Sarah Cheang is senior tutor in the History of Design programme, where she leads the Modern Specialism. Her research interests centre on fashion, the body and cultural exchange between East and West. She has a special interest in the role of Chinese material culture within histories of Western fashionable dress and domestic interiors, a subject on which she has published widely and lectures frequently. Her edited collection Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion (2008) and her work on ageing and skin-care products have led to contributions to magazine articles, radio and television. She is currently preparing two books for publication: Fashion and Ethnicity and Sinophilia.
Sarah Cheang joined the Royal College of Art in September 2011. From 2005 to 2011, she was senior lecturer in Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion, where she established courses on fashion, the body and ethnic identity, and also coordinated the Cultural and Historical Studies Research Hub. From 1998, she has also made regular contributions to Humanities programmes at the University of Brighton. Sarah’s teaching interests reflect her passion and commitment to the broadening of curricula to include the nuanced study of non-Western art and design and embodied feminine responses to material culture, topics that have historically been considered outside of the canon.
Sarah holds a BA in History of Design from Brighton University and an MA in Art History from Sussex University. She completed her DPhil at Sussex University in 2003. Her work on Western representations of China, and more particularly the collecting and consumption of Chinese material culture in Britain from 1890, has led to prize-winning publications on ceramics, textiles, interior design and even Pekingese dogs. She also curated the twentieth-century section of the exhibition Chinese Whispers: Chinoiserie in Britain 1650–1930 (Brighton Museum and Royal Pavilion, 2008), which won best temporary exhibition at the Museum and Heritage Awards.
Sarah’s interest in the cultural shaping of nature and the historical use of the body as a fashioned artefact is reflected in her edited collection
Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion (2008), and her ongoing work on ageing and skin-care products. Issues of gender, race and ethnicity are often uppermost in her work. She is currently preparing two books for publication:
Fashion and Ethnicity and
Sinophilia.