High school teen blasted as ‘racist’ for wearing a Chinese dress to her prom

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Keziah Daum, from Utah in the United States, posted a series of photos of herself with her friends on the way to her high school prom on Twitter.

But her decision to wear a qipao — a traditional Chinese outfit dating back to the 17th century — has enraged people online and attracted a wave of criticism.

The post began making the rounds after another user — Jeremy Lam — retweeted it with the caption “My culture is NOT your goddamn prom dress.”

In a series of subsequent tweets, Lam explained that the dress represented “extreme barriers marginalized people within (Chinese) culture have had to overcome”.

“For it to simply be subject to American consumerism and cater to a white audience, is parallel to colonial ideology,” he tweeted.

While his tweets criticising Keziah's decision to wear the dress went viral, users were divided on whether it was an issue.

Another person tweeted: "This isn’t ok. I wouldn’t wear traditional Korean, Japanese or any other traditional dress and I’m Asian.

"I wouldn’t wear traditional Irish or Swedish or Greek dress either. There’s a lot of history behind these clothes. Sad."

And a third added: "Was the theme of prom casual racism?"

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