5 Traditional Chinese Clothing
Traditional Chinese dress & clothing have been shaped and developed alongside the interactive influences between the outside world and China’s own dynastic traditions.
Every dynasty has different scopes of territory, social values, social norms, etc. Therefore, many aesthetic standards were made according to the environment (socially, geographically, economically, and politically) of certain dynasties. This is the main reason why traditional Chinese clothing has so many styles.
5 Types of Traditional Chinese Dress & Clothing
To explore the world of traditional Chinese dress, it is necessary to learn the five most classic categories. which are, respectively, Hanfu, Cheongsam, Tang suit, Zhongshan suit, and customs of the minority ethnics.
Every category has its own production techniques, and considerable discrepancies could be observed when comparing different categories or 1 category at different times.
This article provides a brief introduction to each category. By reading the following contents, the basic frameworks of traditional Chinese clothing can be structured.
1. Hanfu
Hanfu, whose name is derived from the Chinese meaning “Han people’s clothing,” encompasses all types and styles of traditional clothing worn by the Han Chinese.
The Han Chinese trace their common ancestry to the Huaxia, the name given to the initial confederation of agricultural tribes living along the Yellow River. The term Huaxia represents the collective Neolithic confederation of the agricultural tribes Hua and Xia who settled along the Central Plains around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in northern China.
Hanfu, by its definition, was born at the beginning of the history of the Han ethnicity. Therefore, it has the longest history of all traditional Chinese clothing.
History of Hanfu
Hanfu has a history of more than three millennia. From the beginning of its history, Hanfu was inseparable from silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor’s consort, Leizu.
Hanfu dominated the Chinese fashion world from the reign of the Yellow Emperor (2969 BC–2598 BC) to the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).
Each dynasty has its own styles and aesthetics. For instance, Shenyi in Pre-Qin Dynasty; Ru dress in Qin and Han Dynasty; Tiaowenjiansequn in Wei Dynasty; Bambi in Sui and Tang Dynasty, etc.
Some dresses are popular and worn by people in different dynasties, some are just a flash in the pan. In both cases, all Hanfu have evolved and been influenced by each other to some extent.
Even though there are plenty of Hanfu styles, each of them could be assembled by a set of clothing pieces.
Yi (衣): any open cross-collar garment, and worn by both sexes
Pao (袍): any closed full-body garment, worn only by men in Hanfu
Ru (襦): open cross-collar shirt
Shan (衫): open cross-collar shirt or jacket that is worn
Qun (裙) or Chang (裳): skirt for women and men
Ku (裈): trousers or pants
Apart from these, ancient Han Chinese were also accessorized with tassels and jade pendants or various ornaments hung from the belt or sash, known as Pei (珮).
The following is an introduction to some Hanfu styles.
Zhongyi (中衣): inner garments, mostly white cotton or silk
Shanqun (衫裙): a short coat with a long skirt
Ruqun (襦裙): a top garment with a separate lower garment or skirt
Kuzhe (裤褶): a short coat with trousers
Zhiduo/Zhishen (直裰/直身): a Ming Dynasty style robe, similar to a shenyi but with vents at the side and ‘stitched sleeves’
Daopao/Fusha (道袍/彿裟): Taoist/ Buddhist priests’ full-dress ceremonial robes
Xuanduan (玄端): a very formal dark robe; equivalent to the Western white tie
Shenyi (深衣): a long full-body garment
Quju (曲裾): diagonal body wrapping
Zhiju (直裾): straight lapels
Yuanlingshan (圆领衫), Lanshan (襕衫), or Panlingpao (盘领袍): closed, round-collared robe; mostly used for official or academic dress
2. Cheongsam
Cheongsam, also known as Qipao (旗袍) in Mandarin, is a traditional dress that has its origins back in the 17th century. It is a type of famine body-hugging dress with distinctive Chinese features of Manchu origin. During the 1920s to 1930s, it was called the Mandarin Gown and was popularized by upper-class women in Shanghai.
Qipao History
In the Qing dynasty, China was ruled by Manchus rather than Han Chinese. The rulers used an administrative division called the “Eight Banner system.” Originally, only the Manchu households were organized within this system, but over them, Mongols and Han Chinese were incorporated.
The Manchus, and anyone living under the Eight Banners system, wore different clothing from ordinary civilians. Such clothing consisted of similar long robes for both men and women and was known as Changpao.
For a period of time, under the dynastic laws after 1636, all Han Chinese were forced under the penalty of death to adopt the Manchu male hairstyle, the queue, and dress in Manchu Changpao instead of traditional Han Chinese clothing.
