The Traditional Chinese Clothing-”Hanfu”
There are groups of people in China loves a kind of clothing called “Hanfu”. I am also a part of this group. And more and more people are getting into the “Hanfu” group in China. Then what is “Hanfu”?
What is “Hanfu”?
China has many ethnic groups with a long history while Han people dominate most periods in history. Thus, we called the traditional Chinese clothing “HanFu” in Chinese. As we all know, China has a long history. For thousands of years, generations of clothing designers have devoted themselves to building the Kingdom of Clothes, making the garments that cover the human body into an important component of Chinese culture. With the replacement of the Chinese dynasties, every Chinese dynasty has its own symbolic clothing. The progress of a nation can be seen through its changes in clothing styles.
The history of the traditional Chinese clothing
The Qin and Han dynasties (221 B.C. — A.D. 220) witnessed the territory unification and the language unification. Qin Shihuang is the first emperor who achieve the territory unification in Chinese history. He established many social systems, including using uniform to distinguish people’s ranks and social positions.
Chinese clothing experienced a rapid development during the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern dynasties (220–589) because of the frequent wars which lead to the cultures and esthetic views of the north of south Chinese merged at that time. In addition to the wars, many philosophical schools of thought also influenced the clothing design conceptions.
People’s clothes of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) were more varied than before. Because the state was more open to the world during the Tang Dynasty. And this makes people could. incorporate more international elements into Chinese clothing.
The clothes of Song Dynasty (960–1279) were simple and elegant. During the Yuan Dynasty (1206–1368), the Mongolian ethnic group which is known as the People on Horseback, dominated China at that time. The clothing style of clothing was a combination of Mongolian and Han at the Yuan Dynasty. You could also know one person’s ranks and social positions by observing people’s clothes. Clothes for upper people were luxurious, but for normal people the clothes were simple and plain. Dramatic changes took place during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Qing Dynasty’s clothing were not have limitation to style and advocating natural beauty during designing. During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), clothes became elegant and glorious.
The misunderstanding of “HanFu”
At the beginning of this year, I’ve taken place into some activities which could spread Chinese culture at LA. I’ve been wearing my own Hanfus which I brought from China during those activities. From those experiences, I found some misunderstanding of Hanfu.
Some people came to ask us whether the Hanfu is the clothes of the Han Dynasty. But in fact is not. It just use Han to called the traditional Chinese clothing. Because Han people dominate most periods in history.
Many people mix the traditional Chinese clothing up with traditional Japanese and Korean clothing. The origin of Japanese and Korean clothing is the traditional Chinese clothing, thus, they use some similar elements during designing which cause this kind of misunderstanding.
Traditional Chinese clothing is beautiful and the Chinese culture is interesting. There are also other interesting things of Chinese culture are waiting for more people to discover, such as the ancient Chinese poetry, Chinese dance and so on.
