What is Hanfu?

Hanfu, also known as Han clothing, is the traditional clothing of the Han Chinese (Han: the main ethnic group of China) for more than 4,000 years. There are three basic characteristics of Hanfu, fastened by ropes or rope hookers, crossed collar and always put the front of collar at right.

Basic characteristics

Firstly, ancient Chinese people preferred to fasten the Han clothing by ropes or rope hookers because they believed that the ropes can decrease the damage to the cloth, so they use them instead of metals to protect the cloth and keep it smooth.

Secondly, most of the Han clothing has the crossed collar, which means to wrap the right side of the collar across to the left side. The point of intersection is right in the middle of the clothes, it encourages our Chinese to become an unprejudiced person. And based on the intersection point, we will make a straight line on the middle of the clothes, which encourages us to become an upright person.

Thirdly, Chinese ancestors believed that when do the crossed collar, it is necessary to always put the front of collar at right, in the other word, always wrap the right side over before the left to make it looks like a “y”. They made rules because of the initially greater challenge to the right-handed wearer. Also, Chinese discouraged to put the front of collar at left, they believed that it is unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized and unfortunate. Because in the ancient time, only the people from foreign minority nationalities wore the clothes in this way.

Here is a picture of the crossed collar and the middle straight line:

Source: SeSe

The Han clothing is now usually worn during some festivals, or coming of age of passage ceremonies, by hobbyists, by Taoist, Confucian or Buddhist monks and priests during religious ceremonies, or as a cultural exercise. However, the clothes that we usually see in Chinese television serials and films are not Han clothes, because they do not have those three basic characteristics.