How to Make a Mao Suit: Clothing the People of Communist China, 1949-1976

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, new clothing protocols for state employees resulted in far-reaching changes in what people wore. In a pioneering history of dress in the Mao years (1949-1976), Antonia Finnane traces the transformation, using industry archives and personal stories to reveal a clothing regime pivoted on the so-called 'Mao suit'. The time of the Mao suit was the time of sewing schools and sewing machines, pattern books and homemade clothes. It was also a time of close economic planning, when rationing meant a limited range of clothes made, usually by women, from limited amounts of cloth. In an area of scholarship dominated by attention to consumption, Finnane presents a revisionist account focused instead on production. How to Make a Mao Suit provides a richly illustrated account of clothing that links the material culture of the Mao years to broader cultural and technological changes of the twentieth century.

Author: Antonia Finnane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/03/2023
Pages: 376
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9781009359993
ISBN10: 1009359991
BISAC Categories:
- History | Asia | General
- Technology & Engineering | Technical & Manufacturing Industries & Trades