Young people "entered the circle", Hanfu "out of the circle"

  Speaking of Hanfu, what do you think of?

  The robes, large sleeves, and skirts are fluttering, just like "the neon clothes flicking the wide bands, fluttering ascending to heaven" in Li Bai's poems?

  In fact, Hanfu is very common on the streets of China today.

On weekends or holidays, people can always see pairs of young men and women in Hanfu passing by on the street.

For modern Chinese young people, Hanfu has become a common dress for travel and play, and the upper and lower clothes are no longer unusual in the eyes of passersby.

Young people's love for traditional culture has driven Hanfu to become the current trend.

Data map: A girl in Hanfu admires begonia flowers in Taoranting Park in Beijing.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang

From love to promotion, how do young people "fan" in Hanfu?

  Xuanji is a group of "comrades" who came into contact with Hanfu earlier.

While studying abroad in 2012, she wore a Hanfu and played a bamboo flute on the street to show Chinese art, attracting foreigners' onlookers.

The photos were introduced to China and attracted the attention of many netizens at that time.

  "When I was a child, I learned traditional talents such as bamboo flute and classical dance. For me, it was reasonable to like Hanfu." Xuanji's love for Hanfu came from subtle changes. She said that her first set of Hanfu was still a mother's stuffing Li. Box.

The experience of wearing Hanfu on the streets of a foreign country for the first time surprised her at the charm of Hanfu, and also gave her the idea of ​​popularizing Hanfu science at home and abroad.

  In March 2014, Xuanji served as the chief planner, chief producer, and choreographer in the public welfare etiquette promotional film "The State of Etiquette".

In 2017, Chinese female soldiers performing peacekeeping missions in South Sudan put the dances in "The State of Etiquette" on the stage of local events.

Hanfu show show scene.

Photo by An Yuan

  Xuanji’s experience is not just a case of young people who love Hanfu from their love to display and promotion.

  Yue Ye Weiyang also belongs to the earlier Hanfu "comrades."

She believes that dressing and ritual culture is the most external embodiment of Chinese culture, showing the nation's thinking and pursuit of beauty.

“Nowadays, Hanfu is attracting more and more attention from young people. On the one hand, its design incorporates more trendy elements under the premise that its shape remains unchanged. On the other hand, it also shows that traditional culture is becoming more and more popular. Hanfu’s design implies Tolerance to the diverse beauty of classical and contemporary." Yue Ye Weiyang said.

  After being affirmed by passers-by for wearing Hanfu for the first time, Yue Ye Weiyang changed from a self-advanced "enthusiast" to a "comrade" who spread the culture of Hanfu. He once acted as a Hanfu model to show the charm of Hanfu on some cultural occasions.

"Hanfu has spent every important moment with me. It is a manifestation of my lifestyle."

  In recent years, Hanfu has also begun to attract overseas attention in some international fashion weeks.

"Post-90s" Zhang is suddenly a designer who brought Hanfu design elements to the stage of New York Fashion Week.

  "When they first came into contact with Hanfu, foreign audiences just thought the design of Hanfu elements was quite mysterious and beautiful." Zhang said suddenly, but as the acceptance of costumes incorporating Hanfu elements has increased, more and more people have begun to taste Chinese traditions. The cultural charm behind the costumes, such as the regulations in Hanfu, embodies the philosophical connotation of traditional culture.

"Foreign Hanfu fans to appreciate the taste of culture through clothing elements is also a very interesting process."

Revival rather than retro, what is the charm of the current Hanfu?

  In recent years, there have been more and more Hanfu fans who like to put traditional culture on their bodies. This is intuitively manifested as a sharp increase in the market size.

  IiMedia Consulting's "2021 China Hanfu Industry Status and Consumer Behavior Data Research Report" shows that from 2015 to 2020, the sales scale of China's Hanfu market has achieved a surge from 190 million yuan to 6.36 billion yuan. By 2021, China's Hanfu market The sales scale will exceed 10 billion yuan, and the Hanfu industry still has great potential for development.

Photo of Lu Xiaowei in Hanfu.

Photo courtesy of Lu Xiaowei

  Lu Xiaowei opened a physical Hanfu store in 2006, and he was also the first group of "comrades" who wore Hanfu on the streets in China.

In her opinion, Hanfu fans have grown from a few hundred and thousands of people across the country to around 5 million people now. The rapid development of the "tongpao" circle has been particularly noticeable in recent years.

  In Lu Xiaowei's view, the renaissance of Hanfu among young people is not about dressing in retro style, but an attempt at cultural inheritance. Hanfu is an "external expression of culture" that young people can identify.

Hanfu "tongpao" hopes that those who buy and use Hanfu can understand the cultural value of Hanfu and taste the traditional Chinese aesthetic style.

For example, common Western tailoring often emphasizes body curves and has multiple requirements for people's leg length and shoulder line; Hanfu emphasizes wrapping and subtlety, showing people's temperament and beauty from the angle of posture, which is more in line with traditional Chinese aesthetics.

  "The front and back seams of Hanfu are reminding people to pay attention to their manners and to be upright; totem symbols such as dragon and phoenix embodies people's reverence for nature and prayers for peace in the world; traditional patterns such as auspicious clouds and longevity characters, then It is a blessing to a specific group of people-these are actually the fusion of costumes and traditional culture, which is also applicable today." Lv Xiaowei said.

How to make Hanfu and traditional culture "out of the circle"?

  The commercialization of Hanfu has made this kind of national fashion clothing familiar to the public, but some Hanfu "comrades" have also worried about some "changing tastes" in the current Hanfu market.

For example, some Hanfu pays too much attention to surface design and ignores the expression of cultural elements.

For another example, some of the so-called "Hanfu stars" that are sought after are often misnamed, and their operation of bringing fans in the market is suspected of reaping fans.

Yue Ye Weiyang's photo at graduation in Hanfu.

Photo courtesy of Yue Ye Weiyang

  Yue Ye Weiyang believes that when Hanfu is rapidly over-commercialized in a short period of time, the phenomenon of "bad money driving out good money" appears in the Hanfu market, and some so-called "Hanfu" that has lost the basic design tradition and aesthetic direction is flooded, misleading a part. Young people buying Hanfu.

Another "comrade" Liu Xiaoyan also believes that the proliferation of "pseudo Hanfu" makes "Mengxin" and "comrades" care more about the surface design of clothing, and loses the pursuit of cultural connotation behind the clothing.

  Young Hanfu enthusiasts expect that the Hanfu industry will develop and grow under the benign exchange of opinions and the continuous regulation of industry standards, so that both the clothing and the traditional culture it carries will "out of the circle."

The application of Hanfu in daily life.

Photo courtesy of Yue Ye Weiyang

  Some "comrades" are also thinking about how to leverage their strength.

Lu Xiaowei believes that the use of Hanfu is the best inheritance.

At present, Hanfu is still in the "initial stage of a comprehensive revival", and more power is needed to support Hanfu and spread the cultural meaning of clothing among young people. "Wearing Hanfu is only the starting point for young people to understand the underlying culture."

  "I hope that in the future, Hanfu can become a popular choice for young people. You can wear Hanfu to eat, wear Hanfu to take graduation photos, and wear Hanfu to spend every ritual and meaningful day in your life. , Because Hanfu is our traditional costume, which embodies the cultural core of the Chinese nation." Yue Ye Weiyang said.

  Author: Hao Lingyu