Blog 1: Reflection on Culture Sustainability
Overall, the lecture caught my eyes is the cultural sustainability lecture which was taught by John Lau. More and more brands are focus on diversity and inclusivity nowadays. However, sometimes it leads to being racist. First of all, in the lecture, John mentioned social equality. People indeed have to be treated in the same way although they have different gender or race. For example, most of the Asians tend to wear more conservative. Nevertheless, people shouldn’t judge others who wear more exposed, and vice versa. People have to be more diverse in various cultures, which is also linked to globalization. Globalization makes the distance from country to country closer. Therefore, it is even more important nowadays to embrace the differences between people and culture. In my opinion, culture sustainability has to be regarded as a part of inclusivity and diversity. Having an inclusive mindset behaves in a way that welcomes and embraces diversity.
Next, I was interested in those images that he interpreted misunderstood especially the Fuji mountain image. It is an extremely famous image, but due to the culture (the way we write or read), we will read the image differently. Different perspectives lead to different imagination and sometimes it causes to mislead the concept that it originally should be. I think fashion can be spread all over the world. Thus, we all have to do some research and know the background before we make any explanation. Last but not least, he mentioned about misrepresentative. As a fashion public relations and communication student as well as an Asian, I often research the latest trend about either luxurious brands or niche brands. I found that some of the design which tries to represent the Chinese culture was made up of western elements. As John said in the lecture,” it’s just a lazy fashion and the design is just designed because it looks nice.” I can’t agree with it more. I believe that different culture has its beauty and it is worthy to dig into them. During this lecture, I rethink the way I look at not only fashion but also the life. Misrepresentative was often based on the stereotype that people have in their minds. However, we have to look more into the culture to prevent the mistake of misrepresentation.
In conclusion, this lecture makes me connect the link between fashion and culture. People have to be more aware of this kind of topic because it might impact not only the product but also the industry.