Teen wears vintage cheongsam to prom. Elicits strong reaction. "My culture is NOT your Prom dress"

[Demovictory9]

Daum decided to browse a vintage store in downtown Salt Lake City, where she came across a red cheongsam, also known as a qipao — the high-collared, form-fitting traditional Chinese dress.

Link to tweet

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“I thought it was absolutely beautiful,” said Daum, who is not Chinese. She appreciated its high neckline, a difficult trait to find in many prom dresses. The dress, she said, “really gave me a sense of appreciation and admiration for other cultures and their beauty.”

On a Sunday after the dance last month, like many other social media-savvy high schoolers, she posted a photo in her dress alongside her friends. “PROM,” she wrote.

She had no idea it would elicit such a response.

“My culture is NOT your …. prom dress,” a man named Jeremy Lam tweeted days later, sharing the photos she posted.

“I’m proud of my culture, including the extreme barriers marginalized people within that culture have had to overcome those obstacles,” Lam also wrote. “For it to simply be subject to American consumerism and cater to a white audience, is parallel to colonial ideology.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/01/its-just-a-dress-teens-chinese-prom-attire-stirs-cultural-appropriation-debate/?utm_term=.40692c9249ad

[Vinca]

1. Jeremy Lam needs to get a life. The dress is beautiful. The girl is beautiful.

He should be thanking her for appreciating his culture.

[rzemanfl]

3. Her date needs to stop tying his tie like Catastrophuck. n/t

[tazkcmo]

12. Holy crap

That is a horrible knot.

[EffieBlack]

6. Maybe Lam should take off on whoever gave the dress to a vintage shop, rather than

the girl who bought it.

And even if he was pissed off, why troll the girl - she’s a kid.

[Vinca]

7. The whole thing is dumb. The girl is drop dead gorgeous in the dress.

[EffieBlack]

8. Exactly.

[sarah FAILIN]

11. You can buy some beautiful traditional clothing online

It's like they clean out grandma's closet and the silks go to a sale site. I bought a beautiful wedding furisode kimono and other garments for my daughter just because she loves the culture. I'm sure someone will be pissy about that, but..
Here is the blog they send me every month since and following is an ad for a furisode kimono so you see what they do. I'd rather it is bought than ruined.

http://kyouki.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/04/29/003134

http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list2/410502/

Neither of these are mine btw, I have no profit in it.

[malaise]

10. That freaking simple

She looks fabulous

[EffieBlack]

2. I don't think I'd be offended if a white girl wore an African dress to her prom, if she wore it with

respect and appreciation - not as a costume or a joke.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Please refer all discussion here:

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2048906

[Demovictory9]

5. ooops. Thanks.

[NewJeffCT]

9. We had a long thread on here yesterday about this

The girl is wearing it to a very special occasion in her life - the prom. She is not wearing to the school Halloween dance as a joke.

yesterday's thread
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2048906

[forgotmylogin]

14. That's true...she wore it as a beautiful thing.

If she'd have styled herself, say, as a geisha, that would be an issue.

Is there some rule about how you're only allowed to wear the clothing of your own ancestry?

[jberryhill]

13. Thank goodness we have another thread on this

[HeiressofBickworth]

15. I have a lovely brocade jacket with a Mandarin collar

When I bought it about 20 years go i wasn't even thinking about someone's culture. I bought it because it was pretty, it fit, was a good price and looked good with some black pants I had. I'd hate to have to give it up because a Mandarin collar was designed somewhere else. I sometimes wear it with a turtleneck sweater, an item probably designed in a cold northern country. Can i keep the sweater since I have two great grandparents from Sweden?

Aren't there more pressing issues than what a teenager wore to Prom?