The paradoxes of creativity in Guangzhou, China’s wholesale market for fast fashion

Bibliographic Data

ID23213685
AuthorsNellie Chu (0000-0003-2888-8964, University of Göttingen, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume59
Issue2
Pages178-192
Publication date2018-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueRenaissance and Modern Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0486-3720 • E-ISSN: 1473-5784
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14735784.2018.1443020
OpenAlexW2791455996
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited22

In Guangzhou’s fast fashion sector, creativity operates as practices in boundary-making, which emerge in spaces within the blurred boundaries that delineate original and copy production. Using the Xi Fang Hang market as a case study, I demonstrate how the quick turnover of fast fashion commodities compels different groups of market participants to claim contesting definitions and practices of creativity. While building managers and wealthy entrepreneurs mobilise techniques of rent extraction and claim originality as rightful sources of creativity, less established migrant entrepreneurs use design copying as a tool for market survival. With limited resources and formal education in fashion and merchandising, migrants claim success in delivering the right styles and trends at the right time and in keeping their businesses afloat. Together, these competing practices constitute what I call ‘paradoxes of creativity’, dynamics that highlight creativity as a fluid cultural category that is always subject to tensions and contestations.

Business · China · Copying · Creativity · Originality · Political science · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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