The Lovely Doll

I have to admit that the summer has pretty much sucked any interest in dressing up right out of my life! I wear the same thing almost every day -- a black T-shirt and a flowy skirt. My make-up case is sitting lonely in a corner because I hate the feel of anything on my face when it's humid, even lip gloss. Jewelry, unless it is sterling silver or stainless steel, irritates my skin. High heels aggravate my back problems (and they are already aggravated enough!) Over the past couple of months, I've just come to terms with the fact that I'm going to look pretty boring until the weather gets cooler.

On the other hand, I've developed a new obsession -- vintage Japanese pose dolls! I see a few of these decorating boutiques here in Taipei from time to time. They were popular in the 1960s and 1970 in Japan and were grouped into two main styles: mod and Southern Belle. Here are some of my favorite mod dolls that were on eBay last week:

I loved their proportions, their carefully detailed faces and those outfits. Don't the blues ones look like something Trudy Campbell on "Mad Men" would wear?

I was tempted to bid on one, but in between my Blythe dolls, urban vinyl and toy cameras, I don't need to start collecting anything else! If you like the dolls, too, and want to see more eye candy, check out the Lovely Pose Doll from Japan group on Flickr. Try the search terms "Bradley dolls," "Japan pose doll" or "Japanese pose doll" on eBay.

Hope everyone is great and still keeping me around on their RSS readers! Taken by themselves, my different health issues weren't worrisome... but unfortunately they all seemed to happen at the same time and for a while I was feeling very gloomy and unproductive. But everything's coming back together again, the way the different pieces of mimetic polyalloy converge and resculpt T-1000 after he gets shot in 'Terminator 2.' Soon I, too, will be back to molding my arms into razor-sharp kitanas and chasing after John Connor in order to save the future of Sky Net.

Or something like that. Have a great weekend everyone!

The Vermont Country Store

A few weeks ago, the wooden iPhone cases from Brook Farm General Store started showing up all over the blogosphere. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw "general store," however, was Vermont Country Store. I've never been to their stores/restaurant (in Vermont, of course), but I was a huge fan of their catalog back when I still lived in New York. Every few months it'd arrive and I'd pore over the color illustrations and all the quirky, nostalgic items they had for sale, from Black Jack chewing gum to something called Tired Old Ass Soak.

I wish I'd brought a few catalogs to Taipei with me, but their Web site is almost as great. Some of my current favorites include...

... swimsuits with a vintage flair (click on the picture for a link to the purchase page)...




...a really cute playsuit that looks retro and modern at the same time, thanks to its geometric print...

... this awesomely kitschy swimcap...

... a peacock chenille bedspread that looks straight out of a 1950s bedroom...

... reproduction Moser glass, including this Hen in a Basket dish and Depression glass mixing bowls, both made from original molds...


... the same toys your parents (or grandparents) played with, including this amazing ballerina top and tin kaleidoscope...


... cosmetics and toiletries you've only seen in vintage magazines before, including Tangee lipstick, Evening in Paris perfume and Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo...


... cute support sandals that have a 1940s/1950s flair...

... sweater clips...


... reproduction 1949 Big Ben alarm clocks (I own an original ivory one that I bought from an estate sale for $5. It still works)...

... and best of all, the indestructible Singer sewing machine of my dreams.

I really regret not making a trip to the Vermont Country Store while I was still living in New York City. I mean, I was busy with work and short on funds and everything, but it would have been worth it... there are counters of fudge! FUDGE! If you live on the East Coast, don't make the same mistake I did! For more about the history of the store, click here.

Pound Puppies: Anyone remember them?

I've had this annoying theme song stuck in my head for the last twenty-three years or so; today, I finally did a search for "pound puppies" on YouTube. I found a cartoon intro that was disturbingly full of anti-feline rhetoric, but aside from that, it filled me with nostalgia for my early childhood in the early 80s. I don't think a lot of people remember the "Pound Puppies," because they weren't cool in the same way Jem, Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake were, but they definitely deserve a place in the pantheon of 80s cartoon greats (or at least goods). When I was a little girl, I was given a Pound Puppy radio. It was basically a stuffed animal glued on top of a cheap red radio, but I was riveted. Then Teddy Ruxpin came along, and I moved on. Sorry, Pound Puppies!

An old friend from long ago...

Source

I was trawling through Vintage Ad Browser when I found an old friend. This vintage advertising poster from China used to hang on my wall when I was in college. I bought it at the Union Square holiday gift fair. The woman in it appealed to me because she seemed bookish, shy and in her own world despite all the busy little graphics around her; during my freshman year of college I could certainly identify with that. I also loved her outfit -- the sleekness of her qipao, the surprisingly modern vest with its rosette and the strands of pearls. It's good to see her again (and it's also good to be able to read Chinese now and know that the poster is advertising the awesome flour and vegetables you'll grow after using ammonium sulfate!).

Video: The Taiwan Song (台灣小調), 1959

When I first stumbled upon this YouTube video of Grace Chang (葛蘭), a Hong Kong actress of the 1950s and 1960s, I nearly started crying tears of joy. A song about how beautiful Taiwan is, gorgeous 1950s fashions (including lots of menswear), all in fabulous color... what's not to love?

