Hanbok vs. Hanfu

Korean culture is also somehow derived from traditional Chinese culture like Japanese culture, so does their traditional clothing. However, it developed in a different way from Japan. We discussed about the Japanese Kimono in the previous post, and today is the chance to compare the Korean Hanbok with the Chinese Hanfu.

Hanbok:

Hanbok is the traditional Korean clothing. It derived from the Chinese Aoqun that I mentioned before in the previous post. Unlike Japanese Kimono, Korean only made a few slight changes based on the original traditional Chinese clothing, and that's why a lot of people still mix them up in the contemporary society.

Here are some pictures of Hanbok vs. Hanfu:

Source: Batu 

As we can see from the above pictures, the most obvious difference between Hanbok and Hanfu is the length of the top. Korean Hanbok's top is clearly much shorter than Chinese Hanfu. Also, the dress of Korean Hanbok is in a conical shape like the modern bubble skirt, while all the traditional Chinese dresses are straight down without changing in shapes because “being upright” is the most important message that our ancestors tried to deliver to us by designing the clothes. What’s more, Korean Hanbok prefer using bright and warm colors like red or yellow while Chinese Hanfu are almost in cold color like blue or green because their tradition teaches them to be low-key.

Unlike Japanese Kimono, Korean Hanbok had been in a depression time just like Chinese Hanfu. People stop wearing it in daily life and start to re-design it in order to make it fit the modern society easily. However, the good news is that it is still a tradition to wear the Hanbok in the important ceremonies or holidays while Chinese wear modern clothes under every situation.