The Dragon Cap , 2010s
Clothing Accessory

This black baseball cap with dragon motifs belongs to Tiffany Le, a Montreal-based artist and first-generation Chinese Canadian who immigrated to Canada at five. It features two dragons on each side of the cap, surrounding a central character that reads “dragon” in Chinese. The cap shows that twenty-first-century Chinese Canada women’s fashion can offer critiques of Western fashion appropriating Chinese culture. Incorporating Chinese motifs into mass-produced clothes and accessories also calls attention to issues such as the use of labour, consumerism and representation. Compared to the earlier generations, millennial Chinese Canadian women rarely wear traditional Chinese clothes. Their adoption of “world fashion” that combines Western and Chinese design elements do not emphasize their ethnic differences. Instead, it creates more ambiguity and space for interpretation, showing that these women are open to cross-cultural communication and exchange.

Exhibited by:

Violet Wolfe

Other works by Unknown

Portrait of Yamaguchi Momoe , 1980s Photograph Public
Photograph
Violet Wolfe
Cheongsam from Beauty Pageant , 1978-9
Dress
Violet Wolfe
Hand-painted Kimono , 1980s
Photograph
Violet Wolfe
Chinatown’s Girls Drill Team Uniform , 1960-62
60 x 46 cm (h x w)
Garment
Violet Wolfe
Hand-crafted Art Earrings , 1988
5.8 x 2.3 cm (h x w)
Jewelry
Violet Wolfe

More from Violet Wolfe

Chinese Woman’s Lilac Pants Suit , 1920s
Violet Wolfe
Print Chinese-Style Sheath Dress , 1935 to 1940
104 x 40 cm (h x w)
Dress
Violet Wolfe
Lillian Wong’s Chinese Applique Sheet , 1900 to 1930
26.5 x 22.9 cm (h x w)
appliques
Violet Wolfe
Ann Rutherford’s Spring Styles 1941 , 1941
Photograph
Violet Wolfe
Portrait of Katherine Hepburn , 1938
Photograph
Violet Wolfe