BY THE ALIMOCHE TEAM
6 JANUARY 2023
Celebrated on January 22nd this year, the Lunar New Year is one of the most important events of the year in China, Thailand, Mongolia, Laos, and many other Asian nations. It is a deeply auspicious time for family, friendship, good luck and renewal. The strengthening of bonds and honouring ancestors is a core tenet of the New Year, and Mattel’s Barbie have joined forces with prevalent Chinese designer Guo Pei to release a new doll for the year.
AUSPICIOUS OCCASION OR LAZY CASH-GRAB? THE WRONG ANIMAL FOR THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT- THE DRAGON IS RESTING UNTIL ITS TIME IS DUE IN 2024.
IMAGE SOURCE: MATTEL CREATIONS
Despite the otherworldly charm of the doll’s carmine pout and effortlessly future-facing bobbed hairstyle, there is a bizarre mistake in her outfit. Having commissioned Guo Pei, who is so culturally connected to her Chinese roots, often showcasing said roots within her extensive collections, the doll’s outfit is unusually filigreed with gilded dragon embroideries. For a release scheduled for 22nd January 2023, there is a major discrepancy here. Lunar New Year 2023 marks the ending of the Year of the Tiger, and the transit to the Year of the Rabbit, with the Year of the Dragon not occurring in the calendar until February 10th 2024. Therefore, the golden dragon outfit should be shelved until the next Lunar New Year, as it is much more appropriately timed for the respective year, instead of being pushed by Mattel as the Barbie release for the 2023 New Year. Whilst the lucky colours of red and gold are present in the model’s outfit, the embroidery choice is simply shocking. For such an influential corporation, a pinnacle of female empowerment, arts, culture and knowledge, this is appalling.
THE DESIGNER OF THE DOLL'S OUTFIT, GUO PEI, IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH INTERNATIONALLY. BUT IS IT APPROPRIATE FOR THE DESIGN TO LACK RABBITS?
IMAGE SOURCE: GUO PEI
The pioneer of the iconic Barbie brand, a cornerstone of the childhood of the modern woman, failed to respect the propitiousness of one of the holiest holidays in the East and South-East Asian calendar. In spite of uniting with a Chinese designer, whose pieces have awed the world, from the Met Gala to the Victoria and Albert Museum, this lack of research in using Dragon embroideries to celebrate the Rabbit’s year is completely disrespectful to all cultures that celebrate the New Year with the Eastern calendar. Barbie once taught children around the world about other cultures, from the immaculate Indian Barbie to the stunning Spanish Barbie of the 90s. Yet this disrespect concerning the lack of research behind the Year of the Rabbit release sends a message not of intersectionality and multiculturalism, but instead of laziness and corporate greed. We live in a world where information is available at our fingertips, yet there is no mention of the specific animal we are celebrating this Lunar New Year in the Barbie and Guo Pei collaboration.
Guo Pei’s intensive artistry in the intricacy of the doll’s outfit is therefore overshadowed by the thoughtlessness, or rabbitlessness in this case, of the release. Barbies are not just dolls, but also cultural icons, indicative of the times in which people lived, as well as the scale (not those of the dragon, though), of trends and celebrations. Whilst the dolls of yesteryear were thoughtfully created as symbols of culture, what does the laziness of this collection represent? Is it an American-centric view of the celebration, nouveau-Orientalism in its purest capitalistic form? Or is it the dwindling of quality as industrialism runs rampant, pervading thought into arts and culture, instead focussed on a mass-produced hard-sell, lacking the cultural sensitivity of the old dolls? This doll is a clear failure on Mattel and Guo Pei’s reputations, both icons of iconography. Let’s hope next year’s release isn’t doused in rabbits as an overcompensation.
MAYBE MATTEL SHOULD SPEND LESS ON RYAN GOSLING AND MORE ON RESEARCH.
IMAGE SOURCE: UNSPLASH
this text choice is also suboptimal, lack of vertical separation for letters make this unnecessarily difficult to read for a site based on text
This is not her first barbie design, and i feel as if you are being overtly critical of a creator hailing from the sinosphere in discussion whilst neither you have spent considerable time in this culture or celebrations. her 2022 design, more red and gold than this year‘s, holds phoenix iconography (not rooster), and has no direct link to the roster of zodiac animals. your analysis of this lacks nuance in the lunar new year being a time of complication of sinosphere celebration. if you find her design so disagreeable, why not challenge the previous year first? you have to understand the auspicious presence of dragons regardless of calendar proximity, and to call an intricate design that at least has…