Posted on 04/30/2018 6:27:16 PM PDT by Simon Green
A high school student's prom pictures have generated a furious debate online after some social media users accused the 18-year-old of "cultural appropriation".
Twitter user Keziah, who is not Chinese, posted pictures of herself wearing a cheongsam, or qipao - a traditional Chinese dress - for her prom in Utah, USA, last week.
In a widely-shared response to the pictures, one Twitter user, Jeremy Lam, tweeted: "My culture is not your... prom dress".
The original tweet, and Lam's criticism on Friday night, have attracted hundreds of thousands of likes, tens of thousands of retweets, and thousands more comments as supporters and critics clashed over the weekend over the concept of cultural appropriation - the adoption of minority cultures, typically by dominant cultures.
Mr Lam explained on Twitter why he found the photos troubling. He said the qipao began as a formless gown for house cleaning and was turned into a symbol of female empowerment.
"In a time where Asian women were silenced they were able to create not only a piece of art but a symbol of activism," he wrote.
"This piece of clothing embraced femininity, confidence and gender equality through its beautiful, eye-catching appearance.
"The style was then spread throughout Asia as a beautiful garment and sign of women's liberation.
"I'm proud of my culture, including the extreme barriers marginalised people within that culture have had to overcome those obstacles. For it to simply be subject to American consumerism and cater to a white audience is parallel to colonial ideology."
Mr Lam's post clearly struck a chord. By the time of writing it had been liked more than 167,000 times and retweeted close to 40,000 times.
However, after some commenters suggested Keziah should remove the pictures, she refused.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
NO ITALIAN FOOD FOR YOU!!! :)
But then if I’m American of Italian descent, and feel as strongly as this prick does, then am I REALLY allowed to eat hot dogs and steak and BBQ and burgers or any American foods anymore?
That would be awful :(
That dumb ####.
So why are chinese women allowed to wear western style dresses then?
twitter is a cesspool where professional victims compete on the hysteria scale for “likes”. it’s distressing that anything from that intellectual wasteland makes it out of the matrix and into real life.
ROFL!! Jeremy, the name of the last emperor lol
That’s funny because my first name is Mark and my middle name is my grandfather’s, Aneallo.
I like Aneallo better but my mother said she named me an American and Christian name because we are in America now.
So I’m cool with that.
My nephews and nieces didn’t even play the Tarantella at their weddings, lol.
I almost died :(
I have to ask, if diversity is our strength, as we’ve all been told a million times, but we’re not allowed to exchange influences and ideas without being accused of some sort of thought crime, than how is that any sort of strength?
jeremy probably isn’t any more authentically chinese than you or I am.
“In a widely-shared response to the pictures, one Twitter user, Jeremy Lam, tweeted: “My culture is not your... prom dress”.”
Dear Jeremy,
You should take it as a compliment that someone outside of your ethnicity wants to wear a beautiful, Chinese dress, dumb-ass!
I read somewhere that it was developed by Americans in the 1920s as a cocktail-dress.
Just a bunch of vicious liberal Orientals claiming to speak for all Asian as though all Asians are Orientals. THAT is racism, claiming all Asians are Orientals.
It is stupidity, typical of liberals, to claim wearing a dress similar in fashion to an Oriental style is racism.
He’s just mad because she looks better in it than he does.
BTW, Levi jeans are a huge hit with Orientals. These liberals wouldn’t dare call those people racists for wearing American clothing.
WAAAAAAHHH! My heart is broken!
So nope, you aren’t allowed to eat hot dogs and steak and BBQ and burgers or any American foods anymore. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. :-)
That jerk, Lam, is a real piece of work, isn’t he? SHEESH!
Then all minorities had better stop wearing pants and clothes with buttons and zippers and conventional underwear found in western societies.
End this crap ideology.
Do only white kids drive cars or play basketball at this school? According to these people...they should.
Or jeans. Or anything with white-invented zippers. Sweatpants, jerseys, workout gear, typical modern underwear and bras, etc etc.
China
India
My daughter made one too and wore it to a school dance.This is the crap the kids have to go through today.She should change her settings to private-the end.
Because they didn't get the memo about Kim Jeremy-un's raving manifesto.
Yeah he’s a d###.
That would be one of the most horrible decisions I would ever have to make in my life.
Giving up Italian OR American food for good.
Thank goodness I dont have to make such a STUPID choice!!
Where do these people come from?!?!?!?!!
And why do they stay?!!?!?!!??
I thought they all loved multiculturalism?
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