Chinese students in Paris protest outside Dior’s boutique over alleged cultural appropriation | Dao Insights
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On Saturday, June 23, over 50 Chinese students gathered outside Dior’s Champs-Elysées boutique in Paris to protest the luxury brand’s new skirt for alleged plagiarism and cultural appropriation of Chinese culture.
Dressed in Hanfu clothing, the protestors carried signs displaying messages like “Stop cultural appropriation”, “Dior is plagiarising the design” and “This is traditional Chinese attire”. As they walked down the bustling Parisian street, the students demanded the French luxury brand apologise for claiming the design to be “an iconic Dior silhouette” and to credit its inspiration to the Chinese traditional Mamian skirt, or “Horse Face Skirt”. Additionally demanded from the marchers was the removal of the skirt from Dior’s retail stores throughout Paris.
Image: Weibo
The overall protest lasted 10 minutes before being shut down by the police and was said to garner more than 500,000 views from livestreams on Weibo and WeChat. Since then, the hashtag “Chinese students protest Dior cultural appropriation in France” has amassed over 100 million views on Weibo.
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While Dior has yet to comment on the controversy, the brand’s artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri mentioned that the collection was “inspired by school uniforms and was meant to pay tribute to Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine”.?
Image: Weibo
According to an excerpt from the collection’s show notes, Dior’s lead designer Maria Grazia Chiuri “became interested in school outfits and, above all, in the way students dust off, revamp and update the tropes of these garments, personalising them with distinctive details, verging on punk overtones, before venturing through urban landscapes in search of spaces of freedom”.
Slammed by netizens for the second time in two years, Dior is currently not faring well with its young Chinese audience who are more sensitive to the application of Chinese culture in product design and marketing. After the protests carried out on Saturday, brands may want to pay closer attention to the cultural heritage of this demographic so as to properly tap into their target audience while avoiding any blunders along the way.
Gründerin Therapiezentrum ApexaQLA Suisse Innovativ, Kreativ und Umsetzungsstark
2 年I am surprised to find such content on Linkedin ??
Software Engineer at 2G Engineering LLC.
2 年I have a baseball cap that is made in China, somehow i manage to curb my outrage. I suppose if it was marketed as a classic Chinese style I might feel differently.
Passionate Cross-Cultural Educator
2 年Chinese international students protesting a luxury brand for designs they don't like? Viral status on Chinese social media and headlines in state news. Chinese international students protesting the actions of their government? Calls from their parents in tears after being threatened by the Ministry of State Security. Sometimes, the hypocrisy is too much to take.
IP Counsel / Cross-Border / IP Risk Mitigation / Brand Enforcement
2 年I wonder what those students, if that is truly their role, are studying. They are clearly not learning anything about the open world.
Industrial Site Manager | Industrial Plants & Chemically Hardened Sand Foundry Plants | Inspection & Audit Expert | China & Southeast Asia
2 年All Chinese embassy employees. ??