Han Chinese fashion. It finds its manifestation in the wearing in public of the traditional Han attire of pre-Qing era. It has also slowly gained traction amongst the overseas Chinese diaspora, especially in countries like Singapore. It began as the elegant pastime of a historically-conscious subculture and has evolved into a trendy nationwide movement boasting millions of young consumers and led by fashion-conscious youth. The Hanfu movement developed in China in 2003. Its emergence can be credited to Singaporean-Chinese Zhang Congxing, who wrote an article about Wang LeTian, a man from Zhengzhou who was spotted dressed in a homemade shenyi (a type of attire). This spurred online discussion and spontaneous acts of imitation, culminating in the formation of a quickly growing organic movement. Its ready adoption by young and trendy fashion-conscious women has been accelerated by social media, which has helped to propagate the trend. Platforms such as Bilibili, Douyin, Instagram and others have contributed to its resurgence by allowing youth to showcase their dressing online. The desses worn are typically those of royalty and aristocrats, court officials and soldiers. Elements of retro-cool permeate the movement. The fact that Han traditional dress has a universally pleasing and classically elegant aesthetic and is therefore apt to produce socially acceptable, flattering images that can be readily shared on social media has driven its popularity. The popularity of the movement – especially gen Z and gen Y, can be attributed to a burgeoning desire to reconnect with the past, to draw sustenance from it, and to express a national and cultural identity, along with a growing self-confidence in that identity. Lastly, it is seen as a more authentic form of clothing than the cheongsam and qipao, which are now seen products of repression, and as imposed from the outside. The desire to reconnect with one’s cultural heritage has not been the only driver of the movement. It can be seen as an attempt to redeem an important part of Han culture, to restore the classical norms of beauty prevailing in earlier times. 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. The key design elements of Hanfu are no exception. 2. The expansive cutting and board sleeve represents the concord or harmony between nature and human creative power. Proponents of the movement emphasize the symbolic value of Hanfu and the ethical and ritual significance of its all its aspects. Chinese culture accords great significance to ritual and the power of symbols. 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. 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. 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. 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. Chinese researcher Hua Mei (Chinese: 華梅), 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. Zhou Xing (Chinese: 周星), 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. 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”. 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. Enthusiasts in the Hanfu movement have reached their own consensus as to what would qualify as Hanfu. 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” (復古會) on the Sichuan and Hubei border where the White Lotus and Gelaohui operated. There were numerous attempts to reintroduce Han Chinese clothing immediately after the fall of the Qing and in the revolutionary period. Singaporean-Chinese journalist Zhang Congxing, who then decided to write an article on him which was published on the Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore newspaper. 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. Hanfu movement as part of a broader effort to stimulate a cultural renaissance. Proponents of Hanfu launched the website Hanwang (Chinese: 漢網) to promote “traditional Han clothing”. 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 (重回漢唐), 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. Other difficulties were psychological and included shyness. These clubs focused on to organizing offline social activities in the instead of being largely online based. In 2007, a member of the CPPCC, Ye Hongming, proposed to define Hanfu as the national uniform. Many users reported having first to overcome the fear of social derision before daring to wear Hanfu in public. In the same year, a proposal to change the current western style academic dress to hanfu style was also made by Liu Minghua, a deputy of the National People’s congress. In February 2007, advocates of hanfu submitted a proposal to the Chinese Olympic Committee to have it be the official clothing of the Chinese team in the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2013, the first Xitang Hanfu Culture Week was held in the city of Xitang, Zhejiang province. In 2014, a project called Travelling with Hanfu was launched through the collaboration between Chinese photographer and freelancer Dang Xiaoshi, and Chinese