Han Clothing Public Relations Plan

Drexel University has a group of Han clothing fans. They worked hard on letting more people know about Han clothing and persuading them to put it on in their daily life. After four years of advertising it to the local Chinese international students. Now, they want to hold a public relations campaign in order to promote traditional Chinese clothing to the Philadelphia citizens. I tried to make a basic public relations plan for this campaign. Here is the plan:

Market: Philadelphia, PA	Team Name: Han Clothing ING
Event Dates: 10/1/16-2/19/17	Venue: Chinatown in Philadelphia
PR Department: Yuqi Jiang Director of Public Relations O: 215.460.7133 E: yj94@drexel.edu Huanran Wang O: 215.436.0273 C: 215.336.4768 E: weichengke@gmail.com Meiga Chen O: 215.467.3086 C: 215.365.5734 E: megachen@gmail.com	Han Clothing ING: Xuke Qian Senior Vice – President/ General Manager C: 215.413.3645 E: jialanjiayu@gmail.com Liang Cha Manager of Marketing & Operations C: 215.225.8537 E: sushixiaoliangcha@gmail.com
Background: Traditional Chinese Clothing, also know as Han clothing, is the traditional clothing of the Han Chinese (Han: the main ethnic group of China) for more than 4,000 years.	Goals: To let Americans (especially Philadelphia citizens) know that Han clothing used to be the representative of traditional Chinese culture. And it should be able to represent Chinese culture in the contemporary society. Try to make them accept the cloth first, then gradually start to accept the traditional Chinese culture.

Primary PR Messaging

Message 1: Han Clothing is the representative of traditional Chinese culture for more than 4,000 years. It indicates that our ancestors favored personality traits such as being economical and standing upright.

Message 2: Modern Chinese started putting on Han clothing to try to revive the Han Chinese culture for 12 years. During this time, they tried extremely hard to let the public accept it.

Media Drop / Material Ideas

Media Materials / Drop: Traditional Chinese Hairpin (see picture) Source: Mega Timing: TBD Budget:

Interview: A College Professor

I recently interview Allan Stegeman, a teaching professor from the Department of Communication in Drexel University, about his opinions on Han clothing. Professor Stegeman has a comprehensive knowledge of traditional Chinese culture, and he shows great interest about Han clothing. 

1. Q: What is your current understanding about traditional Chinese clothing?

A: Almost all of my understandings about Chinese clothing came from movies. I know color plays an important role in it. For example, red stands for good fortune, white is used for funeral, gold is only for the king, and the lower class should wear darker colors.

2. Q: I will show you two pictures, please tell me which one do you like more?

A: I know the second one is the traditional Chinese clothing that you are talking about. I appreciate it. It is fascinating. I can see the cultural meaning behind it. However, I personally think that the first one is prettier. It fits the modern beauty more.

Source: Flying Bee

3. Q: Han clothing stands for the traditional culture of China. How do you see the cultural meaning behind clothes?

A: Well, as a matter of fact, there is a historical component behind all traditional clothes, not only the traditional Chinese clothing. The more you know about the culture, the more you can see it in the design of its traditional clothes. I believed that traditional Chinese culture is the core going values of the Chinese clothing, it is pure Chinese, like the long sleeves that cover the skin, the middle straight line, etc, all of which shows the uniqueness about China.

4. Q: Do you think it is possible that traditional Chinese clothing can develop again in the modern society? If yes, do you think it should keep what it is now in the traditional way or change with the modern society?

A: Of course it’s possible. However, I expected it to evolve just like the Chinese culture evolved in the past hundred years. Because of the globalization, now almost everything is international, so should the traditional Chinese clothing. In the contemporary society, the cultural identity of China had already been changed, we agreed that the traditional Chinese clothing is the reflection of Chinese culture, then it should change as well, to form a new tradition in an international way.

Negative Phenomenon in Han Clothing Circle (2)

Except the argument about what the real Han clothing is and how should we wear it, there is another extremely bad phenomenon exist in the Han clothing circle nowadays: the unreasonable selling method in the second-hand sale market.  

Price Increase:

An increasing number of designers joined the Han clothing circle in the recent few years, which has a positive influence on the Han clothing renewal development. However, most of the great-designed Han clothing are expensive and rationed, which means that in this market, supply falls short of demand. Many merchants figured out that it is a good chance to make more money, so they spend a large amount of money on buying as more rationed Han clothing as they can, then raise the price as high as possible and sell them online.

We all know that it is immoral and unethical, however, only a few people can control themselves from buying it. This behavior leads to a vicious spiral, the price of the clothing becomes higher and higher while the quality of it becomes lower and lower. Nowadays, a lot of people hate the Han clothing circle because of this bad phenomenon.

Pack Together:

As I mentioned before, most of the great-designed Han clothing are expensive and rationed. Although someone is capable of buying it with a higher price, most of the Han clothing fans are still students who are not that wealthy. Also, some merchants do not want to let others think that she/he is immoral by raising the price. They figured out a new way to sell those clothes: by "packing" it with other “garbage”.

They will sell it at a high price along with some other things that they don't need anymore, like old shoes or used furnitures. Most of the merchants prefer this way because they can earn the money while getting rid of the garbages they do not need, and also people will not judge them for raising the price. In their defense, they sell the Han clothing in the original price, and the extra money is used for buying the “garbages”.

Negative Phenomenon in Han Clothing Circle (1)

Both the designer and the shopkeeper mentioned that there exist a lot of problems in the Han clothing circle. Today, I want to talk about what those problems are and how did they affect the development of Han clothing in the contemporary society.

“Han modern clothing insults traditional Han clothing”:

A lot of people believed that Han modern clothing cannot help advertising Han clothing at all. Conversely, they maintained that it will causes misunderstanding about what the real Han clothing is for learners. What’s more, they believed that while Han modern clothing changed the design of traditional Han clothing, it lost the cultural meaning behind it at the same time, and without the cultural meaning, the clothing is neither unique nor important.

On the contrary, another group of people thinks that Han modern clothing is better than traditional Han clothing. People can wear it casually, and there is basically no limitation about how to design a Han modern clothing.

“We have to wear Han clothing formally”:

A few stubborn people in the Han clothing circle fight against the Han clothing routinization activity. They maintain that Han clothing represents our traditional culture, which means that we shouldn’t wear it with the other weird clothes. It shows disrespect for our own culture. It was a good thought at first, however, they went too far on this point. They do not allow people to wear sneakers or even glasses while they were in Han clothing, because “Those things did not exist in ancient time.”

However, with the development of the times, culture and clothes will develop as well, and this development is positive. I believe we should not just stumble upon this subject. Renaissance does not mean that we have to return to the ancient society. On the contrary, it teaches us to learn the positive experience from the ancients and make it better in the modern world.