Hanfu Movement


The Hanfu Movement, also known as the Hanfu Revival Movement, is a homegrown, grassroots cultural movement in Mainland China seeking to revive or revitalize Han Chinese fashion, aesthetics and cultural identity via public wearing of pre-Qing dynasty traditional ethnic clothing of the Han Chinese, i.e. hanfu. The movement began as a subculture of nostalgic pastime among elegance-seeking, historically conscious netizens, and has since evolved into a trendy nationwide movement boasting a new clothing industry with millions of young fashion-conscious consumers. It has also slowly gained traction amongst the Chinese diaspora, especially in countries like Singapore.
The Hanfu movement started in 2003, and its emergence can be credited to Zhang Congxing, a Singaporean Chinese who wrote an article about Wang Letian, a man from Zhengzhou who was photographed dressed in a homemade shenyi, a type of robe often worn as Confucian academic dress. This spurred online discussion and spontaneous acts of imitation, culminating in the formation of a rapid-growing organic movement. Its ready adoption by trendy fashion-conscious young women has been accelerated by social media, which then were predominantly online forums, has helped to propagate the trend via photo sharing, traditional clothing design comparisons, cosplaying, and historical and philosophical discussions. Later online platforms such as Bilibili, Instagram and Douyin have further contributed to its resurgence by allowing youth to showcase and easily share their dress fittings and experience. The popular clothing styles are typically ceremonial attires worn by royalty and aristocrats, scholar-officials and soldiers, although there have been calls to promote more commoners' clothing that are more compatible with work, sports and modern daily life.
The popularity of the movement, especially among Gen Y and Gen Z, can be attributed to a burgeoning national pride associated with the rise of China as an economic, technological and military powerhouse in the world stage, to draw historical sustenance and justification for national rejuvenation, and to express subtle support for Han nationalism and discontent against affirmative action and legal leniency favoring ethnic minorities. Additionally, the aesthetics of traditional Han garments is considered a more authentic representation of Chinese culture and history than the cheongsam and tangzhuang then-promoted by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the Chinese television industry, as those are Manchu-influenced clothings that are considered historical products of violent forced assimilation during the 17th century conquest by the Qing dynasty and are often also seen as being associated with the century of humiliation. It can also be seen as the Chinese Dream by paying homage to past golden ages of Pax Sinica, when Chinese culture, aesthetics and philosophy had significant influences over the surrounding regions.

Aesthetic Value

The desire to reconnect with one's cultural heritage has not been the only driver of the movement. Hanfu's classical elegance and unique aesthetic, and the ease with which one can produce flattering photos for social media by wearing it, continue to drive the movement's popularity.
Women have also been the principal drivers of the Hanfu movement by emphasizing its fashionable aspect. According to the iMedia 2018 survey, women make up 88.2% of the Hanfu enthusiasts and 75.8% of the Hanfu stores on Taobao and Tmall platforms only sell hanfu for women.

Cultural significance, ethical-ritual aspects, and social value

Chinese culture accords great significance to ritual and the power of symbols. The key design elements of Hanfu are no exception. In the ritual tradition originating in the Zhou dynasty:
  1. The left collar covering the right represents the perfection of human nature through culture and the overcoming of instinct and bodily forces by the spiritual power of ethical and ritual teaching;
  2. The expansive cutting and board sleeve represents the concord or harmony between nature and human creative power.
  3. The use of the girdle to fasten the garment over the body represents the constraints of Han culture to limit human desire, which would otherwise lead to the commission of immoral acts
Proponents of the movement emphasize the symbolic value of Hanfu and the ethical and ritual significance of its all its aspects.
They also note that China, in the face of rising prosperity and modern social pressures, an increasing need to fashion a sense of national identity..On this view, the Hanfu Movement is a natural and intrinsic part of the Chinese Dream - "the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation" and seeks to recover lost cultural heritage as well as to promote traditional Chinese culture.

