Wearing qipao to prom is not cultural appropriation
Several social media sites I visited recently carried stories about the controversy over a US student wearing a Chinese qipao to prom. My initial reaction was: Oh, no. Senator Marco Rubio will testify to the US Congress that wearing a qipao is a national security risk.
It turned out that the event was less dramatic: the robe was worn as a prom dress by Keziah Daum, a student from a Utah high school, which probably does not have a Confucius Institute to make the increasingly belligerent Rubio worried.
Keziah has a creative bent of mind, as her choice of qipao for her prom was entirely different from others. Most high-school students would play it safe by shopping for a dress with a style similar to the ones their peers wear. So what's the fuss?
