Hanfu
| Hanfu | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 漢服 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 汉服 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Han (Chinese) attire" | ||||||||||||||||||
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Hanfu (simplified Chinese: 汉服; traditional Chinese: 漢服; pinyin: Hànfú, lit. "Han clothing"), also known as Hanzhuang (simplified Chinese: 汉装; traditional Chinese: 漢裝; pinyin: Hànzhuāng, "Han attire") or traditional Chinese clothing, are historical Chinese clothings worn by the majority Han Chinese people from at least the 2nd millennium BC to the mid-17th century AD — encompassing nearly all of the recorded history of China up to the end of the Ming dynasty — until violent conquest and forced assimilation by the Qing dynasty led to their replacement by the Manchu qizhuang and magua in a historical event known as Tifayifu. Due to the rise of China since the start of the 21st century, there is currently a growing cultural movement among the younger generations in Mainland China and the Chinese diaspora to revive and reinstate hanfu as the genuine, orthodox representative of Chinese culture and aesthetics, as opposed to the Manchu-inspired qipao and tangzhuang and the Japanese school uniform (gakuran)-inspired Mao suit.
There are several representative styles of hanfu, such as the ruqun (a long skirt worn high over the upper garment), aoqun (an upper garment with a long underskirt), beizi (a loose-fitting, open-front coat) and shenyi (one-piece robe), and the shanku (an upper-body garment with trousers).. Historically, the most common formal style of hanfu consists of a broad-sleeved robe named paofu for men, or the pairing of an upper garment named ru (jacket) with a lower garment named qun (skirt) for women. In almost all these styles, at least one of the upper garments (either the overgarment or the undergarment), will have crossing collars (known as jiaoling) with the left front panel overlapping the right panel and fastened at the right waist (known as youren), typically by a knotted ribbon. In addition to clothing, hanfu also includes several forms of headwear, footwear and accessories, such as belts and buckles, hand fans, jewellery, jade belt pendants (yupei), bracelets, and sachets.
As with many traditional Chinese things, hanfu derives its name from the Han dynasty, the first golden age of China with international sphere of influence. The centuries-long prosperity and stability of the Han dynasty allowed hanfu to develop into a variety of styles due to a number of technological advancements in textile production and dyeing, particularly with rapid advancements in sericulture. Due to the historical dominance of China in the Far East, hanfu has also influenced the traditional fashions of many neighbouring countries within the Chinese cultural sphere, including the Korean hanbok, the Japanese kimono, the Ryukyuan ryusou and the Vietnamese áo giao lĩnh. Elements of hanfu design have also influenced Western fashion, especially through Chinoiserie fashion, due to the popularity of Chinoiserie in Europe and North America since the 17th century.