand: Malaysia:
Anny Liu Jinsuh Noh Karen Tran Grace Rafferty Jasmine Foo
Clothing Provider: China: Korea: Vietnam: Cambodia Thailand: Malaysia:
Anny Liu Insadong Hanbok, Annandale VA Karen Tran Grace Rafferty Jasmine Foo
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