OPINION: Prom is not an excuse for appropriation
By Stephanie Chang,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
On April 22, teenager Keziah Daum posted a tweet with her prom photos. Daum, a caucasian female, chose to wear a chinese traditional outfit, the QiPao. She confirmed that she was not Asian and bought the dress from a vintage store.
This choice was deemed inappropriate by various other Twitter users, calling it cultural appropriation. This action was indeed an act of cultural appropriation.
At prom, an event where everyone puts in their best effort to look nice, wearing a traditional chinese outfit for its aesthetic quality is disrespectful.
Daum tweeted, “I mean no disrespect to the Chinese culture. I’m simply showing my appreciation to their culture. I’m not deleting my post because I’ve done nothing but show my love for the culture. It’s a f—ing dress. And it’s beautiful.”
Despite her claim that she was showing appreciation to the culture, her statement showed ignorance and disrespect. The QiPao is not just “a f—ing dress.” From her statement, it is clear that she does not see the dress as a cultural symbol but rather, just for the beauty.
The QiPao is indeed beautiful, but it means much more than that. In fact, according to Culture Trip, a website that explores various cultures around the world, it represents the patriotic symbol of being freed from traditional values. As a non-Asian wearing this symbolic dress just for the beauty, she completely disregards the history behind it and importance of it to the chinese culture.
If she really respected the culture, she would heed to the criticism and opinion of those that belong to the culture, instead of insisting that you love the culture while disrespecting their opinion.
Yes, she looks beautiful– but there are other ways for her to show off her beauty without disrespecting another culture. Prom is not an excuse to disrespect culture.
Daum’s act traces back to the commercialism of cultural wear. Stores and companies selling cultural wear for non cultural purposes promotes the whitewashing of such symbols, in essence, the loss of history and significance of culturally important wear.
Although Daum’s act of wearing a QiPao was ignorant, she should not be shunned forever. It was a mistake– a bad one– but everyone makes mistakes. As long as understands the line between cultural appropriation and appreciation, her act can be forgiven.