However, in the 19th century, it was very common for females to wear Qipao on both formal and casual occasions voluntarily.
Nowadays, Cheongsam is recognized around the world and has inspired many foreign adaptations because of its simple yet exotic lines. It is popular because it fits the Chinese female figure well, has simple lines, and looks elegant. It is suitable for wearing all year round for both young and elderly groups.
Modern females do not wear qipao as everyday attire. Cheongsams are now worn only during formal occasions like weddings, parties, and beauty pageants. Qipao is also used as a uniform at some Chinese restaurants, hotels, and airlines.
It is popularly worn in China as a wedding dress, traditionally in red. The cheongsam is usually embroidered with elaborate gold and silver designs. Brides in southern China wear Qipao, or a modified two-piece style, which is elaborately adorned with a gold dragon and phoenix pattern. A Dragon and Phoenix is a traditional wedding dress favored by Chinese brides nowadays.
3. Tang Suit
The Tang suit, also translated as Tangzhuang, often refers to a type of modern Chinese jacket rather than the clothing of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907).
Origin of name
Although the Tang suit is not clothing in the Tang dynasty, it has something to do with it. The Tang dynasty was one of the most prosperous times in Chinese history. As a result, people usually use the word “Tang” to refer to traditional Chinese culture. For example, Chinatowns in the U.S. or the U.K. are also called “Tang People Streets.”
Tang suits, as the name of Tang People Street, represent certain clothing of deep traditional Chinese culture.
Tang Suit History
The history of the Tang suit can be traced back to the early 1900s (at the end of the Qing Dynasty). It is the product of the combination of Manchu jacket elements and western jacket elements.
A new uniform system was released by the Chinese government in 1929. With this new system, the Tang suit has become one of the national forms of male attire.
It was also around 1929 when the media throughout the world reported and introduced the Tang suit widely. People around the world have started to regard the Tang suit as one of the most typical traditional Chinese clothing items.
In recent years, with a variety of styles and production techniques, the Tang suit has been getting more and more popular not only in China but globally.
Tang suits have appeared in many international events. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2001, all national leaders wore a Tang suit in royal blue, scarlet, embroidered with a round pattern of peonies, China’s national flower. Furthermore, the Tang suit could also be seen in the 2008 Olympic Games and some of the meetings of the World Trade Organization.
In addition, Tang suit elements were utilized many times in the infamous Kung Fu films and dramas. It is the efforts of both designers and cultural industries that spread the influence of the Tang suit further and further.
4. Zhongshan Suit
The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire originally known in China as the Zhongshan suit (after Sun Yet-Sen, also called Sun Zhongshan), and later as the Mao suit (after Mao Zedong).
Sun Yat-sen introduced the style shortly after the founding of the Republic of China as a form of national dress, although with distinctly political and later governmental implications. He based the suit on the Japanese cadet uniform.
The suit was also known to have cultural implications in which the four pockets represented the four virtues of Chinese culture: Propriety, Justice, Honesty, and Shame, and the five buttons represented China’s five branches of government.
History of the Zhongshan Suit
When the Republic was founded in 1912, the style of dress worn in China was based on Manchu dress (Qipao and Changshan), which had been imposed by the Qing Dynasty as a form of social control.
The majority of Han Chinese revolutionaries who overthrew the Qing were fueled by the failure of the Qing to defend China and a lack of scientific advancement compared to the West. Even before the founding of the Republic, older forms of Chinese dress were becoming unpopular among the elite, which led to the development of Chinese dress which combined the Changsha and the Western hat to form a new dress. The Zhongshan suit is a similar development that combines Western and Eastern fashions.
The Mao suit remained the standard formal dress for the first and second generations of PRC leaders, such as Deng Xiaoping. During the 1990s, it began to be worn with decreasing frequency by leaders of General Secretary Jiang Zemin’s generation as more and more Chinese politicians began wearing traditional Western-style suits with neckties.
Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao only wore the Mao suit on special occasions, such as important dinners or the ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic in 2009.
Hu Jintao even showed up to a black-tie state dinner in the United States wearing a business suit, attracting some criticism for being underdressed at a formal occasion. In the Xi Jinping administration, however, the Mao suit made a comeback as a diplomatic uniform and evening dress.
5. The Costumes of Ethnic Minorities.
Some countries, such as Japan, Korea, France, and Greece, are mono-ethnic. China is not one of those countries that has had multi-ethnicities living down the ages.
