Hanfu Movement

Hanfu Movement
Two Hanfu promoters at the Chinese Cultural Festival in Guangzhou
Simplified Chinese	汉服运动
Traditional Chinese	漢服運動
Literal meaning	"Hanfu Movement"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hànfú yùndòng

Hanfu Movement (simplified Chinese: 汉服运动; traditional Chinese: 漢服運動; pinyin: Hànfú yùndòng), also known as the Hanfu Revival Movement (汉服复兴运动; 漢服復興運動; Hànfú fùxīng yùndòng),^[1] is a homegrown cultural movement seeking to revive or revitalize Han Chinese fashion. It finds its manifestation in the wearing in public of the traditional Han attire of pre-Qing era. It began as the elegant pastime of a historically-conscious subculture and has evolved into a trendy nationwide movement boasting millions of young consumers and led by fashion-conscious youth^[2][3][4][5]. It has also slowly gained traction amongst the overseas Chinese diaspora, especially in countries like Singapore.

The Hanfu movement developed in China in 2003. Its emergence can be credited to Singaporean-Chinese Zhang Congxing, who wrote an article about Wang LeTian, a man from Zhengzhou who was spotted dressed in a homemade shenyi (a type of attire).^{[1][6][7][8][9][10][11]} This spurred online discussion and spontaenous acts of imitation, culminating in the formation of a quickly growing organic movement. Its ready adoption by young and trendy fashion-conscious women has been accelerated by social media, which has helped to propagate the trend. Platforms such as Bilibili, Douyin, Instagram and others have contributed to its resurgence by allowing youth to showcase their dressing online^[12]. Elements of retro-cool permeate the movement. The desses worn are typically those of royalty and aristocrats, court officials and soldiers.

The popularity of the movement - especially gen Z and gen Y, can be attributed to a burgeoning desire to reconnect with the past, to draw sustenance from it, and to express a national and cultural identity, along with a growing self-confidence in that identity^[13][14]. The fact that Han traditional dress has a universally pleasing and classically elegant aesthetic and is therefore apt to produce socially acceptable, flattering images that can be readily shared on social media has driven its popularity. Lastly, it is seen as a more authentic form of clothing than the "cheongsam" and "qipao", which are now seen products of repression, and as imposed from the outside^[15]. It can be seen as an attempt to redeem an important part of Han culture, to restore the classical norms of beauty prevailing in earlier times.