Beijing (AFP)
Dressed in a long traditional tunic in the Beijing Metro, Xiao Hang seems to have been teleported from ancient China. Like her, many young people are ignoring the looks and proudly wear the national dress today.
If, with economic development launched in the 1980s, the Chinese gradually converted to Western fashion, a resurgent movement of "hanfu" began a few years ago.
This garment literally means "the clothes of the Hans" (the majority ethnic group in China at 92%) benefits from the promotion of traditional culture by the government and a movement of Chinese identity search that grows against the modernization of the country.
The success of television series in ancient China also contributed to the renewed interest in the costume. A recent historic soap opera has accumulated 400 million views in three days of broadcast.
There is no precise definition of a "hanfu" because each of the Hans-dominated dynasties that have followed each other in the course of 5,000 years of Chinese history is associated with a different style.
But it is generally, in men as in women, loose and fluid dresses that wrap around the body, with sleeves that hang up to the knees.
"When we were little, we already draped ourselves in blankets to pretend to wear good clothes," said Xiao Hang, 30, smiling.
Ex-employee of a machine tool factory, the young woman is now a stylist and has her shop specializing in hanfu. She dresses clients for private photo sessions and organizes thematic weddings.
- Mangas and communism -
Fans of traditional dress find themselves today in society, from manga fans to history buffs, from young professionals to students.
Yang Jiaming, a high school student from Beijing, proudly wears his garment under the uniform of his school. "Two-thirds of my wardrobe is hanfus," he says, dressed in a beige tunic and black boots typical of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
The traditional dress denigrated during the first decades after the founding in 1949 of the People's Republic, by rejection of the imperial past, gradually resumed its nobility, while President Xi Jinping supports a revival of Han cultural heritage.
In April, the very serious Communist Youth League organized a two-day conference on the costumes of different ethnic Chinese.
The garment is "the base of a culture," Jiang Xue, a member of Mowutianxia, a Beijing club of hanfu fans, told AFP.
"If, as a people and as a country, we do not even know our traditional clothes or do not wear them, are we credible to talk about other essential elements of our culture?", Wonders she.
But putting on such a costume in everyday life is still far from being anchored in the customs of China.
In March, two students from a medical school in Shijiazhuang (north) were pressured to be deported for wearing a hanfu at the school. An official of the establishment would have judged that it was an "eccentric outfit" and that those who wore it were "mentally disturbed", according to the statements of pupils reported in the press.
- "Really embarrassed" -
Other Chinese say they have been discouraged by the shocked looks they were given when they were dressed in hanfus, a garment that surprises in the modern day Chinese world.
"I was really embarrassed to carry a hanfu in the street," says AFP Chang Xia, a 37-year-old screenwriter who tried the experiment last year.
The resurgence of the traditional dress is sometimes associated in China with a touch of Han nationalism.
And many hanfu devotees reject the "qipao", the famous Chinese high-necked bodycon dress made popular by 1920s Shanghai actresses - and still worn today, especially at weddings. The reason: this garment was born during the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912), when a non-Han ethnic group, that of the Manchu considered as invaders, ruled the country with an iron fist.
"Some people think that qipao is not sufficiently representative of China." There are nationalist overtones in this, "says Gong Pengcheng, a recognized specialist in clothing history.
"There is a rich debate about traditional dress, but people do not need to reduce it to nationalist antagonisms or thoughts, they should be a little more open," he says.
Yang Jiaming, the high school student in Beijing, assures that there is absolutely no question for him to impose his behavior to others. "The idea is just to be able to wear our traditional dress, as do many ethnic minorities in China."
? 2019 AFP