Vocabulary Velvet Flower - 绒花 (rónghuā) - a realistically made flower made artificially from silk threads and copper wire. Palace Flower - 宫花 (gōng huā) - another way to call ronghua with the rise in popularities of ronghua to females in the palace. Untwisted Silks - 无捻蚕丝 (wú niǎn cánsī) - when it comes to silk threads, depending on the type and material of the threads, one single thread can be made up of thinner threads twisted together. Untwisted silk thread means there are no smaller twisted threads. You can directly skip to the brushing steps in ronghua making process. Hunan Embroidery Thread - 湘绣线 (xiāngxiù xiàn) - another type of thread used in ronghua making. Suzhou Embroidery Thread - 苏绣线 (sūxiù xiàn) - another type of thread used in ronghua making.   History 绒花, rónghuā, an artificial handcraft head accessories made from materials such as silks and coppers. It existed since the Qin Dynasty. There are many known “brands” of ronghuas, such as Nanjing Ronghua. In the Tang era, Wu Zetian listed Nanjing Ronghua as a royal tribute to the Yangzhou area becoming a luxury only princes and princesses can use. Eventually, Nanjing Ronghua became something that represents Nanjing but also…

The beauty of autumn is that you can apply different dressing rules even though the seasonal temperature changes. Blending hanfu and fashion elements together to explode with an unforgettable sense of tradition and fashion. In this article, Hanfu Times recommends three types of hanfu items and the best dressing principles for fall to find your own fall hanfu street fashion.   Round Neck Shirt/Robe The round neck shirt/robe is the most suitable hanfu item for all skin types and body types. The collar can be decorated with nice buttons and can be folded into different lapel styles, which can be worn as a top or as a windbreaker jacket depending on the thickness of the material. The cuffs can be added or modified with cufflinks, turning them into arrow sleeves or bubble sleeves, suitable for a mix of different personalities. The lower skirt can be mixed with a Poqun, or a Mamianqun. If it is a solid color, the waist and then add a medium width belt, can cover the original skirt waist, but also to trim the body shape. The bottom can also be mixed with fashion pants, fashion chinos, lantern pants, or wide-legged pants.   Stand Collar Shirt…

Hey everyone, thanks for waiting! Our next topic is gonna be pretty exciting for most of you who love the classic ruqun aesthetic: we’re going to be going over the historical relics for the Wei/Jin and Northern/Southern Dynasty! Since there are so few of these relics, this article is going to focus on the Wei/Jin Dynasty as a whole, including restored relics, art references, and misconceptions about the Wei/Jin Dynasty. It might be a bit of a shorter article due to little material, but I know that people are really interested in this period of time, so let’s get to it! 魏晉南北朝/魏晋南北朝/wei4 jin4 nan2 bei3 chao2/Wei/Jin and Northern/Southern Dynasties refers to the period of time between 220 and 589CE. Also known as 六朝/六朝/liu4 chao2/Six Dynasties, this set of dynasties are compressed into one general block of time by historians because of the rapid exchange of power. Following the Eastern Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period had the Cao Wei kingdom at its forefront, with the Western Jin Dynasty coming right after ruled by Sima Yan. This was followed by the Northern Dynasties, when the Northern Wei, Western Wei, Easter Wei, and Northern Zhou and Qi Dynasties followed each other rapidly,…

Recently, Dragon Television announced that China's first documentary to briefly describe the creation story of China and Chinese civilization with national archaeological discoveries, "He Yi Zhong Guo (何以中国)", will officially meet with the audience in the near future. The program team spent more than 400 days and nights photographing more than 40,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to more than one week around the equator, and photographing more than 230 archaeological sites, archaeological workstations, museums, and other sites across the country. In the "He Yi Zhong Guo" Special Program: Talk About Archaeological History, the program team invited the Chinese Hanfu restoration team  (中国装束复原小组). In the program, they took the audience on a tour of "fashionable clothing" from the Spring and Autumn period to the Three Kingdoms period through a hanfu show. The first is the long dress from the late Spring and Autumn periods to the early and mid-Warring States Period. It is characterized by the hollowing out behind the long dress, revealing the long skirt dragging on the ground. Red is the right color, which is suitable for the attendance of some important occasions. The hairstyle is a chic and delicate combed bun, showing the slender neck behind the head.…

