Dear fellow students and distinguished teachers,
Good afternoon!
I'm Emily from China. You may have watched some Chinese costume dramas like this one(pointing to the models). Have you paid attention to the beautiful clothes in them? They are Traditional Chinese Clothing, in Chinese-Hanfu.
I'm so honored to introduce this beautiful clothes Hanfu to you today.
Hanfu takes its name from the times of the Han Dynasty. It is a national formal wear in ancient China and now is long out of fashion. A complete set of Hanfu, covers the clothing, clothing accessories, jewelry etc, and reflects the rituals of Chinese culture from that era.
One of the hallmark of Hanfu is its cross collar, and it requires the left lapel covers the right one, we call it Right Lapel. The other character of Hanfu is it is tied with sash in place of buttons when wearing. The soft material and flat pattern cutting make the clothes wide and loose. And the wearer both look and feel comfortable.
The material for making Hanfu were carefully chosen. About nine categories of fabrics were used, such as brocade, damask silk, cotton, yarn and so on. And the fabrics were dyed by environmental friendly dyestuff from plants extracts.
The images or Patterns which waved in the Hanfu were adopted from ritualistic Chinese symbols. They reflect upon different social standings of the bearers. Usually, objects depicting the sun, moon, elephants, tigers, dragons, to birds were embroidered.
A whole set of the Han Chinese Garment has three layers: an underwear, an inner garment and an overcoat. Ten elements were included in the three layers. They are collar, hem, sleeve, lapel, belt and so on. And on Hanfu, people added accessories such as socks, shawl and jade belt for the beauty and sometime to show wealth.
There are three main styles of Hanfu: the jacket and skirt, one piece dress, or jacket and trousers. The basic type is the jacket and skirt. Later robes became the customary costume, but the jacket and skirt were women's favourites.
From the reign of the [Yellow Emperor] (2696 BC-2598BC) to the end of the [Ming Dynasty](1368 - 1644), Hanfu dominated the Chinese fashion world, a period of well over four thousand years.
During the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), the Manchu regime banned Traditional Han Chinese Clothing. After the Qing, Chinese people had adopted western style clothes and the traditional Han people’s clothes never returned in force.
In recent years, there has been a revival of traditional Chinese attires. Some young people engaged in promoting Hanfu through the Internet social networking. On traditional Chinese festivals such as [Tomb Sweeping Day] and [Mid-autumn Festival] and formal occasions, the younger people put on their Hanfu. Once, on top of [Xian City Wall] more than one hundred couples got married in a ceremony according to ancient edicts wearing Han Chinese garb.
For me, I like the traditional Chinese Clothing very much. They are beautiful, comfortable. And I hope through my introduction of Hanfu, you can know more about it and like it too.
Thank you!
Reference:
Chinese Clothing
