Vintage Taiwan No. 3: Friends (and some thoughts)

I love this because the girl on the left is wearing a western-style sundress and her companion has on a traditional qipao

Here are a few more vintage photos I bought from an antique store in Taipei -- including one in color! The stone formation is called the Queen's Head (女王頭), a very famous landmark in Yehliu on the north coast of Taiwan. It's slowly eroding, so I bet tourists aren't allowed to casually lean against it anymore.

After I posted my first series of vintage Taiwan photographs, Threadbared included my blog post in a collection of writings by different bloggers on vintage fashion, race and politics. That entry was re-posted on Racialicious and picked up by Jezebel (Fashion for Writers' Jenny also wrote her own insightful and moving post on the subject).

I was surprised by some of the comments on Racialicious (which I am a fan of) and Jezebel -- many were dismissive of the issues that the other bloggers and I raised. Many commenters basically said, "what's the big deal?" or "I like vintage because it's pretty and I don't think it's worth politicizing."

I feel those responses missed the point of our posts (Julia at à l'allure garçonnière wrote a very thoughtful response). The main reason I enjoy vintage clothing is because it is pretty and different from what I can find in mainstream stores. It's not like race and identity politics are foremost on my mind when I go vintage shopping. But being able to take pleasure in the lush folds of a 1950s dress or a shimmery 1960s evening sheath doesn't mean I can't also devote brain space to thinking about the more difficult issues vintage collecting brings up. The two aren't mutually exclusive. In my case, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to be mindful about the injustices dealt to Asian Americans and other minorities in the US during the last century, as well the more difficult aspects of Taiwan's social and political history.

I am absolutely not saying vintage enthusiasts who don't think about those issues are shallow; my passion for vintage fashion and design just happens to intersect with my interest in social history. I'm grateful for that because it makes the past come alive in a very immediate way.

On a semi-related topic -- I post these photos because they are novel to me. I rarely see photos of Asian people from before the 1980s doing "everyday" things (i.e. not posing with a dragon or giant pair of chopsticks in an advertisement or something). My family's old photographs are scattered among various relatives, so even those are hard for me to get ahold of. Whenever I stumble upon photos like the ones above, I feel a certain sense of glee -- and relief -- that's hard to put into words.

But I am also cognizant of idealizing the people in the photos. I try to remind myself that they were more than just the cute clothes they are wearing (that I want in my own closet). I know nothing about these people, just that for one moment they posed for a photo that somehow ended up in my hands. I'm planning to re-read "On Photography" by Susan Sontag and "Camera Lucida" by Roland Barthes so I can better articulate my feelings on this issue.

Any thoughts on either of these topics (vintage clothing and politics/race or collecting vintage photographs)? I'd love to hear your feedback.

More found photos of life in Taiwan, back in the day

I hope everyone is enjoying the end of the year! The last week was a busy one for me... and I just came down with a cold (boo), so this is just a quick post of more vintage photos found here in Taipei.

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.