As I wrote a few days ago, finding images of Asians and Asian Americans doing normal, everyday things (hopefully while wearing wonderful vintage fashions) is a new passion of mine. It is the logical result of being a lifelong vintage lover (well, lifelong since age eleven!) who now lives in Taiwan, and it is also a way of reconciling the conflicting feelings I have about collecting things from an era when so many people who looked me were repressed, abused or worse. A couple of my vintage photos were featured on Fashion for Writers and Threadbared. Jenny on FFW wrote a really great post on the emotional impact of being exotified and I cannot wait to read what Threadbared has to say about the politics of vintage.

(And please vote once every 24 hours for Shu Flies (舒飛), my blog about life in Taipei, Taiwan. To everyone who has already voted -- thank you so much! Your support really warms my heart. The weather is chilly here in Taipei, so it needs all the warming it can get!)

Borrowed memories of a time long ago

I recently discovered a couple shops here in Taipei that sell vintage found photos. This topic really deserves a longer blog entry (and hopefully I'll have time to write one soon), but I find it very moving to see people who look like me doing normal things in time periods that I enjoy from a historical and aesthetic standpoint.

It's a rare thing. For example, I only recall Asian Americans being featured three times on as many seasons of "Mad Men": the "Oriental family" in Pete's office when he returned from his honeymoon, the waitress in a tight qipao and the (off-screen) Chinese driver that made Sally giggle. The series is one of my favorite TV shows, but it also reminds me that Asian Americans were marginalized (or worse) during the era it depicts. And, of course, depictions of Asians and Asian Americans in actual vintage US films are also problematic, to say the least.

I often find myself feeling very conflicted about my interest in vintage style. How can I enjoy things from an era when Asian Americans were repressed, socially and legally (as with the Japanese internment camps and the Chinese Exclusion Act), and when many Asian countries suffered sociopolitical violence that traumatized millions of people, including members of my family? But secondhand and vintage items have had an emotional resonance for me since I was very young and, though it's hard to explain, I can't imagine my life without them. This is more than a hobby for me -- it's part of my identity.

Perhaps it is a bit trivial, but when I see photos like these or watch a movie like "Stardust," it feels like a relief, or validation of a sort. I don't have access to a lot of my own family's old photos for various reasons, so these pictures are almost like an emotional surrogate for me. Here is something I can enjoy wholeheartedly and relate to on a more intimate level. I have a lot more of these photos and I am looking forward to sharing them here.

A treasure box of plastic dreams

Treasure chest from Toy Connection

Do you remember the little treasure boxes that dentists keep for children to paw through after an appointment? They were always my favorite part of each trip to the dental clinic (that, and getting out of there!). My dentist's treasure box was in a room full of file cabinets in the back. There was a mixture of things in there, ranging from bouncing balls to little tubes of toothpaste. What I loved best, however, were the cheap little plastic toys -- miniature comb and brush sets all molded out of the same pink plastic, little rings with candy-colored "gems," and tiny animals with a little hole in top to use as a pendant (though I never strung them onto anything).

Recently, I went searching on Etsy for toys that reminded me of my treats from the treasure box. A lot of these were made in the 1960s or 1970s, but they are close to the things I found in the late 1980s and early 1990s (after that, I was too old for toys... at least according to the dentist!). Click on each seller's name to go to their Etsy store.

Vintage gumball machine charms from vintagecharmsupplier

Puzzles and bird whistles from HeyYoYo

Plastic Scotties and yellow toys by Blood of Bee (coolest shop name ever!)

Vintage plastic charms from McCharmpants

Vintage skeleton hands by ManyHappyReturns

Plastic animals from Jlovesupreme

Camera-shaped water gun, combs, slot machines and ring from CovetableCuriosities

Sailboats, plastic pen knives and ice cream carton pendants from bolla74

My school sisters

I rediscovered some photos-of-photos I have of Sarah Lawrence College's yearbook from... actually, I forget the exact year. Drat it! I think the year was 1965, but I could be wrong. We had an amazing archive at the college library and I spent a lot of time in there, flipping through old school publications. I'm almost embarrassed to share these because they are just snapshots and not actual scans, but my school sisters look so fabulous that I can't resist.

In the 1960s and 1970s, my college had a professional photographer who took all of the photos in each yearbook. Sarah Lawrence was female only until they went co-ed in the late 1970s. My college has a strong tradition of social activism and a forward-thinking pedagogy and curriculum (they were the first to offer a graduate degree in the field of women's history). I first heard of Sarah Lawrence when I was 15 and from then on my entire high school career was dedicated to getting in. I'm very proud of my alma mater and what it represents in higher education.

And as you can see from this final photo, there have always been some cool cats at SLC! (I know, I know, har har har).

Polaroids: The Toy Box

I took these photos of some of my childhood toys during a trip back home to California last fall (well, my Blythe, Catherine Jr., is actually my adulthood toy, as is the Susie Sad Eyes). Anyone remember Teddy Ruxpin or Rainbow Brite? Teddy used to freak me out when he flicked his eyes from side to side. Ah, memories.

這些都是我小時候的玩具（除非Catherine Jr.跟Susie Sad Eyes以外... ).