Reflections | Qipao out, hanfu in? Advocates for traditional Chinese clothing have some problems to resolve
- People in China who want the traditional dress of its ethnic Han majority to be as widely accepted as the kimono in Japan and ao dai in Vietnam have a problem
- Hanfu changed over the centuries – do they take styles from one era or mix and match them to create a “traditional costume”? Besides, hanfu is not easy to wear
The qipao and its menswear equivalent, the changshan, are increasingly rejected in China as being sartorially representative of the Chinese people. One reason is because they are derived from the traditional clothing of the Manchus, the non-Han Chinese rulers of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912). The word “qipao”, literally “banner robe”, makes a direct reference to the Manchus, who are also known as the Banner People (Qi ren), so named for the quasi-militaristic organisation of the whole Manchu society into the Eight Banners.
Besides, the qipao of today are Western-influenced in their construction and only 100 years old, a little young to be considered traditional for many Chinese. The form-fitting and shorter versions are even more recent.
The traditional clothing of the Han Chinese (Han ren), the dominant ethnic group in China which accounts for 92 per cent of the population, has gone through multiple iterations over several millennia. What commoners wore differed from the fashions of the high-born. But the one constant across time and social class was the criss-cross, left-over-right collar.
The way Han Chinese clothing looks from the front is similar to a bathrobe, as is the way it is worn. However, it is vital that the left panel wraps across to the right, not the other way round, so that the finished look resembles a lower-case “y” when seen from the front.
In ancient China, the left-over-right neckline was the way the Huaxia people (precursors of the Han Chinese) distinguished themselves from their “barbarian” neighbours. Confucius (551-479BC) was recorded in The Analects as saying that if it had not been for the wisdom and policies of Guan Zhong, a prime minister of a powerful feudal state, they would be ruled by barbarians and would wear their hair loose and their garments fastened right-over-left, the way “uncivilised” people did.
