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Chinese Costumes |
| Chinese costumes have developed a lot in the course of history and during different phases of history, many classical ones with distinct characteristics of the time appeared. In this newsletter, you will review with us some of the most featured Chinese costumes, and learn the interesting stories behind them. |
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As its name suggests, Hanfu encompasses all types of traditional clothing worn by the Han Chinese ethnic group. As such, it has a history as long as the history of the Han Chinese people. According to Chinese tradition, Hanfu can be traced back to the Yellow Emperor, a great sage king of ancient China who legend says ruled in the 27th century B. C. Hanfu itself has recorded history of more than 3000 years. It was worn by Han Chinese people from the Xia Dynasty (c. 21st century B. C. – 16th century B. C.) all the way to the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). The traditional dress of many Asian countries has been influenced by Hanfu, especially those of Japan and Korea.
Hanfu was once regarded by Han Chinese as a very important part of their culture. The wearing of appropriate styles of Hanfu was an important part of courteous refined behavior.
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| Confucius considered Hanfu an indispensable part of Chinese ceremony and ritual and many of his quotations contain references to Hanfu. However, Hanfu was eliminated by Manchu invaders by force in the 17th century, and suddenly lost its status being regarded as a national costume. |
| Hanfu disappeared at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Qing Dynasty was founded not by Han Chinese who form the overwhelming majority of the population of China, but by the Manchus, a fishing and hunting people which first rose to prominence in the Northeast. |
| The Manchus foresaw that they would have great difficulty in ruling the Han Chinese, who outnumbered them vastly and had a much more established culture. Soon after the takeover of China, the Manchus began to exercise a policy of subjugating the native Chinese populations to adopt Manchu culture to eliminate unrest at the clear invasion of a foreign ethnic group. The ruling Manchus forced the Han Chinese men to adopt Manchu hairstyle (the pigtail) and Manchu-style clothing. Enforcement of the policies was swift, brutal but effective. Hanfu was replaced by Manchu-style clothing, and soon every Chinese male wore a pigtail. However Ming-era clothing was still permitted for women. As time passed the differences between the slender Manchurian Changpao and the wide-sleeve Ming style clothing narrowed. This resulted in the development of the AO dress which distinguished Manchurian style clothing from Ming style. The Manchurian Changpao, in the late of Qing Dynasty, has also developed into Qipao, |
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| which received much welcome by the women and was widely flourished in China. |
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The Mao suit is the western name for the style of male attire known as the Zhongshan suit, named after Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) who introduced it shortly after the founding of the Republic of China. In accordance with the Chinese tradition of changing the style of dress for different dynasties, Sun Yat-sen instructed that a new form of clothing be designed for the new republic. The Western name comes from its popularization by Mao Zedong.
Incorporating elements of German military dress including a turn down collar and four symmetrically placed pockets and based on a form of attire popular with contemporary Chinese men in Japan and Southeast Asia.
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The Zhongshan suit was an attempt to cater to “modern” sensibilities wit out completely adopting Western styles. Instead of the three hidden pockets in Western suits, the Zhongshan suit had four outside pockets to adhere to Chinese concepts of balance and symmetry. Over time, minor stylistic changes developed. The suit originally had seven buttons, later reduced to five.
After Sun Yat-sen’s death in 1925, popular mythology assigned a revolutionary and patriotic significance to the Zhongshan suit. The four pockets were said to represent the Four Cardinal Principles cited in the classic Book of Changes. The five center-front buttons were said to represent the five Quans (branches of government) cited in the constitution of the Republic of China and the three cuff-buttons to symbolize Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People.
In the 1920s, civil servants of the Chinese government were required to wear the Zhongshan suit. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the suit became a symbol of proletarian unity, and was regularly worn by Communist party cadres until the 1990s when it was largely replaced by the Western business suit. The Zhongshan or Mao suit remained the standard formal dress for the first and second generation of PRC leaders such as Deng Xiaoping.
During the 1990s, it began to be worn with increasingly infrequence by leaders of Jiang Zemin’s generation. On informal occasions, most of older cadres will wear panama shirts and most of younger cadres will wear polo shirts. By the early part of the 21st century, the Mao or Zhongshan suit has been rarely worn even on formal occasions. The infrequent occasions on which it is worn usually involve situations in civilian party officials wish to demonstrate control over the military. In Taiwan, the Zhongshan suit was infrequently seen after the 1970s.
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In China, many national minorities also have their unique dressing styles that were inherited from long ago, especially the Miao minority.
In case the Miao girls in rich dresses would join together, it should display a beautiful silver world. To be fond of wearing the silver ornaments is the natural instinct of them. The Miao girl rolls up the chignon on the top of her head, wearing a 20 cm-high delicate silver flower crown with six long or short silver up-warping wings, where the patterns of two dragons playing with a pearl are usually made. In some areas, besides some silver pieces inserted on the silver crown, a pair of one-meter or so silver ox horns may also be inserted into the crown, with colored ribbons tied at the tip of the horns, thus bringing out the nobility and beauty to the Miao girl. Along the lower edge of the silver crown, hang many silver colored braces with a row of pretty silver objects. There are several necklaces with different sizes on the neck of the Miao girl, mostly interlinked up with pretty silver flowers and rings.
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The Miao girl also wears the silver lock and the silver collar weight in front of the chest; while, the silver cloak with many pretty silver-bell weights hanging, on the back. The earrings and bracelets are all made of silver.
On the upper garment, the two sleeves come into the view of the fire-red embroidery, yet there is still a circle of silver adornments on the cull of the sleeve. The splendid dress and adornments of the Miao girls may weigh up to several kilograms; some may be accumulated and handed down from generation to generation. The Miao girls have always enjoyed the good reputation of “Surpassing the beauty of the goddess when they wear bright-colored clothes and silver adornments”. The Miao’s silver adornments are made with resplendent and fine workmanship, the wonderful workmanship excelling nature. It fully demonstrates the intelligence and capability of the Miao people.
The skirt of the Miao girl is called Baizhequn – the pleated skirt. In fact, there may be 500-odd pleats on only one skirt. The skirt of the Miao girl has many layers, some even up to 30 or 40 layers on one skirt. The skirts, form spinning and weaving, dying and bleaching, sewing and making, to the last procedure of pattern drawing and embroidering, would be all completed independently by the Miao girls themselves. In addition, they also embroider their flower waist-belts, their flower aprons, etc. All these are extraordinary splendor and so many beautiful things that one simply cannot take them all in.
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