Transnational Flow of Chinese and UK Fashion Discourse: Analyses of Digital Platforms and Online Shopping in China

Abstract

This study critically examines, on the one hand, how digital online shopping sites in China, mainly Taobao and Jingdong, have presented UK fashion to the Chinese market. Given the prevailing trend of online shopping for clothing in China, the transnational flow of UK fashion to China is largely monopolized and manipulated by these digital giants. Illustrated in this paper is China’s increasing power to shape and articulate UK/British fashion discourse through various retailers as “cultural translators” in the domestic market, and however, the translation was largely made to sell “counterfeit UK fashion,” resulting in a phenomenon of culture piracy. On the other hand, on the international market, to reflect China’s “going out strategy,” literally these digital online shopping sites also collaborate with UK fashion designers to promote UK fashion in and outside China. The paper discusses the implications for China’s extension of soft power over the fashion industry within and outside China.