Editor’s Introduction (April 2019)

APP 16, NO. 1

The University of San Francisco Center for Asia Pacific Studies is pleased to announce the publication of Asia Pacific Perspectives vol. 16, no. 1 (April 2019). This special issue is dedicated to exploring how fashion shapes identities in the Asia Pacific region.

Within this issue, we share three examples of the latest research on cultures of dress, clothing, fashion and the formation of identity in the Asia Pacific region. These articles reveal the innovative work that scholars are currently pursuing in this area of research, ranging from the history of the tattooing in Japan, to fashion exchange between China and Mozambique, to the phenomena known as cosplay.

In Fashioning Tattooed Bodies: An Exploration of Japan’s Tattoo Stigma, John M. Skutlin, explores the history of tattooing in Japan, its stigma, and how tattooees today manage their stigma. Skutlin’s work reveals how tattoos have evolved throughout Japan’s history, noting important shifts in perceptions and attitudes towards tattooing - from positive to negative after contact with the Chinese, to being considered barbaric by the Westernizing Meiji government, to the association of tattooing with the yakuza, to the rise in popularity of Western style “fashion tattoos” and the continued need for tattooees to use “reconciliatory strategies” to conform to Japanese social and cultural demands.

Johanna von Pezold’s article, “It Is Good to Have Something Different”: Mutual Fashion Adaptation in the Context of Chinese Migration to Mozambique, addresses China’s rising influence in Africa through the lens of fashion exchange. Through field research and interviews on the ground in markets in Mozambique, von Pezold examines what motivates Chinese and Mozambicans to adopt foreign fashion elements from either side. Her study provides important insight into fashion exchange between non-Western countries and adds depth to our understanding of Chinese soft power in Africa.

Anne Peirson-Smith explores the increasingly popular phenomena of cosplay (costumeplay) in her article, Fashioning the Embodied Liminal/Liminoid Self: an Examination of the Dualities of Cosplay Phenomenon in East Asia. Based on fieldwork conducted in Hong Kong and Macau, Peirson-Smith’s study reveals the motivations, challenges, and rewards behind cosplayer’s acts of performance and their “fantastical fashioning” and creation of a “spectacular self.”

In this issue’s book review, Barbara Molony introduces us to Kyunghee Pyun and Aida Yuen Wong’s edited volume, Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Their collection of 14 essays explores “the intersection of Western clothing, accessories, hair fashions, and fabrics with existing local versions of those aspects of dress and representation of the body” through the themes of garments and uniforms, accessories, fabrics, and fashion styles.

As always, we hope that these articles will stimulate further discussion and research in the field of Asia Pacific Studies. This issue would not have been made possible without the help of Dr. Leslie Woodhouse for her work gathering submissions and locating peer-reviewers and Dr. Andrea Lingenfelter for taking over the copy editing and production work. For the online version of this issue, we appreciate the excellent work done by Michael Cole and his team of web assistants, Toff Nguyen and Tiffany Chen. Many thanks also to our editorial board for their support and advice.

Melissa S. Dale, Editor