Cultural-appropriation Outrage Over a Prom Dress Is Idiotic

I am very critical of China's government. It's corrupt, authoritarian and in some respects totalitarian. I have deep reservations about Chinese culture as well. The Chinese government bans sex-selective abortions — i.e., killing females in utero — but Chinese people still do it in staggering numbers. China also practices ethnic discrimination that would be instantly recognizable as a kind of Jim Crow or apartheid if the majority Han Chinese were white and minorities such as the Uighurs were black. I could go on, but you get the point.The reason I bring all of this up is that I want to be clear that my imminent praise for China is selective, even grudging. But you've got to hand it China. It has something we're sorely missing today: civilizational confidence.Exhibit A: The Chinese think we're idiots when it comes to the absurd panic over "cultural appropriation."By now you've probably heard that an American teenager wore a traditional Chinese dress to her prom. The young lady, Keziah Daum, is not ethnically Chinese or Asian. And this infuriated a lot of people on Twitter.   Continue reading...