Instead of honoring Chinese culture, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art invited celebrities to publicly demonstrate how ignorant they are about Chinese symbols, history and fashion at their yearly fundraising party, the Met Gala.

In more everyday speech:
Dear White People,
Get off my cultural lawn.
Sincerely,
an actual Chinese person.

The party was supposedly celebrating the opening of “China: Through the Looking Glass,” an exhibit attempting to trace the influence of Chinese imagery on Western fashion.

Instead, they provided the public an opportunity to witness cultural misappropriation in action.

Putting chopsticks into a hair bun, as Emma Roberts demonstrated on her instagram, is a failed attempt at honoring Chinese culture.

People laugh when mermaid Ariel combs her hair with a fork. It should be also acceptable to laugh when a western celebrity inserts chopsticks, also used for eating, into her hair to show off how much she knows about China.

Cultural misappropriation is when someone from outside a culture takes an important symbol out of context for personal reasons.
Cultural misappropriation should not be an acceptable fashion practice.

When creating a symbol, there’s an intended audience and a history behind that symbol. Taking a symbol out of cultural context sends the message that the original culture doesn’t matter and exists to provide exotic material for thieves to exploit.

Cultures are not costumes. Simplifying over 2000 years of written history into a party outfit sounds impossible because it is.

That certainly explains why so many outfits at the Met Gala, in addition to being culturally appropriative, simply looked awful.

Celebrity Sarah Jessica Parker resorted to wearing a flame looking headpiece, according to her instagram. Irish hat designer Philip Treacy designed the headpiece, according to Mic.com.

The Chinese involvement in that particular outfit is about none, which would explain why the headset makes no sense whatsoever to actual Chinese people, according to the Telegraph.

Rihanna, on the other hand, wore a dress from famed Chinese designer Guo Pei, she told Vanity Fair. Her gold dress with the long train looked stunning, and no cultural stealing was involved.

Crediting the original source is the easiest way to get around cultural appropriation, since it’s admitting that the original source, did in fact, create whatever awesome thing you’re looking at. Giving credit to the creator means there is no misappropriationnvolved.

Stop using Chinese symbols to make Western fashions look more exotic. Western designers, go look to your own cultures for inspiration, instead of continuing to perpetuate stereotypes about China and Asia.

Stop trying to look exotic and otherworldly by looking Chinese.

Unless you belong to a particular culture, you’re better off not holding a culturally themed party. There’s no reason to show off your ignorance when you’re trying have fun with friends.