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Stepping foot in Shanghai, one would not be able to recognize the city from how it was only a year prior. In a matter of months, new skyscrapers, construction projects, cafes, restaurants, malls emerge from concrete and glass, the only anchors of constancy being the residential neighborhoods from Shanghai’s era of international settlement and the glamorous Bund lining the Huangpu River. The city epitomizes China’s unprecedented, rapid, though unequal growth–a neon city rocket-launching itself into the future / In recent years, the Chinese design world has seen the emergence of distinctly futuristic elements in art, architecture, and design. Think sleek, organic lines and silhouettes, greenery sprouting from glass balconies, eclectic melanges of colors, textures, and fabrics. Photographers shooting for fashion magazines frequently employ traditionally unorthodox editing techniques–fantastical shapes, chrome finishes, and hyper-saturated contrasts are not uncommon to find on the cover of China Vogue and other fashion magazines. Though a cohesive identification of such trends as
“ futurism ” has not quite yet emerged on the mainland, it is clear that many designers and artists credit their influences to futurist ideals. So what exactly is futurism, particularly futurism in the eyes of Chinese designers? (01) / Futurism first emerged in the early 1900s in Italy and Russia, with an emphasis on the new technology, architecture, science, and youth culture. Technological advancement and industrialization planted a fascination with a distant cultural future that Europe seemed to be just on the cusp of. Later in the 1900s we see the emergence of a distinct “ Afrofuturism ” movement in the United States that explored an intersection of the African diaspora’s estrangement from their ancestral homelands, and the technology as an exploration of this alienation but also as a hypothetical means to self-determination. Sinofuturism is already proving to be a movement that expresses the former’s anticipation for a hyper-technologized future, but also, more implicitly, an attempt to connect with the culture lost to twentieth century authoritarian cultural equalization (02) / As China stepped out of the dynastic era with the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the nation was forced to come to terms with the chaos of the international community that they were now a part of. Yet, in a matter of decades, plagued with a civil war and violent political power grab, China fell into yet another era of isolation and repression. It was not until the late 1970s that a new, economically-strengthened society emerged from the Cultural Revolution and, once again, reopened itself to the rest of the world. Simply put, economic development skyrocketed as China found itself on the front end of benefiting from a rapidly globalizing world economy, and as a result, technological innovation and an economic bubble propelled the nation to being the world’s current second largest economy (03) / Many parallels exist between today’s China, as it is perceived in the world’s imagination, and Japan in the 1980s and ‘90s, particularly because the concentration of futurist, cyberpunk, and y2k aesthetics became part of the mainstream artistic zeitgeist. However, many of the big productions and titles that came out of this era (Blade Runner and Akira come to mind) are either pessimistic criticisms of technology enabling a hyper-militarized capitalist government to exploit the common man, or simply Orientalist depictions of a cold, robotic East Asia that threatens to overtake what’s left of Western moral virtue. Today’s Chinese ( “ sino ” ) futurism does not seem to exhibit such clear-cut tropes in its trends. Distinctly Chinese, a sense of national and cultural pride is tangible in mainstream Sinofuturist aesthetics. Chen Man, perhaps China’s most notable fashion photographer, is notable for photographing Western celebrities in styles that combine futurist and Eastern styles, almost as a celebration of how far China has advanced. The first time I met my friend, Jiajie “ Vivian ” Lyu, I was taken aback by how her personal style married distinctly Eastern elements and esoteric, blocky, and futuristic statement pieces. As a stylist and photographer at Parsons School of Design, she credits growing up in China and “ being born in 2000, on the cusp of the retro and the futuristic “ as the reason for why Chinese culture and futurism are inseparable in her work. For Vivian and many other young Chinese designers today, Sinofuturism is an opportunity to reunite the celebration of traditional Chinese aesthetics that were suppressed for much of the past century, with the accelerating growth of urban, modern society (04) / Most of the Sinofuturism emerging in the Chinese markets today is in the realm of art and fashion that is directly accessible to everyday consumers. The statement clothing items you can buy with one click on Taobao, the chrome jewelry promoted by influencers on social media, the office buildings’ glass curves that dot the skyline–Chinese futurism, in its current early stage, is still a representation of great optimism for the nation’s future, a hope embodied in the improvement in quality of life of the average citizen. Not even half a century ago, the vast majority of Chinese people were living in abject poverty, most farmers still practicing subsistence agriculture. Now, hardly a generation later, the wealthiest in the nation lead lives that their parents could not even dream of. The question of sustainability within China’s rapid-moving trend market is something that has, rightfully so, arisen as a concern. The consumer market in mainland China is driven by the state-run economy which has produced such unprecedented economic growth in the span of a few decades that the market for high-end goods and cutting-edge trends are constantly changing, leading to massive investment in fast-fashion and online retail softwares like Taobao (05) / There is an inherent contradiction faced by nations like China that are embracing futurism. With the problematic Orientalist roots of East Asian futurism, the already concerning levels of pollution being emitted by a country the size of China, it is up to Chinese designers and consumers alike to change the narrative to be more sustainable, both culturally and environmentally. Margaret Zhang, Editor-in-Chief of China Vogue, in the first issue of 2022 highlights her team’s commitment to “ not only improve [their] own practices as an editorial team in the fashion industry, but also as individuals. ” Sinofuturism can only remain salient for as long as China has a future, one in which China’s culture is not absorbed by globalization’s compression of time-space and homogenization of regional features, and one in which the future is not overcome by irreversible environmental damage. If approached tactfully, Sinofuturism can be a vehicle to inspire such ethical progress; but, in the hands of unbridled capitalism, it may face the fate that so many other movements have faced and become yet another cash-grab for the reigning economic heavyweights. Perhaps this tentative optimism is best illustrated by China Vogue’s January 2022 issue slogan, in the motherland’s language: 懃拱膠 묾崎灌윱, or, “ The will of the heart births multitudes, advancing into a shared future ”