Colorful Costumes of the Han people
The Hans are the most populous ethnic group both in China and in the world. They have a long history and a resplendent culture. In the past thousands of years, there were chiefly two basic clothing designs of the Han people -- separating the upper outer garment from the lower skirt and connecting the two parts. Dajin (front of a Chinese garment with buttons on the right) has been the most distinct feature.
1. These clothes have different features in different dynasties and on different historical stages.
Colors of Costumes
In habilatory colors, the Han people regard five colors, namely blue, red, black, white and yellow, as the orthodox colors and different dynasties preferred different colors. Generally speaking, the Xia Dynasty (21st century - 17th century BC) preferred black, the Shang Dynasty (17th century - 11th century BC), white; the Zhou Dynasty (11th century - 256 BC), red; the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), black; the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), red; the Tang Dynasty (618-907), yellow in clothes but red in flags; and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), red. However, after the Tang Dynasty, yellow was regarded as an exalted color for a long time, and usually only emperors and nobles were entitled to dress in yellow.
Mysterious Chinese Dyeing and Weaving Techniques
Raw materials of clothes mainly include flax, silk, cotton, woolen cloth, leather and so on. The dyeing and weaving techniques of the Han people enjoy worldwide reputation for a long history, advanced technology and fine design. For quite a long time, China's dyeing and weaving techniques, especially silk weaving technique, could not be found elsewhere in the world.
The ancient dyeing technique of China was very superb and advanced. It could produce cloth with varied lustrous colors, and colors it dyed were not easy to wash out. Thus, this technique was called the mysterious Chinese art by Westerners. The dyeing methods roughly fell into four types: weaving of printed cloth, dye printing, embroidery and pattern drawing.
Colorful Costumes of the Han people
The Hans are the most populous ethnic group both in China and in the world. They have a long history and a resplendent culture. In the past thousands of years, there were chiefly two basic clothing designs of the Han people -- separating the upper outer garment from the lower skirt and connecting the two parts. Dajin (front of a Chinese garment with buttons on the right) has been the most distinct feature.
Patterns of Costumes: from Abstract to Realistic
The decorative patterns on clothes of the Hans are usually animals, plants or geometric patterns. Their modes of expression have roughly undergone from abstract to standard then to realistic. Patterns before the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (about the 16th century BC to 1066 BC) were concise, brief and very abstract, just like primitive Chinese characters.
From the Zhou Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties (618-1279), patterns gradually became regular and neat, and featured balance between the upper and the lower parts, symmetry between the left and right parts and elaborate distribution of decorative patterns.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1268-1840), emphasis shifted to the realistic technique in making clothes, and all kinds of animal and plant patterns were usually arranged in a very minute and vivid manner, just as if taken directly from real life and without any artificial processing, fully demonstrating the Han people's diligence and wisdom.
2. Costumes of the Han people in Modern Times
After the 1911 Revolution, the Han people's clothes for the male mainly took the following forms: Changpao (long gown) plus Magua (mandarin jacket), Changpao plus Kanjian (sleeveless jacket), Sun Yat-sen's uniform, school wear and western-style clothes, etc. While Chinese-style Shan'ao (coat) and Mindangku (trousers with the waist tucked together without buttons) were the major garments of laborers. Such a difference resulted from different economic conditions and life styles.
In modern times, women's clothes mainly consisted of cheong-sam, waistcoat, upper coat with lower skirt, and trousers.
After the 1911 Revolution, there were two kinds of formal clothes for men -- Western-style suit and Chinese-style suit. The latter is classified into Dalifu (grand suit) and Changlifu (casual suit), and Dalifu has two subcategories: day suit and night suit. The day suit reaches the knees, and its sleeves reach the wrist, with buttons down the front, a slit in the back end and black in color, to be matched with black boots over the ankles. The night suit is similar to the western-style tailcoat, to be matched with short boots, with a black knot in the front for decoration.
The Dalifu should be matched with a high, flat-topped and brimmed hat. Chinese-style long robe refers to Changpao and Magua. The design of the western-style casual suit is basically the same as that of the Dalifu, except that it should be matched with a low and brimmed round-topped hat.
The female suit has the lower hem reaching the knees, a collarband, buttons down the front, kick pleat at the back end and full of brocade all over it. The lower garment is a skirt with a horse face pattern both in front and in back, with kilting on both the left and right sides. It was basically the suit-dress of the Hans in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Women's wedding suits included the Chinese-style bright red Xiu'ao (Chinese jacket with embroidery), Xiuqun (Chinese skirt with embroidery), and the western-style white draggle-tail with puff sleeves.
The decorative patterns on clothes of the Hans are usually animals, plants or geometric patterns. Their modes of expression have roughly undergone from abstract to standard then to realistic. Patterns before the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (about the 16th century BC to 1066 BC) were concise, brief and very abstract, just like primitive Chinese characters.
From the Zhou Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties (618-1279), patterns gradually became regular and neat, and featured balance between the upper and the lower parts, symmetry between the left and right parts and elaborate distribution of decorative patterns.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1268-1840), emphasis shifted to the realistic technique in making clothes, and all kinds of animal and plant patterns were usually arranged in a very minute and vivid manner, just as if taken directly from real life and without any artificial processing, fully demonstrating the Han people's diligence and wisdom.
