Style as Identity: Fashion in Taiwan in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

In the twentieth century, fashion in Taiwan was marked by several levels of cultural influences. Compared to the establishment of radical modern education, Japanese colonial power (1895–1945) put more effort into changing social habits in everyday life. It took twenty years (until about 1914) to successfully ban men from wearing the Manchu queue and to eradicate foot binding for women. From the 1920s, men’s Western-style clothing was fashionable among the elite. However, feminine fashion was marked by two parallel trends. One, the modernized Chinese dress, came from Shanghai, while the other was the European-style dress introduced via Tokyo. In painting, photography, and the press of the time, clothing style works as a way to recognize social class, education, and personal identity. Sun shows how fashion in Taiwan showcased the crossroads of Sino-Japanese modernity during its encounter with the West.