actor Xu Jiao. Together, they posted series of photos online which quickly attracted many public attention. In 2018, it was estimated that the hanfu market consisted of 2 million potential consumers. Since then, it has been held successfully in subsequent years and is continue to be held annually. In 2019, it was estimated that there were 1,188 online hanfu stores on Tmall and Taobao which shows an increase of 45.77% over the previous year. The hanfu stores Chong Hui Han Tang ranked third on Tmall in 2019 after the hanfu store Hanshang Hualian and Shisanyu. In the 2019 edition of the Xitang Hanfu Culture Week, it was estimated that it attracted 40,000 Hanfu enthusiast participants. The estimated revenue sales for 2019 was 1.4 billion yuan ($199.3 million). By 2020, according to a study done by Forward Industry Research Institute (a Chinese research institute), the number of hanfu enthusiasts in China has reached 5.163 million, creating a market size equivalent to 6.36 billion yuan (US$980 million), a proportional increase of over 40% compared to the previous year. This would take place on the Double Third Festival, or the third day of the third month on the Chinese Calendar. Meanwhile, it is projected that by the end of 2021, the total number of hanfu enthusiasts across China will exceed 7 million, and that the market size of hanfu will exceed nine billion yuan (US$1.39 billion). In 2021, a lawmaker named Cheng Xinxiang submitted a proposal for a National Hanfu Day. The traditional form of Han Chinese clothing changed drastically during the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. When the Manchus established the Qing dynasty, there were three Manchu cultural impositions which were placed upon the Han people: the queue hairstyle which was universally implemented and strictly implemented, the wearing of Manchu-style clothing in official dress and the learning of Manchu language. Against this context, the Hanfu movement is a grassroots movement which seeks to restore the dress and attire and to recover the aesthetic sensibilities of Han Chinese dress from previous eras recognized as high points for Han culture – principally the Ming, Tang, Song and Han. It seeks to popularize hanfu as fashionable daily wear, and to integrate traditional Han elements into the design of modern clothing. Although the implementation of the latter two was more limited in both scope, traditional features of Han Chinese attire, found in all earlier dynasties, disappeared nearly completely from public life. There is also a clear social and communal aspect to the movement. How shall it be said that you have no clothes? I will share my long robes with you. 豈曰無衣、與子同袍。 When the king is raising his forces, I will prepare my lance and spear and be your comrade. 王于興師、脩我戈矛、與子同仇。 Upon establishing the Qing dynasty, the Manchu authorities also issued a decree known as Tifayifu (剃髮易服, lit. Manchu hairstyle by shaving their hair on the front of the head and braiding the hair on the back of the head into pigtails known as queue (辮子), as well as to adopt Manchu clothing such as changshan (長衫). The term tongpao is literally translated as “wearing the same style of robe” and is also a pun of tongbao (同胞) meaning “fellow compatriots”. This policy caused significant discontentment among other ethnicities, including the Han Chinese, and provoked numerous uprisings across the country. However, those uprisings were violently suppressed. Those who violated the Tifayifu policy were heavy punished, sometimes with death. Ironically, it was Han officials from Shandong, Sun Zhixie and Li Ruolin who, in obsequious displays of loyalty to the new political order, had voluntarily shaved their foreheads and then demanded Qing Prince Dorgon impose the queue hairstyle on the entire population. Qing Manchu prince Dorgon initially canceled the order to shave for all men in Ming territories south of the Great wall (post 1644 additions to the Qing). Certain groups of people were exempted from the Tifayifu, including women, children, and clerics. Throughout the Qing dynasty, Han Chinese women continued to wear the styles of clothing from the Ming dynasty. They continued to wear their traditional hairstyles: completely shaved heads for Buddhist monks, and long hair bound in the traditional Chinese topknot for Taoist priests. Neither Taoist priests nor Buddhist monks were required to wear the queue by the Qing or to change their attire. Their garments were unchanged. Taoist priests continued to wear Taoist traditional dress (a style of hanfu called “daopao”). The policy had precedent. The men of certain ethnicities who came under Qing rule later like Salar people and Uyghur people already shaved all their heads bald so the shaving order was redundant. However, the shaving policy was not enforced in the Tusi autonomous chiefdoms in Southwestern China where many minorities lived, and on one Han Chinese Tusi, the Chiefdom of Kokang populated by Han