ASIA 324 Literature of Hong Kong
ASIA324 (24W): From Ashes to Threads – Wartime and Modern Outfit Interpretations
By Marcus Fung, Samantha Teng, Elise Yip, Anita Zhu, and Claudia Jianing Zhu
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Project rationale:
“Our project was inspired by Eileen Chang’s story From the Ashes, which shows how war reshapes lives, not in the big battles, but through everyday, mundane moments. Chang focuses on how individuals talk, eat, dress, or even joke as bombs fall, showing the emotional weight of ordinary experiences during crisis. Our group wanted to continue exploring this idea by imagining what war meant for each of the characters: how they endured it, and how it shaped their identities. Using fashion as our medium, we designed wartime and modern-day outfits for five characters: Eileen Chang, Sureika, Evelyn, Mr. France, and Fatima to express their experiences, personalities, and emotional journeys through clothing.
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Through the medium of fashion, we transformed Eileen Chang’s characters’ wartime struggles into wearable stories. From Sureika’s beauty-as-survival to Fatima’s refusal to submit, clothes became armor and identity. In bridging past and present together, we illustrate how survival is in the everyday experiences we live.”