In the twenty-first century, Chinese Canadian women not only seek fashion inspirations from popular culture but also inspire fashion designers and artist-curators to create works that are reflective of their experiences. Cheryl Sim, a mixed-race Canadian media artist, curator, and musician with Chinese heritage, makes this modern cheongsam. The dress was created for an exhibition, The Fitting Room, as Sim interviewed Chinese Canadian women from both the post-WWII and the millennial generations, using their responses and perceptions of Chineseness to create multiple dresses. The Banana Dress responds to the “banana syndrome”, a term used to describe Canadian-born or raised people with Chinese heritage who lost connections to their cultural roots. The dress does not reflect shame and guilt associated with the “banana generation”. Instead, it uses cheerful bright yellow, playful polka dots and banana motifs that resemble flying birds to acknowledge and celebrate one’s cultural hybridity. The dress considers diaspora an empowering self-consciousness to break racial barriers in art and society, using innovative fashion to claim power and self-acceptance.