Implementation of Chinese-styled branding in global fashion: ‘Guochao’ as a rising cultural identity

Abstract

Culture-specific Chinese-styled branding as a rising trend in cultural and branding studies has provided new discourse for the discussion on the national identity of Chineseness or chinoiserie that has long existed, with further reflections on the Chinese fashion brand design known as ‘Guochao’, which has become an increasingly ubiquitous new conceptual identity in the past five years. Chinese fashion brands are changing their peripheral cultural status and impacting global fashion, transforming the global recognition of Chinese national identity and style in the field of fashion. This article investigates this emerging phenomenon in the global fashion system and theorizes ‘Guochao’ as a rising cultural identity that reconfigures and readdresses the national identity in Chinese fashion branding practices in terms of its connotations and industry applications. It shows that the ‘Guochao’ identity can be separated into two sub-connotations: one that addresses the connotations of ‘Guo’ that symbolize, rejuvenate and rematerialize Chinese historical and material culture, and one that emphasizes the ‘Chao’ discourse, featuring subtle Chinese symbolism that incorporates strong western street style and further blurs the boundaries in the West–East aesthetic binary system. Through case studies on the brand designs and campaigns of two Chinese designer brands that are paradigmatic of the ‘Guo’ identity, Angel Chen and MUKZIN, and two classic Chinese sportswear brands that are representatives of the ‘Chao’ identity, Li-Ning and Warrior Shanghai, the theoretical connotations of ‘Guochao’ as a rising cultural identity in Chinese-styled branding are discussed. This article theorizes ‘Guochao’ as a recreated representative cultural identity in global fashion that challenges the world’s understanding of chinoiserie in the field of fashion and further showcases the popularization of Chinese-styled branding in Chinese fashion.