Circulating fashion: a global production networks analysis of Chinese wig business in Africa

Abstract

Drawing on the case of Chinese wig businesses in Ghana, this article adopts a global production networks (GPN) approach to analyze family and gender dynamics in the transnational operation of wig production, trade, and entrepreneurship. Data for this study were collected through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana and Xuchang, China, between 2016 and 2019. This research shows that the ‘economic upgrading’ of the Xuchang-based wig businesses in the global production and value chain contributes to the ‘social upgrading’ of women’s status. New modes of global retailing facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and burgeoning E-commerce platforms enable women to exert more influence on businesses and start independent entrepreneurial ventures. Women’s affinity to fashion trends and the consumer base for wig products further gives them advantages of ‘capturing the gain’ in a buyer-driven retail business. As the wig businesses evolved from township-and-village enterprises to global players, collaboration and conflict in families manifest the contesting trends of contemporary family change in China: a tension between solidifying the importance of the family as a source of resources and the dissolution of traditional patriarchal norms in the course of ‘individuation.’