Traditional Chinese Clothing 🤩 Four You Need To Know

Q: What is the oldest, most traditional type of Chinese clothing?

The Chinese Hanfu is the oldest traditional costume. As the name suggests, it originates from the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD).

Culture • By LTL Team HQ • January 9, 2019

Four Gorgeous Garments You Need To Know About

Want to discover the best traditional Chinese clothing. Today we introduce you to FOUR CHINESE GARMENTS you need to know about!

Clothing is an important part of any culture.

Since Chinese culture is more than 5,000 years old, traditional Chinese clothing has an interesting history too.

Below we introduce the main features of Chinese traditional dress and the most well-known garments.

The style of Chinese clothing usually reflects Chinese peoples’ religious views and social life customs.

Another important factor in Chinese dress is which of the 56 officially recognised Chinese ethnic groups people are from. As most Chinese ethnic groups have their own unique traditional clothing.

The design is usually straight cut, a loose shape and comfortable. Normally garments are light coloured, but you can also see reds, yellows and purples fairly often too. White is a funeral colour in China, therefore not often worn day-to-day.

Thousands of years ago, colours such as red and purple were allowed only for royalty and noblemen.

Nowadays red is the most popular because believed to be a colour of happiness and wealth.

Female clothes tend to more detailed, have more ornaments and styles than their male counterparts. The materials vary – cotton and linen for daily wear, and silk for special occasions.

There are four types of traditional Chinese clothing that are still very popular among the Chinese population today:

Traditional Chinese Clothing #1 – Hanfu 汉服
Traditional Chinese Clothing #2 – Zhongshan Suit 中山服
Traditional Chinese Clothing #3 – Thangzhuang or Tang Suit 唐装
Traditional Chinese Clothing #4 – Cheongsam or Qipao 旗袍

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1. Traditional Chinese Clothing – Hanfu 汉服

Background:

The Chinese Hanfu is the oldest traditional costume.

As the name suggests, it originates from the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD).

The majority of the Chinese population refer themselves to Han Dynasty, as it was the longest and the most prosperous dynasty in Chinese history.

Name:

The literal translation of Hanfu from Chinese would be “Han dynasty clothes” – 汉(Han dynasty) + 服(clothes).

Main hallmarks:

Crossed collar
Right lapel
Sash instead of buttons
Colourful embroidery
Loose sleeves

Design:

The Hanfu has two main styles: a one-piece dress and skirt/trousers combo. The completed Hanfu apparel has three layers – underwear, an inner layer and overcoat. To complete the Hanfu traditional costume there are accessories such as socks, shawl, jade belt, and jade jewellery should be added.

Embroidery patterns usually reflect the social standing of the person who wears the clothing. Often Hanfu are decorated with the sun, moon, or animals like tigers, dragons and birds. The material is chosen carefully and is usually a luxury material like silk, brocade, or yarn.

FANCY TRYING YOUR OWN? Did you know you can buy a Hanfu on Amazon! There’s loads to choose from including this one where you can select your own colour.
Please note the link above is affiliate link. LTL Mandarin School take a small cut of any sales made, with the rest going to Amazon and the lister of the product.

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2.Traditional Chinese Clothing – Zhongshan Suit 中山服

Background:

The Zhongshan suit is better known overseas as a Mao suit. It first appeared during the time of Sun Yat-sen after the Republic of China was founded in the year of 1912.

Later on, Chairman Mao was often seen wearing this style of garment.

So that’s why it became known as a Mao suit in English.

The main idea behind this garment is a combination of a Western style suit and traditional Chinese clothing.

Name:

The name in Chinese is 中山服 (Zhōngshān fú). Zhōngshān is Sun Yat-sen’s name in Mandarin, and fú means clothing or suit.

So the name ‘Zhongsan suit’ is a very literal translation.

Main hallmarks:

Turned-down closed collar
Four pockets
Five big central buttons in front
Three smaller buttons on each sleeve

Design:

This suit actually holds a strong symbolic meaning. The four pockets – loyalty, benevolence, decency, and shame.

The five big buttons represent the 5 separated powers: administration, jurisdiction, legislation, supervision, and examination.

The three smaller sleeve buttons symbolize the three social principles: nationalism, democracy and the nation’s livelihood. The turned-down closed collar is a sign of careful ruling.

All these features together symbolize the unity of China.

3. Traditional Chinese Clothing – Tangzhuang or Tang Suit 唐装

Background:

Again as the name suggests, the origin of this garment is the Tang dynasty.

This clothing is called a suit but actually it is represented only by one jacket.

Name:

The name “Tang Suit” was given to this item of clothing by foreign countries.

Throughout history the Chinese Tang dynasty was the most popular and well known dynasty overseas for 6/7 centuries.

During this time foreigners referred to Chinese as Tang people. So logically the clothes they wear Thangzhuang (唐装) were also called Tang suits.

Main hallmarks:

Loose shape
Mandarin collar
Knot buttons arranged down the front.

Design:

The design of the Tang Suit often includes a pattern of Chinese characters, usually with the characters 福 (meaning happiness) and 寿 (meaning longevity).

These characters were believed to attract fortune and happiness to the wearer.

This type of Chinese clothing had great influence on the traditional clothing of other cultures such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

FANCY TRYING YOUR OWN? Did you know you can buy a Tang Suit on Amazon! There’s loads to choose from including this one where you can select your own colour.
Please note the link above is affiliate link. LTL Mandarin School take a small cut of any sales made, with the rest going to Amazon and the lister of the product.

4. Traditional Chinese Clothing – Cheongsam or Qipao 旗袍

Background:

Chinese Clothing: Qipao

The Cheongsam/Qipao style dress is said to originate from Qing Dynasty times (17-20th centuries), in particular from the style of Manchu women.

Name:

Back then Han Chinese people called Manchu people “the Qi people”.

Manchu women wore long gown type garments.

The word for gown in Chinese is “pao”. So here Qi-pao = the gown of the Qi people. Qipao is a garments only worn by women.

Main hallmarks:

Fitted cut
One piece dress
Right side opening with knot buttons
Two wide openings at both sides of the hips
Mandarin collar

Design:

The Qipao is a one-piece dress with a fitted cut. It is still very popular among women in China and also among tourists.

I even bought one each for my mum and sister, because the dress is a perfect mix of tradition and beauty.

The best option is to get a Qipao made to measure so that it fits you exactly. The top right side of the dress is tied together with knot-style buttons, and there are usually 2 long slits down either side of the dress.

FANCY TRYING YOUR OWN? Did you know you can buy a Qipao on Amazon! There’s loads to choose from including this one where you can select your preferred design.
Please note the link above is affiliate link. LTL Mandarin School take a small cut of any sales made, with the rest going to Amazon and the lister of the product.

Now you know more about Chinese traditional clothing….

Have you ever purchased any traditional Chinese clothing? Or maybe we want to? Tell us more in the comments below.

If you’re interested in clothes and fashion be sure to check out our blog about clothes in Chinese for all the essential vocab!