Fuck the hanfu movement

[cashew]

I got sent this article by a friend, as I've left Tumblr precisely for the spread of misinformation on that toxic platform. After reading it, I realized I must say something or risk exploding from sheer anger at the political spinning that went on in this bullshit subculture.

So, here's me ranting again:

[...] as an element of material culture, the hanfu of course hearkens back directly to a time when Henan was China’s centre and had not been left behind by the post-Deng rush to riches

Hanfu (汉服) as it is currently used is about promoting pre-QING (清) clothes. It is not about hearkening back to when Henan was China's center. It is about erasing Non-Han minorities and their contributions to China's history. It is about establishing a Han-ethno state. Even as far back as the ZHOU (周) dynasty, there have been records of cultural mixing with non-Zhongyuang (中原) ethnic minorities. At this point, the "Han" ethnicity hasn't even been established, as the name came from the HAN (汉) dynasty, which came after QIN (秦) united the Warring States (战国). However, the Chinese national identity considers their history to start from the SHANG-ZHOU(商周) dynasties, which is a pre-Han identity.

What I'm pointing out here is this quoted text IS A LIE. It is trying to using the coincidence to deny the validity of non-Han minorities. This denies XIA(夏), SHANG(商), ZHOU(周), Spring-Autumn (春秋), Warring States (战国), and QIN(秦) dynasty as Chinese. This erases nearly 2000 years of Chinese history.

‘In the end beautiful things will meet with people’s approval,’ he says. ‘Not to mention, the hanfu has always been our thing… in the great family of China’s 56 ethnic groups, only the Han do not have their traditional dress. Following [our] tragic history, only the Han traditional clothing style died out; we need to revive [this tradition].’

Again, LIES. Hanfu did not die from the tragic history. Hanfu, as in "clothes that the Han ethnicity wore" EVOLVED over time to include designs from all of their surrounding neighbors. The so-called Han culture, by which they really just mean the Zhongyuan (中原) culture, is one that had always incorporated design elements of anyone and everyone as long as there is utilitarian advantages.

The movement Hufuqishe (胡服骑射) is precisely one such example in Chinese history. During the Warring States (战国) era, King Zhao Wu (赵武灵王) copied the clothing style of the northern nomadic tribes because he realized that their fashion designs are better adapted for horseback and gave them a military advantage when cavalries clashed. Ever since for fucking ever, the Zhongyuan (中原) culture has been learning and absorbing/appropriating everything around them.

Here is a diagram of how Chinese fashion has evolved over 4000 years:

When you get down to it, Hanfu (汉服) literally breaks down to mean "clothes that Han-people wear". To make it about "ethnic clothing" is bullshit spin that obfuscates the ethno-centric motivation driving the subculture.

The first criticism [...] is that the hanfu is ‘awkward’. [...] The second, related criticism is that the adoption of the hanfu is essentially a form of misplaced nostalgia which has no place in modern Chinese society.

The first and second criticisms are particularly interesting for their assumption[...]. In modern China the Western business suit is associated with ‘success’[...] western brands are practically always preferred to domestics [...] for this reason, it [Hanfu] is dismissed as either a mere piece of nostalgia, as something that comes out of a period drama, or as something ‘impractical’ in the terms laid down by capitalist modernity.

It's interesting that this article tries to blame modernization for the dismissal of the traditional and pretends that it is the "modern" people who are too close minded to see that there's nothing backwards about...you know, TRYING TO REVIVE CONSERVATIVE FASHION. This is the equivalent of bemoaning the loss of the corset, because don't you see that it's actually just as effective as the brassier? To dismiss the objective impracticality of traditional fashion on modern internalized Western bias is such a pretzel logic that I'm left gaping.

The third criticism is somewhat more well-intentioned, but the idea is that the hanfu movement doesn’t go far enough [...] Classical Chinese thought saw nothing ‘superficial’ about material culture calendars, weights and measures, music or clothing[...]. To limit this quest for the Chinese soul to more abstract pursuits is to reduce the Chinese soul itself to a modernist Cartesian abstraction, in a way that can only be self-defeating!

I don't know if you realize this, but this is basically all assertion and no actual argument. It doesn't actually offer any kind of rebuttal to the criticism. It's a superficial assertion with no logic or data to support the assertion, and it fails to comment on the criticism at all.

The big question for the movement is: to what extent does it seek to normalise the use of traditional dress? [...] [H]opefully it can become and remain a form of healthy cultural expression in its own right.

And this here is the crux of the matter. What does normalization of an ethnic majority's fashion from 300+ years ago mean politically? If a blond-haired, blue-eyed White person tries to revive traditional "Aryan" fashion, how would you respond? Because that's the equivalent of a Chinese person trying to revive traditional "Han" fashion. It's dangerous, toxic ethno-centric xenophobia using fashion as a cover.

I say this as an ethnic Han. I see the xenophobia for what it is. Do you?

Edit to add:
Also wanted to say, I'm really fucking tired of this bitching about how "only traditional Chinese is real Chinese". You want to talk traditional? Here is the writing from the actual HAN (汉) dynasty:

Here is the writing from modern "traditional" Chinese:

Do you see how different the characters look? I don't want to hear about this "Oh, simplified characters are an abomination of Chinese". No, fuck you. Simplified Chinese is merely one of the styles of writing. The Qin Emperor changed how the characters looked and the Han Emperor did it again, and later dynasties continued to change the characters, so when another regime changed it, that's just following in a grand old tradition of new standardization of Chinese. Fuck off with your traditional, conservative BS.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

I'm...not sure western media can be blamed for a lot of these sentiments. Wrt black people, the western racism issues tend to be more about economic equality and less about standard of beauty. Whereas the darker skin=ugly trope seems to be widespread throughout east asia.

And I think the anti-Japanese sentiment is pretty much something that's historically been there, even before WWII exacerbated things.

[cashew]

Uh...beauty and body image in African-American women is a common topic when discussing white-on-black racism. White standards of beauty is just another vector of racism. For example, hair straightening as practiced by people of African descent is directly the result of racial discrimination. Western racism is not limited to just resource equity.

Yes, traditional Chinese beauty standard is dark skin = more work in the sun = lower class = ugly. But historically, Chinese people haven't had enough contact with people of African descent to deal with the standards of beauty wrt racial traits. So the negative modern stereotypes of Africans and people of African descent (such as lazy, ugly, stupid, etc.) are heavily influenced by American media.

As for anti-Japanese sentiment, no, I don't think that has anything to do with Western media involvement.