Global China

China’s influence in global capitalism has increasingly become prevalent, exceeding the limit of studies about China. The project entitled Global China has already blossomed in several areas, ranging from the global expansion of Alibaba (Shen 2021) to China–Africa relations (Lee 2017) to China’s regional ambitions, economic development, and critical technology (Chhabra, Doshi, Hass, and Kimball 2021). In fact, in the latter regard, China is no longer considered a rising power, but a truly global actor in the context of the economy and military. The implication of China as a global actor has manifested into transformations in East Asia (Pieke and Iwabuchi 2021) that are tightly interwoven with all aspects of life, modernities, and aesthetic formation, giving rise to the so-called Asia Century (Lee, Moon and Tu 2019). While China is pursuing its own agenda of globalization, it cannot escape the fact that global matters are first constructed locally, just as, in turn, local matters take the form of global constructions (Appadurai 1996). Post-reform China is endeavored to catch up with advanced Western economies through rapid cultural policy reform to mobilize a creative and cultural economy (O’Connor and Gu 2020; Keane 2007). As such, its convergence with the West and successful engagement with fashion as consumers and producers (Riello and McNeil 2010; Finnane 2007) mark its desire for a meaningful fashion identity and cultural heritage beyond the traditional Chinese image (Zhao 2013; Segre-Reinach 2011; Tsui 2009; Wu 2009; Clark 2008)