The ethnic minorities in China are the non-Han Chinese population in China. China officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within China, in addition to the Han majority. As of 2010, the combined population of officially recognized minority groups comprised 8.49% of the population of mainland China.
The degree of variation between ethnic groups is not consistent. Many ethnic groups are described as having unique characteristics from other minority groups and from the dominant Han, but there are also some that are very similar to the Han majority group. Most Hui Chinese are indistinguishable from Han Chinese except for the fact that they practice Islam, and most Manchu are considered to be largely assimilated into the dominant Han society.
The 55 ethnic minorities are Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Uygur, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Dai, etc.
As to the clothing of the ethnic minorities, great variations could be observed due to geographical, cultural, and historical factors.
Features of Clothing
Common features of ethnic minority clothing are that it is flowery and colorful, extremely exquisite, and highly distinctive.
Every aspect of their garments, such as raw materials, textile technology, fashion, and decoration, retains a distinct characteristic of the ethnic group and the locality. The Hezhen ethnic minority people, who mainly make a living from fishing, used to make clothes with fishskin. The hunting ethnic groups, such as Oroqen and Ewenki, used roe skin and animal tendons to stitch up their clothes.
The Mongolians, Tibetans, Kazakstan, Khalkhases, Yugurs, etc., who are mainly engaged in stockbreeding, make their apparel mostly from animal skin and hair. And, farming ethnic minorities usually take the locally produced cotton or hemp thread as raw material to spin cloth and silk and make clothes.
Ethnic minorities’ spinning and weaving, tanning, and felting techniques boast a long history. For example, the bombax cloth of the Li ethnic minority, the woolen fabric of the Tibetans, the Adelis silk of the Uygurs, and the fur products of the Oroqen have enjoyed a worldwide reputation all along.
There are numerous clothing designs and forms for Chinese ethnic minorities. Generally speaking, they can be classified into two types: long gowns and short clothes. People usually wear a hat and boots to match their long gowns or headcloths, and shoes to match short clothes. The gowns take various forms: the high-collar and big-front types worn by the Mongolians, the Manchus, the Tu, and so on; the collarless tilted-front type worn by the Tibetans, the Moinba, and so on; the tilted-front type worn by the Uygur and other ethnic minorities; and so on. As for short clothes, they fall into two types: trousers and skirts.
The costumes of ethnic minorities vary greatly, not only with different nationalities but also with different branches and different regions within the same ethnic group. The difference can be seen from province to province, from county to county, and even from village to village. The costume is the most obvious symbol of an ethnic group, and in history, many ethnic groups were named just according to their garments.
The 7 Key Variations in Traditional Chinese Dress & Clothing
The 5 broad categories of traditional Chinese clothing have been introduced. In general, each of them can be recognized by 7 key variations.
Design, Traditional Chinese clothes usually adopted a straight cut and were loose in shape. In addition, the overall harmony of the outfit was also emphasized.
Embroidery, a folk art with a long tradition, occupies an important position in the history of Chinese arts and crafts. It is, in its long development, inseparable from silkworm-raising, silk-reeling, and weaving. The production of silk threads and fabrics gave rise to the art of Chinese embroidery, and the embroidered works have become highly complex and exquisite.
Color, People normally wear light-colored clothing in daily life. Red, bright yellow, and purple always exclusively belonged to the emperor and the imperial family. The common people mostly wore white at weddings. Besides that, white clothing was normally worn at a funeral. For example, for women, only an empress or official wife could wear true red, while the color was prohibited for concubines.
Pattern, In ancient feudal society, people’s rank and social status could easily be figured out from their daily dress, especially for ordinary people and the upper class. Among the upper dominating classes, only the Emperor was assigned the color yellow and the dragon emblem on traditional Chinese imperial dress as an exclusive affirmation of their power. As for the ministers, generals, councilors, and their wives, their uniforms were also restrictively regulated for how many lions or cranes, etc., could be embroidered on them.
Gender, Women’s clothing was more diverse than men’s. Compared to men’s clothing, women’s clothing had more ornaments, items, and styles.
Material, At the very beginning, the ancient Chinese only covered their bodies with leaves. As agricultural development increased, more clothing materials appeared. In later years, linen, cotton, and silk were prominent materials. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), according to the government’s policy of physiocracy and restriction of business, businessmen were forbidden to wear silk clothing, even if they were rich.
History, Almost every dynasty had its own unique clothes, some of which were really exquisite beyond compare.