The 馬王堆漢墓/马王堆汉墓/ma3 wang2 dui1/Mawangdui Han tomb is one of the most famous Han dynasty archaeological sites in China. Located in Mawangdui, Changsha, this elaborate tomb was found in 1968 and excavated in 1972 to reveal the remains of an incredibly well-preserved noblewoman that we now know was the wife to the Marquis of Dai in the Han Dynasty Kingdom of Changsha, Li Dai. A multilayered burial site containing furniture, food, art, accessories, and other belongings, the tomb contained her personal seal, which was found with the name 辛追/辛追/xin1 zhui1/Xin Zhui engraved in it; thus we know her as 辛追夫人/新追夫人/xin1 zhui1 fu1 ren2/Lady Xinzhui.  (A quick disclaimer—this series of articles is a result of my own research. I’m not a trained historian or archaeologist, I’m an inexperienced student with an interest in hanfu and chinese history. I don’t have a works cited page for these (though I can point you towards some of the resources I used off the top of my head if you really want them), and I didn’t spend a long time verifying my sources beyond checking with multiple sources to make sure the information was consistent, because frankly I don’t have the time to do that. All…

China has a long history of five thousand years. The history written in this vast land by Chinese people flourishing, eating, clothing, housing, and transportation is every bit as colorful and splendid. National dress is the most intuitive expression of national style. For example, when we talk about Japan, people can quickly think of kimonos. What would come to mind if we were to find a synonym for Chinese costumes? In the heart of craftsman Zhong Yi, the word is definitely: Hanfu. In May 2017, Lin Chi-ling in hanfu appears in a large advertisement in Times Square, New York, wearing a simple and elegant bean green hanfu dress. The soft and gentle, exquisite craftsmanship is hidden in the details, showing the restrained and dignified beauty of oriental women. The Chinese culture was promoted intuitively and fully, stunning the world. As a sharer of the second season of the program "THE GREAT SHOKUNIN", Lin had this to say in the program. "China, with its greatness of manners, is called Xia, and the beauty of its costumes is called Hua. Costumes and manners are traditionally the most external cultural heritage of a nation. Hanfu, is not the old clothes that stay in…

We often say that fashion is a cycle, but have you ever wondered what fashion items were popular in ancient China? What kind of clothes are popular in different periods?   The ancient pleated skirt The preppy style has been really popular in recent years, various brands have also repeatedly used retro college style as the main style of the season. Kinds of pleated skirts and white shirts can be seen everywhere. However, in the Han Dynasty of China more than 2,000 years ago, there was already such a "pleated skirt" design. According to legend, its origin is related to Zhao Feiyan, one of the top ten beauties of ancient times. In the records, Zhao Feiyan was slim and likes to dance in long skirts. One time, a strong wind suddenly blew while she dancing on the lake. Zhao Feiyan was almost fly into the sky by the wind, and the palace maid hurriedly pulled her skirt to save her. The skirt was pulled out a lot of folds, but everyone felt that these folds made the skirt look more beautiful. The fairy-like Zhao Feiyan was not only not blown away by the wind, but also left the beautiful name…

Fabric and craftsmanship are both very important aspects of hanfu making. In this article, several common hanfu fabric processes will be briefly introduced to you.   Zhuang Hua Zhuang Hua (妆花) is the most complex variety of weaving technology in Nanjing cloud brocade, and also the representative jacquard silk weaving variety with the most local characteristics of Nanjing, was popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Traditional Zhuang Hua is made of artificial weaving, and the Zhuang Hua on nowadays are all "imitation Zhuang Hua", which are made by machines. The Zhuang Hua fabric is characterized by many colors and is rich in color changes. In terms of the weaving method, the pattern on the fabric is partially painted by using a colored fleece weft bobbin. The color matching is very free and there are no restrictions. The main pattern of the design is usually expressed in two or three levels of color, and some patterns are expressed in simple color (such as pedicels, leaves, and buds). A piece of Zhuang Hua fabric with patterns and colors can be matched in more than a dozen or even 20 or 30 colors. Although there are many colors of Zhuang Hua, but…

October 4, the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, is the traditional Chinese holiday of Chongyang Festival (重阳节, Double Ninth Festival), also known as Old People's Day. In ancient times, there were customs such as climbing up high and placing dogwoods, worshipping ancestors, enjoying chrysanthemums and putting paper kites, etc. In modern times, Chongyang Festival has been given the meaning of respecting the elderly. It must be a wonderful thing to let the elderly wear hanfu on this day. "White hair wearing flowers, you should not laugh, the years never lose beauty. If you have a poetry book hidden in your heart, you can pick up the fragrance to become the most real." This poem will also be proved in the seniors.   Seniors in Hanfu who promotes traditional culture Liu Weixiu (刘维秀), a 78-year-old hanfu granny, is a retired actress from the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Troupe, and now she is a short video blogger who first wore hanfu in 2016 because she helped her students with their short video assignments, which brought her attention on the Internet and became an opportunity for her to fall in love with hanfu and spread its culture. Liu's…

I made my first real Hanfu based on patterns from this website. First outing at the beach, with dragons and all. Here is an article with much details on my sewing journey.