Definition of hanfu

Classical usage of the word "Hanfu" and historical records

According to Dictionary of Old Chinese Clothing, the term hanfu literally means "Clothing of the Han People." This term, which is not commonly used in ancient times, can be found in some historical records from Han, Tang, Song, Ming, Qing dynasties and the Republican era in China.
Modern expert opinion
Chinese researcher Hua Mei, interviewed by student advocates of the Hanfu Movement in 2007, recognizes that defining hanfu is no simple matter, as there was no uniform style of Chinese fashion throughout the millennia of its history. Because of its constant evolution, she questions which period's style can rightly be regarded as traditional. Nonetheless, she explains that hanfu has historically been used to broadly refer to indigenous Chinese clothing in general. Observing that the apparel most often promoted by the movement are based on the Han-era quju and zhiju, she suggests that other styles, especially that of the Tang era, would also be candidates for revival in light of this umbrella definition.
Zhou Xing, cultural anthropologist and professor at Aichi University, states that the term hanfu was not commonly used in ancient times and referred to some of the costumes worn by Hanfu Movement participants as being historically inaccurate because they contain modern design elements. Like Hua, he noted that the term hanfu classically referred to the clothing worn by Han people in general, but he argued that there are differences between historical hanfu and the contemporary hanfu introduced by some participants of the movement.
Consensus view and popular opinion
On March 8, 2021, the magazine Vogue published an article on modern hanfu defining it as a "type of dress from any era when Han Chinese ruled".
Enthusiasts in the Hanfu movement have reached their own consensus as to what would qualify as Hanfu. These include a wide and loose style of cross-collar garments with the right lapel covering the left, the use of a flat cutting, and the employment of belts and lace as closures in place of buttons. They acknowledge that the hanfu costumes in some photo studios, movies, and TV dramas are not authentic representations of ancient hanfu, but contemporary hanfu modified based on ancient hanfu for the purposes of visual effects, cost saving and convenience of wearing.

Movement Timeline

Precursors

There were numerous attempts to reintroduce Han Chinese clothing immediately after the fall of the Qing and in the revolutionary period.
After the Qing was toppled in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Taoist dress and topknot was adopted by the ordinary gentry and "Society for Restoring Ancient Ways" on the Sichuan and Hubei border where the White Lotus and Gelaohui operated.
Traditional Han Chinese dress was also employed by the short-reigning Hongxian Emperor, former President Yuan Shikai, during his coronation ceremony in 1915.

2000s

First seeds

Journalists and scholars agree that the modern Hanfu Movement begun around 2003. In November 2003, Wang Letian from Zhengzhou, China, wore in public a homemade shenyi, thus catching the attention of Singaporean-Chinese journalist Zhang Congxing, who then decided to write an article on him which was published on the Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore newspaper.
This inspired others to reflect on the cultural identity of Han Chinese and to initiate the Hanfu movement as part of a broader effort to stimulate a cultural renaissance. Adoption was rapid - in the same year, people started wearing hanfu in public, forming communities of Hanfu enthusiasts and organizing activities related to hanfu and other elements of traditional Chinese culture. The movement had significant online support. Proponents of Hanfu launched the website Hanwang to promote "traditional Han clothing".

Practical difficulties

In the early years of the Hanfu Movement, there were no existing stores from which to purchase hanfu. The first manufacturers and sellers of Hanfu were the early Hanfu enthusiasts who possessed the necessary skills to DIY hanfu by themselves. They made hanfu in small quantities, and mainly relied on hanfu forums and enthusiasts communities to advertise their products. Around the year 2005, the first online hanfu store appeared. Since then, more and more hanfu stores emerged both online and offline. In 2006, the first physical hanfu store was opened under the trademark Chong Hui Han Tang '','' which literally means "Coming back to the Han and Tang Dynasties" in Chengdu, Sichuan province of China. From the year 2007, various hanfu-related clubs started to appear. These clubs focused on to organizing offline social activities in the instead of being largely online based.
Other difficulties were psychological and included shyness. Many users reported having first to overcome the fear of social derision before daring to wear Hanfu in public.