CNN: The Chinese Hanfu That Has Come Back Is Making The World Reexamine China'S Beauty.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, Chinese traditional costumes are coming back.

When she was young, Zhang Lingshan would watch the palace of ancient Chinese drama on TV. The characters in this play were dressed in costumes, colorful and magnificent, and embroidered with lotus and dragon on their gowns, with complex headwear.

She did not know what these beautiful clothes were called - they were only from distant past.

She said: "When I saw it, I really liked it. "These clothes look very dreamy, like in a fairy tale. The beauty of these costumes fascinated me. Later on, I gradually learned about Hanfu culture, and I liked it more and more. "

Zhang Lingshan, 19 years old and living in Beijing, is a member of China's growing "Hanfu" cultural movement. The Han costume culture movement was a revival of traditional Chinese dress before Qing Dynasty. The movement began in the early 2000s. It was originally a marginal subculture on online forums and websites, and is now on the streets.

Although Chinese clothing is still not mainstream clothing in modern China, if you walk in large and medium-sized cities, you may see some people wearing wide robes, cross collar and wide sleeved Han clothes, and Han clothes literally means "Han people's clothes".

There are many Hanfu shops, Hanfu designers and Hanfu researchers, and even professional studios provide rental services for Hanfu and accessories.

The price of Hanfu varies from 30 US dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on the quality of clothing. In recent years, sales of Hanfu have been increasing rapidly. According to official China Daily, the total market value of Hanfu industry is estimated at 1 billion 90 million yuan (about 154 million US dollars).

University Associations and Hanfu culture circles often unite to organize some thematic activities, such as folk games or fashion shows. Zhang Lingshan and her friends sometimes visit ancient buildings in Hanfu suits, such as the the Imperial Palace in Beijing, where the emperors once lived. They take pictures in costumes and go to social media.

Hanfu fans take stylized photos to create Hanfu fashion elements

Chen Zhenbing, President of the Chinese Hanfu Association, fell in love with such clothes when he was 16 years old. He made his first Hanfu suit out of interest. He recalled that in 2005 he held Hanfu culture activities, but attracted only about 50 participants - five years later, similar activities attracted 500 people.

Today, the Hanfu cultural activities across the country can attract more than one thousand participants.

He and many others regard Hanfu as a way of respecting Chinese culture and enhancing national self-esteem. Over the years, with the rapid development of China's economy, Chinese professionals have been looking for their formal clothes, shirts and suits in the West. Today, "we do not think China is underdeveloped," said Xu Cuiting, a fashion columnist and Hanfu researcher in Shanghai. "This is the confidence of the young people and the confidence of the country. "

Others, however, hold a critical attitude towards the popularity of Hanfu, which is a reflection of the wave of "traditional virtues" and "national solidarity" advocated by the state again and again.

Of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized in China, 55 belong to ethnic minorities. The Han nationality accounts for 92% of the total population.

Critics of the cultural movement, such as Kevin Carrico, a senior research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, believe that the popularity of Hanfu will only enhance the cultural solidarity of the Chinese people, but it will also damage the solidarity of the one hundred million people who constitute the ethnic minorities of China. Kevin Khalik,

Under such circumstances, he and other scholars say that Hanfu is no longer an innocent traditional fashion trend, but a weapon that needs to be weaponry when promoting the agenda of national unity.

A controversial history

Some Hanfu enthusiasts have begun to develop the "authentic" Hanfu guide book. For example, although many people may think that "Qipao" with tight collar and high collar is a typical representative of Chinese traditional costume, it is not Hanfu in Hanfu circle because it originated from Manchu nationality.

This is a tough problem. Some Hanfu culture websites claim that the Manchu leaders in the Qing Dynasty forced the abolition of Hanfu. In an article, the official said: "They forced the Han people to give up their costumes, so the Chinese Hanfu culture in twentieth Century almost disappeared. "

Therefore, for some Chinese fans, wearing Han clothes becomes a cultural and historical reclamation.

However, the statement about Han's oppression may not be entirely accurate. It is very difficult to determine the real Hanfu. "He is in the big Han: This phenomenon has been studied and written in the book "race, national unity and tradition" in China today.

He said in a telephone interview: Before the Qing Dynasty, there was no clothing specially designed for Han people. "

In the Han Dynasty, the Chinese people wore various styles of clothing. Therefore, there was no special Hanfu style, but the mixture and interaction of dozens of styles. The style of the dress depended on the period, geographical area and social economic class.

Some Hanfu enthusiasts recognize this historical diversity. For example, Chen Zhenbing said that the Tang Dynasty favoured the round collar robes, while the Ming Dynasty preferred stratified dresses. He added that Hanfu still has some common design features - Cross collar, no buttons, usually three layers of underwear and a coat. The patterns often used include embroidered cranes, dragons, whirlwind clouds and delicate flowers.

This fluidity between different styles is the reason why Lu Yao, a 23 year old Beijing native, prefers to use the word "Hua Fu". The term "Chinese clothing" refers more generally to Chinese clothing, and there is no ethnic connotation.

However, many Chinese fans are proud of the ethnic differences reflected in the word "Hanfu".

"To some extent, the revival of Hanfu is the revival of Chinese culture, and the revival of Chinese culture is the revival of Chinese culture," said Chen Zhenbing, who owns Hanfu shops and helps organize activities. "I think the Han nationality is the most powerful and unified nation in the world. It has the most sacred and sublime culture. What nationality can compare with the Han nationality? "

Flattening of ethnic consciousness

Chen Zhenbing echoed the wave of national unity sweeping China in recent years. Many words are traced back to the golden age of Chinese history hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Since 2012, the view of "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" has been solemnly put forward. The leader of the state often quoted the words of the ancient philosopher Confucius. Vesi Lin Wessie Ling, Northumbria University, said that schools are paying more and more attention to Chinese culture, literature and history, which teaches young people to see things in Chinese perspective. "

But academics such as Mr. Carlo, who are worried about the importance of Hanfu and Chinese culture, may further weaken minority groups and flatten ethnic diversity in China.

Fashion columnist Tsai Tsai holds this view: People wear Hanfu just for their dreams and hobbies. She added that Han people account for more than 90% of the Chinese population. Therefore, it is not surprising that Hanfu is so popular.

She said: "This is part of globalization. "We all wear T-shirts, but can you say that we are all Americanized? "

Whether or not Hanfu is a natural ethnicity, the ongoing debates reflect the complexity of fashion and trend. Fashion is not a mere existence. It is formed under the influence of social, economic and political events. Experts believe that the key question here is whether the general superiority of the Chinese word in the word "China" is at the expense of other ethnic groups.