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Han Chinese clothing, or Hanfu (TC: 漢服; SC: 汉服; pinyin: hànfú;; literally "Clothing of the Han people") refers to the pre-17th century traditional clothing of the Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group of China. 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. Hanfu was eliminated by Manchu invaders by force in the 17th century, and is largely unknown in China today, except among a small but vocal group of people advocating the revival of Hanfu as a Chinese national costume. Qipao and Tangzhuang, although usually regarded as traditional Chinese clothing, are not regarded as Hanfu by advocates of Hanfu revival. This is because these were introduced by the Manchus, whom revival advocates accuse of having stamped out Hanfu in the first place. Qipao and Tangzhuang are also relatively recent clothing styles, and cannot represent the entire history of Chinese clothing. Many traditional costumes of Asian countries, such as the kimono in Japan and Korean traditional dress, are derived from Hanfu and have the same style as Hanfu. In contrast to China, Japanese and Korean traditional dress have been preserved over the centuries, and are close to what pre-Manchu Hanfu looked like.
History of Hanfu The Chinese style of Clothing has a long history going back several thousand years. According to legend, Leizu（嫘祖）, the wife of Huang-Di（黃帝）, started raising silkworms in captivity and invented a way to produce silk cloth. Huang-Di designed a beautiful type of clothing with the silk cloth. This style of clothing became the national garments of Huaxia（華夏）. The garments became known as Chinese Clothing. In the Zhou（周） Dynasty which existed from the 11th century B.C. to the 3rd century B.C., Chinese Clothing took on different appearances according to different social status. Qi（齊） State was an affluent country and the people loved beautiful clothing, so Qi became known as “the land of beautiful clothing”（冠帶衣履天下）. In the Tang（唐） Dynasty, the Chinese style of clothing was very popular at the time because of the great power of the Tang Empire. Ancient Chinese clothing had a direct effect on the clothing of other Oriental cultures. The Korean style of clothing was modeled from the court style of the Tang Dynasty. The Japanese Kimono was modeled after the normal national clothing of Han（漢） Nation. Wang Wei（王維）, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, said the origin of Japanese-style clothing was the clothing style of the Han Dynasty, a great dynasty of ancient China. Huaxia Clothing (華夏衣冠, or called Han Clothing, 漢服) has been known as the Chinese style of clothing for several thousand years. This kind of garments were representative of ancient Oriental Civilization spanning millenniums. In the 17th century, the Ming（明） Dynasty (the last empire of Han Nation), was destroyed. With that destruction, came the demise of Huaxia culture which included Chinese styles of clothing, Huaxia hairstyles, Huaxia and Huaxia Soul. Hanfu was 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 behaviour. Confucius considered Hanfu a very important part of Chinese ceremony and ritual and many of his quotations contain references to Hanfu. The Disappearance of Hanfu
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 proper, but by the Manchus, a semi-nomadic people which first rose to prominence in Manchuria. Taking advantage of the political instability and frequent popular rebellions convulsing China, the highly organized military forces of the Manchus swept into the Ming capital of Beijing in 1644 (which itself had earlier fallen to rebel forces under Li Zicheng), and formed the Qing Dynasty.
The Manchus foresaw that they would have great difficulty ruling the Han Chinese, who outnumbered them vastly and had a much more sophisticated culture. Soon after the takeover of China proper, the Manchus forced the Han Chinese to adopt Manchu hairstyle (the pigtail) and Manchu-style clothing. There was enormous resistance to these policies, especially against the pigtail, which required shaving the entire top front half of the head. (Chinese traditional dictated that removing hair was against filial piety because one received one's hair from one's parents.) Popular uprisings flaired up immediately, but those were put down brutally, especially in massacres occurring at Yangzhou and Jiading. Up to 30 to 50 million Han Chinese people may have perished in total as a result of the Manchu invasion and conquest. Enforcement of the policies was swift, brutal, and effective. Hanfu was replaced by Manchu-style clothing, and soon every Han Chinese male wore a pigtail. Today
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Manchu dress and the pigtail disappeared quickly in favour of western-style dress. Today most Han Chinese wear western-style clothing, and Han Chinese clothing is largely unknown. Recent attempts by Hanfu advocates in China to wear Hanfu outdoors have provoked curious reactions from onlookers, many of them mistaking Hanfu for Japanese dress.
However, there is a small but vocal movement in China to revive Han Chinese clothing as a Chinese national custume. |
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