Hi everyone! Some of you might’ve seen the article on my experience with gender identity and hanfu before, but I decided to introduce myself more fully and make the “my story” articles into a bit of a series, so here I am!
hello!!!
You can call me redsugarx, which is my username, or Sugar for short. I also go by 紅糖 (hong tang) in chinese characters or 紅糖妹 (hong tang mei), which translates over directly (in chinese, brown sugar is called ‘red sugar’). None of these are my real names in chinese or english of course! I just go by them online since one of the characters in my real name is similar to 紅, and I am also a hopeless sugar addict.
I’m a Taiwanese-American student based in California, and am fluent in both english and traditional chinese. Regarding gender identity, which you can read more about here (I’m gender fluid), what I’m comfortable being called can sometimes change day-by-day, but using they/them pronouns (ex. They have such beautiful styles of hanfu!) is always a safe bet, and I won’t blame you for making mistakes unintentionally. I do ask that you respect my identity and don’t interact if it isn’t something that you don’t agree with, but hope that I can still be of help with my articles and contributions.
A little self-photoshoot with a new set!
I’ve always been a huge fan of wuxia and xianxia dramas, as well as historical dramas like the imperial palace ones. I’ve been watching those since I was small with my family, and have continued to do so on my own time, peppering my mother with questions about this historical figure or that war from this dynasty. I also started getting interested in chinese culture and history at the beginning of middle school, and explored various aspects of history with a tutor, such as ancient poems, chinese EDM-style songs, food, and the like along with language.
@chlobaltblue on Instgram, my sister
The first in my family to pick up on the hanfu movement was actually my sister, yulan, who you can find at @chlobaltblue on instagram with quite a few hanfu photoshoots of her own. She was the one who introduced me to this community, giving me my first couple of sets out of her own collection when she got tired of them.
Since then, I started expanding my own collection. Now I own several sets and styles of hanfu, and watching or recreating hanfu douyin videos has become one of my main interests! We’ve even started a small discord server for the hanfu community, check out the link on my profile if you’d like to join and hang out with us.
One of my first videos I filmed, with the help of @tofu_jun.cos on instagram, another friend I made from the discord server.
I’m still busy as a full-time STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) student, which you can often see me complain about as a side not in my posts (which are often pathways to procrastination, you know how it is), but I do have a very wide expanse of hobbies, many of which have inadvertently merged into the hanfu community.
For example, I’ve always really liked art and drawing, and recently have begun to draw different styles of hanfu onto various characters, which you can often see me post. I also enjoy fashion and often work in various pieces of hanfu or hanyuansu into my outfits, like a jiaoling top or a skirt that blends in enough to be inconspicuous but still adds something unique to the look.
A piece of art I did for lunar new year.
Apart from clothing, I’m also really interested in chinese music and instruments. My sister plays the guzheng (I would love to learn someday but haven’t gotten around to it yet). I listen and sing a lot of genres of music in several languages, but on the hanfu side, I really like chinese EDM blended with certain styles of chinese opera as well as the classics from the slightly older generation that I think has some beautiful lyrics.
Hanfu has really helped me with my sense of idenitity, and I would really like to give back to this community. I’ve already written a few articles about various topics like styles of hanfu and their histories, tutorials on how to film videos or wear hanfu, and more on culture and history, but I hope to be able to continue contributing to this wonderful community in the future. Hope everyone has a great time here and that you all enjoy my contributions!
😍😍😍
Aku dari Indonesia, maaf aku ga pandai bahasa Inggris maupun cina
Oke, salam kenal gula merah