Navigating Chinaverse Futurism: Post-human Aesthetics and Cultural Landscape in Digital Fashion Showcases

Wang, Zhe ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8540-3930 (2024) Navigating Chinaverse Futurism: Post-human Aesthetics and Cultural Landscape in Digital Fashion Showcases. Fashion Practice: the journal of design, creative process and the fashion industry. ISSN 1756-9370 (In Press)

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Abstract

This study investigates the emerging concept of Chinaverse Futurism, a distinctive aesthetic movement shaped by the fusion of post-humanism, digital technologies, and Chinese cultural landscape within the global fashion landscape. In response to the rapid digitisation of fashion, particularly accelerated by the pandemic, Chinese designers such as WindowSen, ANNAKIKI, and Victor Wong have pioneered new approaches that integrate post-human themes, cultural scenarios with innovative design formats. Their work expands the discourse of 21st-century futurism by introducing new post-human dimensions, challenging traditional notions of identity, gender, and the human body. Through a three-year visual netnography and case study, this research explores how these three designers blur the boundaries between human and non-human, organic and artificial, while simultaneously embedding rich cultural motifs into their futuristic narratives. The concept of Chinaverse Futurism poses how Chinese fashion is not only engaging with global post-humanist trends but also contributing to the evolving narrative of fashion’s digital transformation. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of how Chinese designers are shaping a new, multidimensional aesthetic that resonates with global futurism while maintaining strong cultural ties to China’s industry landscape.