The Resurgence of Traditional Chinese Costume — Hanfu
When talking about Chinese costumes, Tang suit (Chinese suit), the Mao suit, and Cheongsam are the three most frequently mentioned forms. Besides these costumes, Hanfu is another form of traditional Chinese costume, which had been ignored for many years. Recently, with the revival of Confucian culture, Hanfu has been realized by people and more and more people like to wear Hanfu in important events, holidays or ceremonies.
The History of Hanfu
Hanfu (or Han Chinese clothing) is one of the longest history ethnic costume in the world, from 21st century B.C. to mid-17th century, nearly 4000 years history, basing on the Han nationality culture, through the natural evolution, and then formed a unique costume system. Unlike other ethnic costumes, Hanfu is a mass of ethnic Han clothes from Xia and Shang Dynasties to modern days with characteristics of ethnic Han.
The style of Hanfu changed with the dynasties, concise beauty was respected in the early stage (Xia-Shang dynasty to Han dynasty). This period was a strict hierarchy society, the length of the skirt, the wideness of the sleeve or the degree of ornamentation of Shenyi (a common type of Hanfu in this period) represented different positions.
Shenyi (Xia-Shang dynasty to Han dynasty), it was primarily worn by women.
*Shenyi (Xia-Shang dynasty to Han dynasty), it was primarily worn by men.
Tang dynasty was the golden time of ancient China, the culture and economy developed rapidly. Foreign culture came in ancient China and had been well accepted, old notions like the low status of women had been changed, which directly reflected by the change of Hanfu. It used to call for clothes should be covered up the whole body, in Tang dynasty, Hanfu became broad and loss.
*Hanfu n Tang dynasty.
From Song dynasty to Ming dynasty, Hanfu changed a lot, the collar mainly became circular type instead of symmetrical type. ‘The proportion of the upper outer garment to lower skirt in Ming dynasty was significantly inverted. Since the upper outer garment was shorter and the lower garment was longer, the jacket gradually became longer to shorten the length of the exposed skirt (https://interactchina.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/hanfu-or-han-chinese-clothing/). Hanfu in Qing dynasty inherited these characteristics.
*Hanfu in Song dynasty, Yuan dynasty, Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty.
In late Qing dynasty period, the clothing was affected by western style clothes, especially in the modern society, these western-style clothes instead of Hanfu and became people’s daily wearing. Now Hanfu has become a historical heritage of ancient China, it usually appears in important festivals and media entertainment.
The Revival of Hanfu
In Nvember, 2003, Wang Letian, an ordinary man, he wore Quju (a form of Hanfu) went to the street, which was based on the limited information and made by other Hanfu fans and himself. He is the first man who wore Hanfu in public places. Journalist Zhang Congxing reported this news in ‘Lianhe Zaobao (the largest Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper)’, and attracted worldwide attentions, this was the beginning of Hanfu renaissance.
2004 is an important year for Hanfu, on October 7th, ‘Beijing Times’ reported a Hanfu activities, a false report appeared at night, and some websites changed the title and called Hanfu ‘shroud’. Hanfu amateurs sued the company and won this case. After this, Hanfu had been well-known, more and more people took part in the Hanfu revival.
In 2006, the Chinese government official website changed the image of Han Chinese to Hanfu, it represented the government approved Hanfu. In the following year, Hanfu had been proposed in CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) and the National People’s Conference that Hanfu can represent Han Chinese clothing.
In 2009, Hanfu fans in British propagandized Hanfu, it was the first overseas Hanfu event had been reported, and it started popularity of Hanfu all over the world. On April 30th, 2013, the first Cross-Strait Hanfu Culture Festival was held in Fuzhou.
So far, Hanfu had been widely known by both Chinese people and foreigners, the number of Hanfu amateurs increased from only a few people to over 465,000, this is the efforts by Hanfu fans and the government support. In the following years, more and more Hanfu activities will be held, the biggest wish of Hanfu fans is that Hanfu can be accepted by the public in the future.