Quju is a type of hanfu that belongs to the Shenyi dress system and was common during the Qin and Han dynasties, with characteristics such as "overlapping and hooked edges". In ancient times, the more grand the occasion, the more gorgeous the overall look of the Quju was, giving it a sense of grace and elegance. There is a wide variety of accessories and items that can be matched with Quju, and different types of accessories can create different effects with Quju dress. Let's follow Hanfu Shidai (汉服世代) to learn more about it.   01 Dao Shan Dao Shan (刀扇), also known as Bian Shan (便扇), Bian Mian (便面), is a kind of Chinese traditional fan, used to cover the face, shaped like a door. Book of Han - Zhang Chang's Tale has recorded: "自以便面拊马 (patting a horse with a Bian Mian by himself)". Yan Shigu, the historian of the Tang Dynasty, also explained the function of the Bian Mian in his commentary on the Book of Han: “便面，所以障面，盖扇之类也。不欲见人，以此自障面，则得其便，故曰便面，亦曰屏面。” We can learn that the "Bian Mian" can be classified as a fan, but its focus is different, the main function of is not to fan the wind and cool, but to…

In recent years, with the rise of the China-Chic trend, many gold stores have also begun to favor products of traditional culture and launched the so-called ancient gold craft and inheritance series of Chinese gold jewelry. The ancient Chinese used goldware as body decoration, dating back to the Xia Dynasty 4,000 years ago. The gold eardrops unearthed in Gansu is the best proof. The simple circle obviously cannot reflect the skill level of the ancients, so today let’s take a look at the gold earrings and gold bracelets in the museum’s collection of cultural relics. Let’s experience the luxury aesthetics of ancient Chinese gold jewelry.   Eardrop Eardrops (Er Zhui, 耳坠) is a kind of traditional Chinese earrings, with an additional part of the drop than earrings. This pair of gold eardrops in the Warring States Period adopts a cone and spring design, and the color matching of gold and turquoise is even more ingenious. This pair of gold eardrops from the Northern Wei Dynasty is composed of amber, silver ring, gold ring, silk column, hollow gold beads, wheat ear flower and other elements. Through weaving, welding, hammering, wire drawing, and other technologies, it creates a complicated but not messy…

The popularity of hanfu has also led to new hanfu-related professions such as "Hanfu Makeup Artist (Zhuang Niang, 妆娘)" and "Hanfu Hairpin Maker (Zan Niang, 簪娘)".   Hanfu Makeup Artist Light and elegant hanfu, shiny hairpin, walked into the hanfu experience hall, and the classical atmosphere came to face. The scissors lane at the Laomen East Pedestrian Street in Nanjing can be said to be "Hanfu Street", and nearly 20 Hanfu stores are gathered. Every holiday, lots of beautiful ladies in hanfu can be met here. Xiao Yang is a hanfu makeup artist in hanfu experience hall. She has just entered the industry for half a year, but has long felt young people’s love for hanfu. "I’m very busy every day during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, and I need to styling for more than ten ladies." Before entering the industry, Xiao Yang was a teacher. After working for several years, she wanted to change careers, so she studied makeup. "Because hanfu has been relatively popular in recent years, I want to specialize in hanfu makeup, and occasionally make makeup for the bride. I think the makeup of hanfu is lighter and more elegant than that of daily makeup. The eyebrows…

China is an ancient civilization with a history of more than 5,000 years. There are many kinds of handicrafts, and they are all dazzling. Chinese traditional handicraft, each of them is a treasure of Chinese culture, and these handicrafts are worth inheriting and protecting.   1 Tuanshan Tuanshan (团扇), also known as Gongshan (宫扇) and Wanshan (纨扇), is traditional handwork and art of the Han nationality in China. It is a round fan with a handle, which represents a friendly and auspicious reunion. Fans have long circles, plum blossoms, hexagonal and other shapes; and making with silk, thin silk and so on; the craftsmanship includes Suzhou embroidery, Kesi, gold and silver inlays, and so on; the fan handle has wood, bamboo, bones, and so on. A Tuanshan contains too much learning.   2 Cheongsam The cheongsam (旗袍) is one of the traditional women's clothing that can represent Chinese characteristics. The cheongsam was formed in the 1920s, and some scholars believe that its origin can be traced back to the Shenyi of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. Although its definition and timing are still controversial, it is still one of the most gorgeous phenomena and forms in China's long-standing clothing culture.…

