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.

Interview: A Han Clothing shopkeeper

Huanran Wang owns an online store named "Lotus", which sells Han clothing in China. She has been running that store for more than five years. Her store sells almost all the classical forms of Han clothing and she designed most of them. There are more than a hundred of people go to her store online each month in order to buy the Han clothing that she designed, and her store gains 4.5 out of 5 stars among the customers.

1. Q：As a Han clothing shopkeeper, which element do you concern as the most important one?

A：Well, even if I sell Han clothing rather than modern things, I am still a shopkeeper. The most important element for me is the profit indeed. But I know well that Han clothing is not just a clothes. Only a few people know about that and fewer people accept it. After making sure that I can have profit, I will spend most of my energy on making sure that the quality and design are as good as possible.

2. Q：I know that you are a big Han clothing fan before being a shopkeeper, why do you want to open a store that sells Han clothing?

A：I want to do something real for the Han culture renewal movement. I think open a store will be helpful, because as long as your clothes are beautiful enough, you can attract more people’s interest about it. The real clothes are definitely more attractive than the online pictures.

3. Q：Which sells better? The traditional Han clothing or the Han modern clothing?

A：Han modern clothing indeed. Because there are a lot of people like Han clothing, but most of them think it is too embarrassed to wear it outside, and they will choose Han modern clothing instead.

4. Q：Then will you focus more on Han modern clothing for more profit and gradually reduce selling the traditional Han clothing?

A：Actually, on the contrary, I am considering about reducing making Han modern clothing. For me, Han modern clothing is the introduction for traditional Han clothing, it is helpful for the freshman, but if we only have Han modern clothing, people will never get the chance to know about the deeper meaning of Han clothing or Han culture. It violates my initial purpose of opening this store. I will never do that.

5. Q：Tell me about your expectation for Han clothing development in the future.

A：I hope people in the Han clothing circle can seek common ground while reserving differences during the process, I understand that there are some divergences about Han clothing study, but if we ourselves can't unite together, Han clothing can never develop well. Anyway, hope we have a great future.

Interview: A Designer

As I mentioned before in my previous posts, ornament plays an important role in the Han clothing world, which indicates that people who design traditional ornaments are also popular among Han clothing fans. Mega is one of those popular ornament designers. Her online store gains more than 500 fans in only two weeks, a lot of celebrities gave full praise and high recommendation about it.

1. Q：How did you know about Han clothing in the first place?

A：I was extremely obsessed with ancientry in high school. I searched almost everything that related to it online, and I saw Han clothing at that time. It hit me straightly.

2. Q：How do you think about the Han clothing renewal movement?

A：Well, I got to know about that six years ago. At that time, not many people knew about it, but they still tried so hard. Their insistence touched me, and I decided to help them by joining the group. After six years, I saw more and more people join the family, the activities become more official and interesting, the progress is obvious. But more people bring more problems, sometimes I felt tired about arguing about different opinions.

3. Q：Do you prefer the original Han clothings or the Han modern clothes?

A：I was attracted by the original Han clothing, but now I would prefer the one that I can actually wear on the street. However, for me, Han modern clothes are mostly ugly and poorly designed nowadays. As a designer, I would like to make it more unique and special to attract more people.

4. Q：How do you think about innovation in Han clothing?

A：There is no doubt that our ancestor designed their clothes like that for a reason, and if we want to win the Han cultural renewal movement, there is something that we have to insist and never give up. However, modern clothes replace the traditional clothes for a better reason as well, I believe some innovation can help the modern people like is more.

5. Q：Anything you want to say to Han clothing?

A：I will continue loving you in 2016, you taught me a lot, it is time for me to help you look better.

Different Opinions from West

I have spent several posts talking about the opinions about Han clothing in the eastern world. However, actually, the perspectives from the western world are way more positive and helpful for the Han clothing renewal movement. Because people in western countries are always more open to accept the “weird” thing. They admire old things, they accept new things, and Han clothing, in the contemporary society, is both.

Here is a picture of western people in Han clothing:

Source: Cold Rain

From my personal experience, I brought some Han clothing to America in my freshman year. I wore them for several times, unexpectedly, I got a lot of compliments from my foreign classmates while most of my Chinese classmates regard me as a weirdo, some of them even laugh at me for dressing like “a character in the costume piece”.

What’s more, I mentioned about the Han clothing in several of my classes like anthropology or linguistics. Surprisingly, most of my professors liked hearing it from me and showed large interests about it. In the meantime, every time I mentioned about Han clothing in front of my relatives in China, they would just interrupt me immediately, walk away, and tell my mom that there is something wrong with my mind.

Overall, from my personal experience and interviews, I realized that people from western countries maintain that Han clothing is beautiful and creative, they would be willing to see more people put it on, but apparently, they do not value the culture behind the clothes, all of those are more like a game to them. They are interested in it, but they won’t value it like the Chinese did. That is why if they want to bring back the precious culture, the only one they can rely on is themselves. If they cannot convince themselves to open their mind like the western people did, they will always fail.