Hanfu

Hello everyone! I am Samanta, and today I will talk with my Chinese teacher from last year,Che Junchi, about Chinese traditional clothing. We will introduce you to Hanfu. You’ll get to know where it came from, what is it made of, and so on.

1) What is Hanfu ?

Hanfu is a Chinese traditional clothing. In China, there are 56 ethnic groups, including one main ethnic group called Han and 55 minorities. Hanfu is the traditional clothing for the Han People. Experts don’t know the exact time that Hanfu appeared, but according to the archaeologic finds, it is believed that it appeared even earlier than the first Dynasty Xia that was established about 4000 years ago. In China’s history, Hanfu was the official clothing for every dynasty which was established by the Han People. Meanwhile, many minorities’ traditional clothes and some other countries’ traditional clothes like Kimono and Korean traditional clothing originated from Hanfu.

2) What is Hanfu made of ?

 There were many materials for Hanfu in history, such as silk, cotton, linen and so on. People with high status used expensive ones, people with lower status used cheaper one. Yes, it depends on the social status. Nowadays, it depends on how much money you have.

3) How many types of Hanfu there is ?

It’s hard to say. Different dynasties had different Hanfu styles, and there were various of styles even in one dynasty, it depends on what they used it for, like wedding, sacrifice, work, casual wear, etc. I can show you some Hanfu from the Ming Dynasty.

4) What is your favorite one ?

 My favorite Hanfu is the one from the Tang Dynasty for woman and from the Ming dynasty for men.

 5) Do Chinese people wear Hanfu nowadays ?

Unfortunately, the last fedual dynasty, the Qing dynasty, which was established by Man ethnic group (one of the minorities nowadays in China) banned people from wearing Hanfu, and they announced that everyone must wear Manfu (the traditional clothing for the Man ethnic group, Qipao originated from it). Because of this, Hanfu almost disappeared for a hundred years. Today, people have started a movement to revive Hanfu, and many Hanfu lovers wear their Hanfu in some important traditional festivals, like spring festival and mid-autumn festival. Some of them even wear it when whey are working. Basically, there is no s[ecial requirement for wearing Hanfu, you can wear it whenever you want.

6) Do you wear Hanfu ?

Yes, I wear Hanfu whenever and wherever I want.