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China’s Communist Party newspaper the Global Times praised leftist American musician Beyoncé on Tuesday for featuring an outfit designed by a regime-approved Chinese designer and appropriating elements of the Yi ethnic minority’s culture.
Beyoncé reportedly featured an outfit designed by 21-year-old Yuan Qiqi – who the Global Times described as “Chinese,” likely meaning ethnic Han – that appropriated Yi style in her promotional images for her new album, Renaissance. Rather than condemn Beyoncé for being “inspired” by Yi culture without crediting the minority, which faces significant discrimination from regime-friendly rural corporations at home, the Global Times approved of Beyoncé’s use of a designer who told the newspaper that he felt compelled to “protect” what the Communist Party considers Chinese culture.
Promotional #RENAISSANCE billboard has been seen in Beijing, China. pic.twitter.com/CEotMIonol
Beyoncé Chinese Hive (@china_beyonce) August 4, 2022
The Yi ethnic group is native to the southwestern Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou, and are a largely rural community with cultural and language similarities to Tibetans and the Burmese. Estimated to number about 9 million people, the Yi , like nearly all ethnic minorities in China, have struggled with discrimination and abuse on the part of Han, regime-approved organizations. Their regions tend to be far less economically prosperous than Han regions, turning many of them into vulnerable migrant workers. The Communist Party has done little to improve the situation of the Yi, instead focusing on subduing anti-regime sentiments within the group.
China’s 21-year-old fashion owner designed custom dress for #Beyonce’s new album style, inspired from the country’s Yi ethnic group and their traditional shoulder pads. https://t.co/Cv55kU0wqz
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 9, 2022
The Global Times claimed that Beyoncé’s public relations team sought out Yuan, the Chinese designer, after finding a design by him “inspired” by the Yi people.
“In his short career as a fashion designer, Yuan has been inspired by the diverse traditional cultures of China, from the turquoise of the well-known Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains and the black of Chinese inkwash landscape paintings to the large shoulder pads of the Yi people,” the Global Times detailed, stating that the outfit Beyoncé wore in the Renaissance promotional images was desgined after Yuan “happened to come across a popular short video on Douyin, China’s TikTok, in which a group of elderly Yi men were wearing traditional clothes.
