400 years after falling out of favour, the flowing, and sometimes controversial, robes of the Han ethnic group are back in style.
400 years after falling out of favour, the flowing, and sometimes controversial, robes of the Han ethnic group are back in style.
Hanfu hobbyist Luo Zhenchen said he feels transformed when he dons the silk robes. Photo: Luo Zhenchen
When Luo Zhenchen first put on Hanfu, the traditional dress of China’s Han people, its wide sleeves, crossed collars and long robes transformed him.
“I felt a strong sense of affection and belonging,” the Guangzhou University design student said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. “I like the traditional culture behind it.”
Luo said he feels “a strong sense of affection and belonging” when he wears Hanfu clothes. Photo: Luo Zhenchen
Luo, a sophomore, now wears Hanfu once a week. He also joined the Hanfu Society at his school. Its members celebrate traditional Chinese festivals, clad in Hanfu, and go into the community to lecture about their garments.
Luo is by no means alone in venerating traditional Chinese attire. An increasing number of Chinese argue that Hanfu, which characterized the Han ethnic group for more than three millennia, is worthy of far greater attention today – both at home and abroad.
Photo: Baidu
After vanishing from history for about 400 years, the style has gained a substantial number of followers on the mainland in the past 15 years as the country attaches more importance to tradition and calls on the public to be proud of Chinese culture.
Hanfu, Luo said, had a “broader historical context” than he expected. He said he also admired the “historical origins and historical tales” in its components.
Photo: Baidu
Most Hanfu enthusiasts, like Luo and his peers at the university, reserve their outfits for traditional festivals; only a small proportion wear them every day.
A university student recently made headlines on Chinese media for dressing in Hanfu for more than 300 days in a single year to promote the style and culture.
Gao Zhiluo, a photographer from Luoyang in central China’s Henan province, is another diehard Hanfu supporter. She has worn the apparel almost every day since 2014.
Photographer Gao Zhiluo has been wearing Hanfu outfits almost every day since 2014. Photo:Gao Zhiluo
She was drawn to the costume from childhood when she was learning to play the pipa, a four-stringed instrument sometimes called the Chinese lute.
When she plays on stage she always dresses in Hanfu, which she described as “beautiful and comfortable to wear”.
Her passion for Hanfu carries into her everyday life. Before she goes out with friends, she spends an hour selecting her clothes, making up, combing her hair and choosing shoes and a handbag.
Gao said that people often stare at her when is out and about and some are even abusive, but she is “never put off by what they think.” By: Gao Zhiluo
“I’m never put off by what they think because I know I’ve done nothing wrong or broken any rules,” she said. “But I am sad that people have such a lack of awareness of Hanfu. They don’t know that this is what our Han ancestors wore for thousands of years.”
To raise Hanfu’s profile, in 2015 some members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress proposed making it China’s national dress, while several deputies to the National People’s Congress suggested that the robes worn by university students and academics on the mainland should be designed in a Hanfu style.
Wang makes tea dressed in one of her silk outfits. She said she has been passionate about Hanfu for several years.
Photo: Wang Tingting
Not all Hanfu supporters endorse those suggestions, however. Wang Tingting, an online broadcaster from Chongqing in southwestern China, said she had been wearing Hanfu regularly for several years, but preferred to see it as the traditional dress of the Han people, not as a fashion style that represented all Chinese.
“Making Hanfu China’s national dress could be misleading, as if it was promoting Han nationalism and that could lead to ethnic conflicts,” she said.
Online Broadcaster Want Tingting said she prefers to see Hanfu as the traditional dress of the Han people, not as a fashion style that represents all Chinese. Photo: Want Tingting.
Li Bochun, director of the Chinese Culture Rejuvenation Research Institute said it was comforting to see so many young people being drawn to Hanfu, but thought it was probably inappropriate for daily use.
“In this fast-paced society, is it realistic to wear it while riding a bicycle or scrambling to get on a bus or subway train?”
Source: SCMP
