Source: My UM

Have you ever met the female student who often walks around the campus in clothes that look like they are from the ancient times? The answer is no in case you are wondering if she is a time-traveller.

The young woman’s name is Luo Ziqing, an exchange student from East China Normal University. What she wears are imitations of Hanfu, clothes from Han dynasty. It turns out Luo’s fondness for Hanfu goes beyond personal interest; it is driven by her hope to revive Hanfu, which have been the traditional clothes of Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China, for over 4,000 years.

 

Falling in Love with Hanfu after A Dream of the Red Mansions

“When I was a child, I read A Dream of the Red Mansions, which has detailed descriptions of clothes from the Ming dynasty,” Luo says. “In my mind’s eye I saw how beautiful those clothes were, and later, as luck would have it I started wearing Hanfu.” Fascinated with the beauty of Hanfu, Luo thoroughly studied the proper way to wear them. She told us that a complete set of Hanfu includes three layers and ten parts. Mastering the proper way to wear Hanfu is not as difficult as actually wearing them in everyday life. Luo has been asked questions like, “What’s the point of trying to revive something that disappeared several hundred years ago?”, or “Are you sure what you wear are exactly the same as what people in the Han dynasty wore?” Despite these voices of doubt, Luo is convinced that wearing Hanfu is a meaningful thing to do in that it reminds her to “reflect on her thoughts and deeds at least three times a day”, which was a piece of advice from Confucius, and to carry on the rich cultural heritage and virtues of the Chinese people.

 

Mistaken for a Ghost

Luo has had some interesting experiences because of her fondness of wearing Hanfu. Once, a stranger came up to her out of nowhere and before Luo knew what was happening, bowed and greeted her in Japanese, obviously mistaking Luo’s Hanfu for a Japanese kimono. After that incident, Luo bought on the internet a backpack with the Chinese words “Hanfu” conspicuously printed on it, in order to prevent people from confusing what she wears with a Japanese kimono, which has been the greatest problem she has encountered since she started wearing Hanfu. Another experience is half-entertaining and half-scary, entertaining for those who listen to the story afterwards, and scary for the poor student who stumbled upon the long-haired Luo in a white Hanfu on the corridor of their residential college one evening and screamed as if she saw a ghost. “I just finished washing my hair, and so I let it hang down behind my back, and I happened to be in a white Hanfu that evening, so the student probably thought she saw a ghost,” says Luo with a laugh. Luo assured the student that she was not a ghost, but a bona fide lover of Hanfu, successfully nipping a gossip-worthy ghost story in the bud.

 

Happy to Meet Like-Minded Students

Having studied in the Faculty of Education as an exchange student for four months, Luo has fallen in love with UM’s campus, especially the blue sky, the white clouds, the library, and of course like-minded students who also love to wear Hanfu and discuss Chinese literature and culture. Whenever local students show interest in her clothes, Luo always answers their questions patiently, hoping to help more and more people understand Hanfu.