English Version
In the final stage of the card game, I introduced a new layer to the research—Cultural Dislocation. The idea was to push participants out of their familiar local lens and ask them to reimagine Chengdu’s cultural symbols from the perspective of an “outsider,” someone who had never actually been to Chengdu.
Why this extra step? Because I realized that many cultural symbols feel obvious to locals—or even to me. But in a global context, those meanings can shift, distort, or take on new layers. If Chengdu is ever to develop a distinct fashion identity, it can’t be shaped only by internal self-recognition. It also has to consider how outsiders consume and imagine the culture. That’s why, in my stakeholder design, I planned two comparison groups: one made up only of locals, and another mixed group including both locals and non-locals. (I’ll go into this in more detail in my final report.)
The Case of the Night Market
One of the clearest examples of cultural dislocation came from the “night market” card. At first, a participant called it one of the most disputable Chengdu symbols, explaining: “Night markets aren’t unique to Chengdu—many cities have them. I don’t see it as something that defines us.”
But in the dislocation exercise, the same participant tried to reconstruct Chengdu’s night market through the imagination of a foreign visitor. The result was surprising: the night market they described looked nothing like the everyday local version. Instead, stalls were imagined as bamboo sheds with curved Chinese eaves, hung with red lanterns. The food on offer wasn’t Chengdu street snacks, but stereotypical “Oriental” dishes: dumplings, fried rice, steamed buns. In other words, the “night market” here wasn’t a local reality at all—it was a symbolic, almost cinematic version of Chengdu, built out of external fantasy.
Why Cultural Dislocation Matters
This exercise made it clear to me that cultural identity is always negotiated between lived experience and outside perception. For locals, night markets may feel ordinary, even unrepresentative. But for outsiders, they might easily become a postcard image of Chengdu. This mismatch doesn’t just reveal the gaps in cultural communication—it also reminds me that in constructing a fashion identity, I need to account for how symbols travel and transform across different audiences.
Cultural dislocation also highlights a deeper risk: some cultural elements may become over-symbolized under the global gaze, turning into tourist clichés or surface-level stereotypes. For Chengdu, this is a crucial warning. Fashion thrives on symbols that are both deeply rooted in local experience and legible on a global stage—not shallow images that flatten complexity.
That’s why cultural dislocation is more than just a research step—it’s a bridge. It connects everyday local life with external imagination, offering new insights for the next stage of my project: exploring how these cultural symbols might be translated into the language of fashion.
Chinese Version
在卡牌游戏的最后阶段，我引入了一个新的研究环节——文化错位（Cultural Dislocation）。它的目的在于迫使参与者跳出本土经验，从“外来者”或“从未来过成都的人的视角”去重新想象成都文化元素。
这个环节的引入，是因为我意识到：很多文化符号在本地人眼中似乎理所当然，或者是我的理所当然，但在全球语境下，它们的意义会发生偏移。成都要形成一个独特的时尚身份，就不能只停留在“内部的自我认同”，还必须考虑“外部的文化消费与想象”。这也是我一开始构思谁是我的stakeholders，我觉有必要进行两组对比测试。第一组是只有成都本地人的group，第二组是混有成都本地人的group。这一点我会在报告中详细解释。
夜市的错位重构
最典型的案例来自“夜市”这张牌。一位参与者选择它作为最具争议的成都符号，并解释说：“夜市并不独属于成都，很多城市都有，这让我很难认同它能代表成都文化。”在文化错位的练习中，这位参与者尝试以外国游客的想象来重构成都夜市。
结果令人惊喜：他们描绘的夜市完全不同于本地经验。所有摊位被设想成竹子搭建的棚架，屋檐带有古典中式的飞檐，挂满红色灯笼。摊位售卖的食物不是成都人日常的小吃，而是带有“东方刻板印象”的小笼包、饺子、炒饭。换句话说，这个“夜市”并不是成都人熟悉的空间，而是外来者基于符号化想象构建出的“成都版本”。
为什么文化错位重要？
这一练习让我深刻意识到，文化身份总是在本地经验与外部认知之间被协商。夜市在成都人眼中或许平凡，甚至缺乏代表性；但在外来者的文化消费逻辑中，它却可能被塑造为成都的一张“名片”。这种错位不仅揭示了文化传播中的偏差，也提醒我在研究时尚身份时，必须考虑符号在不同受众之间的意义转译。
文化错位还带来了另一层启发：它帮助我们发现哪些文化元素可能在“全球化的眼光”下被过度符号化，从而陷入旅游化或表面化的陷阱。这对于构建成都的时尚身份尤其关键，因为时尚需要既能代表在地经验，又能在全球范围内传播和被识别。
因此，文化错位不仅是研究中的一个环节，更是一个桥梁：它把本地的生活经验和外部的文化想象连接起来，为之后的“文化转译为时尚语言”提供了新的视角。
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