Book contents
- How to Make a Mao Suit
- Cambridge Studies in the History of the People’s Republic of China
- How to Make a Mao Suit
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Technical Notes and Key Dates
- Introduction
- 1 The Red Group Tailors and the Zhongshan Suit
- 2 Notions and Sewing Tools
- 3 Making Zhifu
- 4 Sewing Like a Girl
- 5 Rationing
- 6 The Time of the Sewing Machine
- 7 Pattern Books I
- 8 Pattern Books II
- 9 What Should Chinese Women Wear?
- Conclusion
- Book part
- Glossary
- References
- Index
8 - Pattern Books II
How to Take a Measurement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2023
- How to Make a Mao Suit
- Cambridge Studies in the History of the People’s Republic of China
- How to Make a Mao Suit
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Technical Notes and Key Dates
- Introduction
- 1 The Red Group Tailors and the Zhongshan Suit
- 2 Notions and Sewing Tools
- 3 Making Zhifu
- 4 Sewing Like a Girl
- 5 Rationing
- 6 The Time of the Sewing Machine
- 7 Pattern Books I
- 8 Pattern Books II
- 9 What Should Chinese Women Wear?
- Conclusion
- Book part
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
Pattern books provided guidelines for how to make garments. Chapter 8 explores approaches to the problem posed by physical intimacy between the normatively male tailor and a female client in a social and political climate characterized by avoidance of sex. Drawing the body in this environment was necessary to providing instructions but presented graphic artists with a huge challenge. A comparison of lessons in ‘how to take a measurement’ in the Mao years shows that this challenge sometimes proved too much. During the Cultural Revolution, images of women were occasionally omitted from pattern books altogether. Under these circumstances, the zhifu had virtually no competition.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- How to Make a Mao SuitClothing the People of Communist China, 1949–1976, pp. 225 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023