Hanfu Amateurs
Tang Yan is a big fun of Hanfu. The first time she knew it was 6 years ago, when she was a college student. Tang went to a Hanfu exhibition with her friend, the exhibition shared the beautiful clothes and the culture of Hanfu. ‘I fell in love with Hanfu at the first sight!’ Tang smiled and said, ‘I could not wait to try on Hanfu.’
After the exhibition, Tang searched more information about Hanfu, then she realized that Hanfu had become a historical and cultural sign of ancient Chinese rather than the daily clothes. It was minority, and it was hard to find someone who had the same interests, her friends could not understand why Tang suddenly liked Hanfu and wanted to wear it in daily life. ‘They said that was so strange. Hanfu is an old thing, people do not wear it now. Hanfu is a vague concept to them, it only has significance to culture. I felt so depressed,’ Tang said.
‘When I found Hanfu Post bar (like Google Group), I felt so happy, I made lots friends, and they are all Hanfu fans. With our efforts, people around us gradually accepted Hanfu, ’Tang smiled. In summer days, Tang and her friends organize activities together, they wear Hanfu and go to streets to introduce Hanfu.
Not everyone can understand her dressing, several time when Tang was walking along the street, people thought the clothes were Kimono (Japanese costume) or Hanbok (Korean costume). ‘Some people thought I was wearing Kimono, I had to explain it is Hanfu. Actually Kimono and Hanbok are both derived from Hanfu in Tang dynasty, but now people believe Hanfu copies Kimono, that is so ridiculous!’ Tang was silent for several seconds and then said, ‘I feel a little bit down about it.’
Tang and her friends want to broadcast Hanfu and arise people’s attention, not only because its historic significance, but also because Hanfu is Han Chinese’s costume. ‘China has 56 ethnic groups, only our do not have our own clothing, but the truth is, we have Hanfu, but people do not know it.’
*Tang Yan wore Hanfu.
Tang’s Hanfu are all made by Li, a tailoress who owns an online taobao shop. Most of her goods are Chinese ancient costumes. From 2010, the sales of Hanfu had increased quickly, it soon become the best-selling in Li’s shop. Even in Hanfu was better known in 2010 than before, but for most people, they only heard Hanfu before, but did not know exactly what Hanfu is.
‘There are so many forms of Hanfu, I could not distinguish them very well at first. I really knew little about it, so I searched online, and I found I am not the only one knew little about Hanfu. The information of Hanfu was not as completely as now, there were few ways to know about it’, Li said, she had to ask her clients several times to make sure the clothing is right.
But now things go better, Li can get the information online, the information is a complete system. ‘From 2010, I have made over 300 Hanfu. At first I knew nothing about Hanfu, and now I can explain Hanfu very well, I think I am an observer of the process of Hanfu revival,’ Li laughed.
The Debates of Hanfu Revival
‘People hold different opinions about the Hanfu revival. Some people criticize Hanfu revival’, Caicai explained, she is a journalist who had published several news about Hanfu.
The arguments of Hanfu revival are mainly focus on three aspects. The first one is about whether Hanfu is the clothing of Han Chinese, because in the process of national assimilation, the costumes and culture of different nationalities were interacted, it is hard to define what Hanfu is. The second one is about if people can accept Hanfu well, the disappearance of Hanfu is because of historical reasons, in modern days, Hanfu cannot replace western-style clothing, some people argued there is no need to revive Hanfu in modern society. The biggest debate it that, critics argue some Hanfu fans are too radical, which may cause ultranationalist problem, some opponent even called the revival ‘Nazism’, which is unreasonable.
The reconstruction of national pride and the revival of Chinese culture are the original intention of Hanfu renaissance, it is purely a cultural consciousness and heritage. The culture of Hanfu is a way to help people understand the history, maybe this is the biggest significance of Hanfu revival.
In the future, Tang and her friends will continue promote Hanfu. ‘What we have done is just want to spread our culture, and we do not care the result’.
