'It is Good to Have Something Different’: Mutual Fashion Adaptation in the Context of Chinese Migration to Mozambique

Abstract

Based on ethnographic field research in the Mozambican capital Maputo, this article explains why and how contemporary Chinese migrants and Mozambicans adopt elements of each other’s fashion. Due to their variety and good quality-price ratio, Chinese fashion products are increasingly well-received by Mozambicans. In search of novel additions to their own style, both Chinese and Mozambicans become attracted by the exotic appeal of what they consider “typical” of the other culture. Unlike the situation in many colonial and post-colonial contexts, Chinese-Mozambican fashion adaptation is motivated by the desire to achieve a novel, distinct, and fashionable individual look, rather than by the wish to express progressivity or employability. This study demonstrates that the adaptation of fashion elements in the Chinese-Mozambican context has specific characteristics that distinguish it from fashion exchanges between Western and non-Western countries. Moreover, it shows that China indeed has “low” cultural soft power in the form of fashion.