Clothing and Adornment

Over the course of its long history, China has produced a spectacularly diverse and exquisite range of clothing and accessories, occupying a special place in the pantheon of worldwide fashion culture. Learn Chinese traditional clothing, you can immersing in Chinese culture.

Clothing

Chinese headwear mainly consists of hats or caps, and earrings and hairpins generally worn by women.

Hats worn by the Han people tend to be simple and practical, worn to protect the wearer from the coldness, sunshine or rain. For a number of ethnic minority groups, however, hats are worn more for decorative than functional reasons. With some ethnic minority groups hats have even become synonymous with their culture. In some parts of China, people are used to wearing kerchiefs instead of hats. Earrings are also a common accessory for women, rarely worn by men. Earrings worn by the Han women are usually of a simple design, whereas traditional earrings worn by women from ethnic minority groups come in all shapes and colors. Yunnan has 36 ethnic people, and you can experience different ethnic tradition when you learn Chinese in Yunnan.

Hairpins are mainly used to hold hair up. They are usually made of metal, jade and so on.

Shoes

In China, there are various types of shoes, and the materials used to make them also vary widely, including leather, cloth, plastics, straw and hemp. The materials used have much to do with ethnic customs and local climates. For example, leather boots and felt boots are very common in the coldest regions in Northwest and Northeast China. Traditional handmade cloth shoes are comfortable, and some are beautifully crafted, with intricate patterns stitched on the outside, and they can be regarded as exquisite artifacts.

Do you know?

The traditional costumes of the Han people in China (mainly worn by the Han people from ancient times to the start of the Qing Dynasty) are now collectively called hanfu (meaning “clothing of the Han”). Its main characteristics are the Y-shaped cross collar, the right lapel (the left part of the collar crossing over the right one), the sash and so on. There are various traditional costumes in Chinese culture, and you may learn more if you attend this immersive mandarin course.

Earrings

Earrings are a common accessory and people wear different ones from time to time. However, among some ethnic minority groups in China, there are different customs for the wearing of earrings. The Yao people, for example, will not remove their earrings once they put them on.

Clogs

In ancient China, people were used to wearing clogs, i.e. Wooden shoes. It is said that Confucius’ clogs were as long as one chi and four cun (about one foot and five inches). Of course, this is measured according to the length unit of ancient China (Ancient chi is a little shorter than the contemperary chi).