Chinese dress at US prom wins support in China after internet backlash

After criticism of student Keziah Daum’s Twitter post showing her wearing the traditional qipao, Chinese commenters call it cultural appreciation, not appropriation

Reading Time:3 minutes

“I am grateful I was able to wear such a beautiful dress,” Keziah Daum told the Post. Photo: Twitter

Published: 6:30pm, 1 May 2018Updated: 3:21am, 5 May 2018

An American teenager has received support from internet users in China after being criticised for wearing a traditional Chinese dress to her school prom.

Keziah Daum, an 18-year-old from Utah in the United States, who has no Chinese roots, was accused of “cultural appropriation” after posting photographs on Twitter that featured her in a traditional Chinese qipao, or cheongsam.

The dress symbolised a silent protest to promote gender equality after the fall of the dynasties and the beginning of the republican period in the early 1900s, and was worn during the 1919 reformist May Fourth Movement.

Daum has stood by her decision to wear the dress, which was red and embroidered with gold and black, and told the South China Morning Post it projected a “wonderful message”. She has not deleted her original April 22 post.

She was not aware of the dress’ history before buying it at a vintage shop in Salt Lake City, she said in an email, but “simply found a beautiful, modest gown and chose to wear it”.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x