A brief history of waist fan (yaoshan) and steps to DIY one for anyone interested. Vocab Tuan Shan: moon-shaped fan, 团扇, tuánshàn; Zhe Shan: folding fan, 折扇, zhéshàn; Yao Shan: waist fan, 腰扇, yāo shàn; Ping Feng: screen, 屏风, píngfēng.   Introduction When it comes to hanfu, one accessory that it is paired with is a fan. Well-known types of fans are moon-shaped fan and folding fan. But there is another type of fan known as Yao Shan, which translates as "waist fan." The reason why it is called a waist fan is that it can easily be secured at the waist when not used. When the fan is needed, you can just slip it out of the belt and open it up by twisting. It's unlike others where you will either have to constantly hold or unable to close it to take up less space. Waist fans contain characteristics from both moon-shaped fans and folding fans. It took the common round surface of a moon-shaped fan and the ability to close and open when needed from a folding fan. But the round shape is just a common shape everyone goes by. Moon-shaped fans have expanded from simply using a circle…

The pursuit of beauty is human nature. Beauty is not only a reflection of the mind, but also a reflection of the interest in life. Tang Dynasty women are the best representatives of beauty, because they inherited the mentality of "Dress up for those who like or admire yourself (女为悦己者容)" from ancient times, and pushed the beauty ideal realm to the highest level under the booming economy and the open and tolerant social atmosphere. Lively, dignified, noble, the endless types of Tang Dynasty female hairstyles, paired with exquisite makeup, made many literati and scholars unstinting in their talent to depict the Tang women's style. Let's follow ArtMoment to go back thousands of years ago, and enjoy the beauty of Tang female hairstyles in that remarkable era of spiritedness.   Ancient Hairstyle Tips What are Ji and Huan? The ancient Chinese women's hairstyle is commonly known as Ji Huan (髻鬟, jì huán), and according to the method of combing, there are two types of Ji (髻, jì) and Huan (鬟, huán). Ji, solid hair bun, suitable for ordinary women; Huan, ring-shaped hair bun, suitable for young girls. What does the change of hairstyle mean? In ancient China, a woman's hairstyle changed with…

Brief history on Chinese tool panbo and how it is different in the past when compared to Japanese tasuki.

So you’ve built up a little bit of a collection, and you’re having a bit of a dilemma: With all this fabric hanging out in your closet, you’ve begun to run out of space. You don’t even know how to store these properly—and yet you want to buy more hanfu! Never fear; here’s a tried and true system that I and many other hanfu enthusiasts use to store our hanfu in a way that doesn’t harm the fabric and allows you to use your space most efficiently.   Skirts The easiest, most intuitive way to store your skirts is always going to hanging them. Look for these kinds of hangers that have strong clips on them, and try to choose ones that have larger, flatter clips so that they don’t leave marks on your skirt. To hang the skirt, fold the head of the skirt in thirds, then pull the ribbon out from the innermost side of the skirt. Clip the skirt head with the clips on the hanger, making sure that all three layers are clipped in, then pick up the ribbons together and loop them around the hanger’s hook so they don’t trail on the ground and get…

Wearing armor, riding a horse, holding a traditional weapon, fighting on the battlefield. Such a scene may have appeared in the dreams of many people when they were young. But there is a person who turned the traditional Chinese armor in the dream into reality, he is the first person to restore the ancient armor of the Tang and Song dynasties, Wen Chenhua (温陈华). He has highly restoration the armor of the Song dynasty, which has been lost in China for 700 years, after 6 years. He founded the Lian Kai Tang (炼铠堂), and with his own strength, he promoted the obscure armor restoration craft, and let Chinese armor on the world-class combat stage.   #01 The first person in traditional Chinese armor restoration There are only about 1000 armor restorers in China, 90% of them are Wen Chenhua's students, and for 40 years, he has been restoring Jiazhou (甲胄, traditional Chinese armor) to the extreme. On Wen Chenhua's social platforms profile, there is only a simple sentence "Top Chinese Jiazhou maker" as an introduction. However, he has shared a lot of armor design drawings and finished armor photos, all revealing his deep love for Jiazhou. Traditional armor restoration and…

So now that you’ve learned about all these pieces separately, we arrive at the question: how do we put all of these pieces together? Let’s go over some ways these are usually put together, how to refer to them, and other details that might not have been covered in previous articles. Body, sleeves, collar: these are the main three things that we use to distinguish types of hanfu. In naming conventions, we usually refer to a piece in the order of collar-sleeve-body. Take a look at this image: What body type, sleeve type, and collar type is it? Well, I’ll tell you first that this is a Shan, meaning that it’s a single-layered top or robe shorter than the knees with no yao lan. Take a look at the sleeves—do they curve or change in diameter at all? Yes, they seem to narrow in a striaght line from the root of the sleeve to the cuff, meaning this is a feijixiu design, or airplane sleeve. The collar’s shape is pretty obviously parallel, or duijin, since the two sides come straight down and don’t touch. Well then, we can refer to this as a duijin feijixiu shan: a parallel collar, airplane…