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What Should Chinese People Wear?

2010/12/25 15:45:00 136

Chinese Dress Styles And Dress Traditions

For a century, Western civilization has changed.

Chinese?

A

Way of dressing

Today, people all over the world wear similar clothes.

Chinese

Dress tradition

Where is the cheongsam? Tang suit? Hanfu? Where is the future of the Chinese way of dressing? Yuan Ze, a costume historian, believes that cheongsam and Chinese tunic are still the best traditional costumes in China.

B= the Bund pictorial

Y= Yuan Ze

B: after more than 100 years of development, Chinese dressing has basically been "Europeanized".

Actually, the dressing of people all over the world is similar nowadays (except for a few areas).

Is it not a pity that the loss of traditional clothing elements is not a pity for you?

Y: of course it is a pity.

In the process of globalization, there are many things that can be unified in the economic field, but globalization in the cultural field will lead to too much culture.

I think clothing should still maintain the diversity of different regions and nationalities.

But in turn, it should be admitted that the trend of industrial civilization is irresistible.

Our traditional costumes are basically based on agricultural civilization. The big sleeves of the wide robe do not conform to the trend of industrial production, so they will inevitably die out.

B: do you mean that if China took the lead in the industrial age, maybe western countries would be influenced by our national costume?

Y: I appreciate this question.

If China was the first to enter the industrial age, I think our traditional costumes will also undergo improvement, or maybe someone else will learn from us.

However, I can not imagine what kind of clothing will be produced under such circumstances.

B: as you mentioned in your book, the quality of Qipao has been lost, and the quality of production has declined. Now there is no suitable place to wear, so cheongsam has not been widely popular in real life, instead, it has become the waiter's work clothes.

Why do we see that women still wear kimono in Japan, but in China, the vitality of cheongsam can not be extended?

Y: the gowns and Qipao were eliminated because of the large political factors.

If not for the reasons we all know, these two kinds of clothing are likely to continue.

If they continue, their role in today's China may be similar to that of Japan's kimono.

In Japan, the tradition of kimono is not interrupted, and today it is still worn as a dress.

B: according to the current situation, many of the craft in this field can not be lost because people have long given up traditional Chinese clothing.

In a situation where dress culture no longer appears in real life, how do you think it should be preserved?

In the 30 years after Y:1949, the state and the people are very poor. Our demands for life and clothing are vulgar. The society advocates equality and simplicity. Many of the clothing technology and technology have also declined or even disappeared.

After the reform and opening up, we gradually recovered some crafts, but due to quick success and instant benefits, the corresponding products were quite vulgar.

For example, silk is a silk weaving technology in ancient China, also known as "Tong Jing broken weft". Since Song and Yuan Dynasties, it has been one of the Royal fabrics.

An excellent worker can only finish a few centimeters of silk in a day.

Because this process is mainly for royal service, after the destruction of the Qing Dynasty, fewer and fewer people were used. After liberation, the silk began to decline.

The kimono waistband is made of silk, so after the reform and opening up, this process has been warmer, but today's skills, taste and quality can no longer reach the standard of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

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B: at present, some people choose to wear cheongsam and Tang costume on major occasions.

From a professional researcher's perspective, are there any common misconceptions about people wearing ancient clothes? How about making craft?

Y: Chinese traditional clothing has many basic elements.

Let's take an example: the right flap is also called the right side.

Since 2000, Chinese traditional clothing, both male and female, is right, which is the right side of the skirt on the left.

Left is worn by Hu people.

Nowadays, many of the suits are in western style, men's right front and left ones.

Another example: today's common Tang costume is very beautiful and beautiful. Actually, traditional men's fabrics are very elegant.

Chen Danqing once chatted with me and joked that the present Tang suit was all shroud - only the shroud used this pattern.

I once hoped that Chinese officials could come forward to create a ceremonial costume that suited the characteristics of today's Chinese people.

But at the same time, I also know that it is impractical to produce a daily fashion form that can be widely accepted by the public in a short time.

In this respect, it is not possible to standardize clothing by system or law, but through folk guidance.

I think China's best costumes in the past hundred years are cheongsam and Chinese tunic suit.

The evolution of cheongsam also took decades. From early twentieth Century to 40s, it became what we know today. If it were not for political reasons, cheongsam could evolve into a new form today.

Its creator is the public, not a designer.

I think what the Chinese people are going to wear is not a problem that a master can solve.

B: Why did you choose the Chinese tunic suit instead of the Tang suit?

Y: the so-called Tang costume, in which the word "Tang" has misled many people.

In fact, it has nothing to do with the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang costume is mainly a garment worn by overseas Chinese.

Because they live in Chinatown, they call themselves Tang people, so they call it "Tang suit".

In fact, its prototype is a kind of Chinese costume which is popular in China during the Republic of China, and the wearer is the lower working people.

This dress actually has many similarities with Western-style clothes, such as sleeves rather than sleeves.

And it was in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, so far, there is no significant creativity.

B: the Chinese elements have often appeared in the design of European and American fashion brands in the last ten years.

What elements do you think are suitable for Chinese ancient clothing and are easy to pass on to contemporary costumes?

Y: more suitable elements include collar, button, flap and some decorative elements.

Nowadays, Western designers often use Chinese clothing elements in design, others may just seek novelty. I think this is beyond reproach.

However, at present, Chinese designers do not know much about our traditional costume patterns, so they are very vulgar.

B: what do you think about the revival of Hanfu activities initiated by some civil organizations? How much impact can they have on the way the contemporary people dress?

Y: I have talked with some groups that advocate Hanfu.

At first, I thought they were cute, but later I found that they had entered the narrow misunderstanding of nationalism.

There is no place for yuan and Qing in their historical charts.

Any country, in a long historical process, is bound to have cultural exchanges with other nations. If a culture is pure and pure, it is bound to die out.

Therefore, it is unrealistic for me to blindly resume Hanfu.

Clothing should be encouraged to improve and innovate. Otherwise, posterity will just wear their ancestors' clothes.

B: today we have been concerned about when China will be able to master the designer.

What do you expect from this point?

Y: I don't quite agree with the so-called "masters" in China at this stage.

Today, China is not yet a master designer.

There may be excellent designers in the future, but the atmosphere of today's times is becoming more and more diverse. It is impossible for ChristianDior to come back again. The fashion industry will not let one person decide the length of skirts.

Today's designers can only serve a certain group of people.

I repeat, we should not think that one person can change the dress of a nation.

The reform of clothing needs to choose from top to bottom.

B: Well, according to your observation, do Chinese people begin to make this choice?

Y: it seems not yet.

Yuan Ze was born in Shanghai in 1948.

He graduated from Suzhou Silk Institute of technology with master of Arts, master of philosophy and professor of Beijing Institute Of Fashion Technology.

Teaching research on clothing history, traditional costume culture rescue and design art history.

The book "Chinese clothing in twentieth Century", which is co authored by Mrs. Hu Yue, is a stereoscopic sketch of the Chinese people's fashion in the past 100 years from the political, social and cultural perspectives. It was published by the Sanlian bookstore in August this year.