Transnational Cultural Exchange and the Fashioning of Identity: An Analysis of Western Suits in the Hong Kong-New York Corridor, 1945-1980

The tailoring industry was characterised by the Cantonese and Shanghainese factions in post-war Hong Kong. By the 1960s, Chinese tailors had established their own businesses in New York and operated cross-border suit businesses through the mail-order system. As the tailoring business gained popularity in the American market, more Chinese tailors were attracted to New York to set up their businesses. This phenomenon led to a close connection between Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities and contributed to the city’s role as a node in a wider global network. The growth of the tailoring industry in New York also enabled the tailors to rebrand themselves as Hong Kong tailors, rather than Cantonese or Shanghainese tailors, and to invent a ‘Hong Kong-ised’ version of suit culture as the cultural symbol of the city. This transformation of identity and cultural production highlights the importance of the tailoring industry in shaping Hong Kong’s transnational connections and cosmopolitan identity within the Sino-western cultural web. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including government archives, oral history, and newspapers, this study explores the identity changes and commercial-cultural contribution of Chinese tailors in the Hong Kong-New York corridor. By repositioning Hong Kong within the transnational framework, this research not only sheds light on the importance of the tailoring industry in facilitating the city’s cross-border connections and transforming individual, communal and place-based identities, but also offers an alternative perspective on the city’s global interconnectedness in terms of its flows of people, culture, and materiality.