Preserving the Han Style of Clothing

At the end of the 20' century the rest of the world became interested in Chinese clothes. Chinese styles were in vogue on international catwalks. Oriental patterns featuring the Chinese characters for "dragon" and "phoenix" and Oriental cloth with patterns of small flowers or motifs like ink and wash paintings caught the Western imagination and Chinese-style loops and buttons began to appear on clothes designed in the West. John Galliano, chief designer of both Christian Dior and Galliano, launched collections that included cheongsams and traditional Chinese jackets. In 1997, the Chinese government resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong and made the Chinese-style traditional jacket (with buttons down the front and a stand-up collar) a symbol of national cohesion. The first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Tung Chee-hwa, wore a cotton-padded coat with buttons down the front and a stand-up collar at a greeting party on the first day of the first lunar month in 1998.

In early 2001, the film In the Mood for Love was screened. Maggie Cheung, the leading actress in the film, changed into dozens of cheongsams through the course of the story. Young Chinese people began to see the beauty of Chinese clothes. Others had shown this kind of interest before - in 1982 the great French clothing designer Yves Saint Laurent held a "Chinese-style" fashion show in Beijing, but the bamboo hats worn by the models - like those worn by Manchu troops -and loose collarless clothes with buttons down the front did not arouse any interest in China itself because Chinese people were more interested in Western-style clothes after China's recent reforms. The situation was different after the 1990s. Chinese people began to see the vitues of their own clothes.

Next, Chinese-style clothes were worn at an APEC meeting by world leaders such as Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, and Kim Dae-jung. Chinese-style clothes soon became very popular and were called Tang suits (meaning traditional Chinese clothes) outside of China.

Chinese-style clothes were becoming fashionable, and fashion changes things - so the collar shape began to change, the sleeves and shoulders evolved, and related ornaments also developed. Buttons with loops remained as a constant, and Chinese materials, such as red satin, were still used.

Around 2007, some college students began to promote Han clothes, then special websites selling Han clothes emerged, and later people wearing Han clothes could be seen in the streets. There were even fashion shows just about Han clothes.

So what are Han clothes? Han clothes look like Han or Tang clothes. In their pursuit of Han clothes, were college students trying to distill the essence of traditional Chinese clothing, or particularly of the Han ethnic group?

Han clothes divide into two groups - the clothing of the Han ethnic group, and the clothes of the Han Dynasty. Record of Travels to the North, an ancient book written by Tan Qian (1593-1657) during the Qing Dynasty, says, "In the Liao Dynasty, when Emperor Taizong Deguang conquered the Later Jin Dynasty, the emperor and Han officials in the south group wore Han clothes, and the empress and Khitan officials wore national clothes. Their Han clothes were in the style of the Later Jin Dynasty.'1 This clearly shows that in the early Liao Dynasty, ceremonial dress had two styles: the clothes in the style of the Later Jin Dynasty worn by Han officials were called "Han clothes" or "clothes of the south group"; Khitan ministers still wore Khitan clothes, which were called "national clothes" or "clothes of the north group." Emperor Yelu Deguang decided in the 1st year of the Huitong Period of the Liao Dynasty (938) that at major court meetings the emperor and Han officials should wear Han clothes, and the empress and Khitan ministers should wear national clothes. After the 1st year of the Chongxi Period (1032), officials in both the south group and the north group wore Han clothes. At that time, Han clothes mainly consisted of traditional official robes and hats, such as the "lofty hat", the "traveling hat", and the "virtue hat". The lofty hat was tailor-made according to the shape of the Chu hat in the Qin Dynasty as the emperor's daily hat; the traveling hat also originated in the Chu State, but was mostly worn by princes; the virtue hat was a ceremonial hat worn by civil officials and Confucian scholars, mostly in the Han Dynasty.

During the Han Dynasty there was no term similar to "Han clothes." For example, The Hundred Categories of the Qing Dynasty, written by Xu Ke (1869-1928) in modern times, says: "Emperor Gaozong in the palace put on Han clothes frequently, and wanted all people to wear them. One day, wearing a crown with ribbons and a robe, he summoned people close to him and said, 'Do I, the sovereign, look like a Han person?' An old minister said, 'Your Majesty does look like a Han person instead of a Manchu person'. So the emperor stopped." The term "Han clothes" in the ancient book above mainly refers to clothes of the Han ethnic group.

Some records indicate the dynasties when Han clothes were worn - for example, On Superfluous Things, written by Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645) during the Ming Dynasty, says "The cicada crown, red robe, square-centered round collar, jade plate and red shoes are called 'Han clothes'. The scarf and big robe are called 'Sui clothes'."