Kokang people. The Qing imposed the shaved head hairstyle on men of all ethnicities under its rule even before 1644 like upon the Nanai people in the 1630s who had to shave their foreheads. The hair was regarded as an integral part of the body – a gift from parents, and cutting it unnecessarily was seen as contrary to filial piety. The Qing government implemented the Tifayifu policy on Han Chinese people with increased pressure, leading to conflicts and massacres. It was not until early 20th century when the democratic revolutionaries repudiated the queue, calling it backward, and advocating short hairstyles for men. From the earliest years, the Tifayifu policy was encountered with strong objection from the Han Chinese, whose hairstyle and clothing had remained mostly unchanged for over thousands of years. Qing demanded Zheng Chenggong and his men to abide to the Tifayifu policy in exchange for recognizing Zheng Chenggong as a feudatory. During the final years of Ming, General Zheng Chenggong criticized the Qing hairstyle by referring to the shaven pate looking like a fly. However, Zheng Chenggong refused to surrender. The Qing also demanded that Zheng Jing and his men on Taiwan shave in order to receive recognition as a fiefdom. However, Zheng Jing’s men and Ming prince Zhu Shugui fiercely objected to the shaving and adopting Manchu clothing, thus also refused to surrender. This was encountered with greater opposition from the Han Chinese than the queue. From thence on, Han rebels including those involved in the Taiping Rebellion grew hair on the front of their heads as a symbol of their rebellion against the Qing even while retaining the queue. The Manchu rulers made the Tifayifu policy increasingly strict over the early years of the Qing dynasty, requiring all male citizens to not only wear a queue, but also to shave their forehead. Both the Qing forces and the rebels killed people for having the ‘wrong’ hairstyle, as hairstyle was seen as an indicator of political affilitiation. The Taiping rebels forced everybody in their territory to grow out their hair, which in turn was disliked by many people who had, by then, grown accustomed to shaving their foreheads. In an attempt to alleviate the public discontentment toward Tifayifu policy, the Qing government eventually decided to adopt a series of compromise policies. Taoist and Buddhist monks, theatrical actors were allowed to maintain Hanfu and maintain their customs. This series of compromise policies, referred as the shicong shibucong (Chinese: 十从十不从; lit. This compromise mirrored that of the Jurchens in the Jin dynasty and the Mongols in the Yuan dynasty who had continued to patronize and support the Confucian Duke Yansheng. Furthermore, with the consent of the Qing government, traditional Ming dynasty Hanfu robes given by the Ming Emperors to the Chinese noble Dukes Yansheng descended from Confucius were preserved in the Confucius Mansion alongside robes from the Qing emperors. Throughout the years, influence of the Hanfu Movement has reached the overseas Chinese diaspora and has led to the establishment of Hanfu Movement associations outside China, with the goal of promoting Chinese culture. While the Cheongsam tend to be used as the representative of the national identity in the previous generation of the overseas diaspora, nowadays, the young people within the overseas Chinese diaspora are more incline in the use of hanfu. Since the beginning of the Hanfu Movement, defining what would constitute as authentic hanfu has been a subject of debate and can even be a critical issue for hanfu event organizations, and diverse schools of thought have emerged. Some consider that the Hanfu Movement is not intended to completely imitate the ancient clothing as it would be difficult to replicate clothing that are identical to historical artefacts and 100% historically accurate. In other words, they consider both contemporary hanfu and ancient hanfu as hanfu. Instead, they believe that the modern hanfu should incorporate modern aesthetics, including allowing some adjustments to the lengths of the attire or sleeves, despite following the general principles of Han Chinese clotings. This has damaged the reputation of Hanfu and discouraging the manufacture of authentic or original designs. Concerns have been expressed about the poor quality and inauthenticity of Hanfu currently on the market. Factors inhibiting the market for authentic and high-quality hanfu include absence of consumer knowledge and the cheaper cost of inauthentic and poorly made spin-offs. In 2007, skeptics feared that designating Hanfu as China’s national costume could spark ethnic tensions, as China has 56 ethnicities, each with distinctive traditional clothing. The great Han: race, nationalism, and tradition in China today, by Carrico, Kevin, Univ. The Great Han: Race, Nationalism, and Tradition in China Today. KevinCarrico, The Great Han: Race, Nationalism, and Tradition in China Today.