In the 21st century, students wearing Han clothes did so because they thought that China should have a national dress. Cheongsams, once thought of as national dress, were a mere shadow of the clothing left over from China's last feudal dynasty - they do not represent the full panorama of clothes a large country like China has produced. The students noted that every country has its own classic traditional clothes - so why doesn't China? Modern Chinese suddenly found themselves at a loss as to what to wear to express their culture.

This leads to consideration of why Chinese people, unlike the Japanese, who have kept their kimonos, or the Indians, who still wear saris, have arrived at this state.

Japan is a single-nation country - although dynasties changed, Yamato rule basically continued. Also, as a small island nation, Japan could remain isolated. Only when Japan deliberately opened its sea routes, could cultural exchange with other countries take place. Japanese scholar Akiyama Terukazu tells us that the Yamato family kept expanding its rule from the 3rd century AD, and became the rulers of most of Japan by the 5th century. At this time contact existed between China's Song and Qi dynasties and Japan. During China's Southern and Northern Dynasties, Japan was still in the Era of Great Tombs. The Annals of the Three Kingdoms describes Japanese people of that period, "All men expose their buns decorated with kapok. Their wide clothes are not separated. Women have bent buns, make clothes like quilts, and put their heads into the openings to put them around their bodies." Japanese clothing of this type was similar to earlier Chinese clothing. Chinese people are familiar with the Japanese prince, Prince Shotoku Taiji (574-622). Shotoku Taiji died at the age of 48, before he could succeed to the throne, but he introduced Chinese culture to Japan during his lifetime. Shotoku Taiji wore typical Chinese men's suits of the Sui and Tang dynasties. Kimonos were part of Chinese clothing during the Sui and Tang dynasties, and later kimonos became purely Japanese traditional clothes.

Like China, India has many ethnic groups, a large population and occupies a vast territory. There are great climatic and topographical differences between areas within India. The Himalayas in the north are covered by snow, while the south is scorched by the sun. If we examine why Indians still wear saris, perhaps we can attribute it to religious power - Indians are still devout Hindus and Buddhists. The sari has come to represent Indian culture.

China has been a multiethnic country since ancient times. Historical books present information about four different races' clothes. The Book of Rites says: "People in the east are called yi, with disheveled hair and tattoos; people in the south are called man, with painted foreheads and crossed legs; people in the west are called rong, with disheveled hair wearing fur; people in the north are called di, wearing clothes made of feathers and living in caves." There were many ethnic groups within these four races. These ethnic groups had close ties with ethnic groups on the central plains, and some became rulers of the central plains, absorbing the cultures of other groups, thereby creating even more communities. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various schools of philosophy combined to give Chinese culture more sophistication. From the Han Dynasty onwards, Confucianism determined people's view of life to a large extent, but religion did not occupy a very important place in China. Clothes of the Han Dynasty also had ethnic characteristics. Men mainly wore robes, and women wore both robes and "deep clothes" handed down from the Warring States Period. As has been mentioned earlier in this book, Han clothes are epitomized by the crown robes worn by the emperor and officials at grand ceremonies, the upper and lower garments symbolizing the order of heaven and earth, the black and deep red colors of clothes, symbolizing the sky before dawn and the earth at dusk, and the "12 patterns" on clothes, which represented all the things in the universe and admonished the emperor and his subjects to preserve the social order. The Han clothes worn by today's college students are very like the curved and straight robes of the Han period. In recent years, memorial ceremonies for

Confucius have received more and more attention, so traditional Confucian scarves and robes have been worn by people at these ceremonies.

At some domestic Han clothes shows, performers dress in long skirts and silk gauze blouses with big sleeves, like those worn by women in the Tang Dynasty. Tang clothes were a product of Chinese absorption of many cultures, brought to the Han Dynasty via the Silk Road. The Western Regions linked with the Silk Road included not only today's Europe, West Asia and Central Asia, but also areas inhabited by Chinese minority ethnic groups in the northwest.

Ming clothes combined the best elements of Tang and Song clothes and, in doing so, became the blueprint for Han clothing. Before the Ming Dynasty, minority ethnic groups established regimes such as the Liao Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) restored the Han people and formalized the system of hats and clothes after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Taizong issued a decree: "Clothes and hats should all follow the Tang style." After the Ming Dynasty, rulers of the Qing Dynasty made people cut their hair and change their style of clothes but there were unwritten rules regarding the "ten target groups and ten exempt groups," so, for example, women's clothes, children's clothes, theatrical costumes, and Buddhists' and Taoists' clothes, were allowed to retain the style of Han clothing.