Hanfu, means “Han clothing” literally, it’s not the name of a specific style of clothing, but a general term for traditional Chinese clothing that ancient Han Chinese wore before Qing Dynasty. But in general, traditional Hanfu consists of a robe/dress or a jacket as upper garment and a skirt as lower garment. Hanfu has different styles, such as ruqun, aoqun, shenyi and shanku. The robe/dress could be a knee length one or even a floor length one. On the contrary of modern times, ancient Han Chinese people prefer to wear a robe/dress as the upper garment. The upper garments of Hanfu, both robes and jackets, always follow the style and principle named “jiaoling youren” in Chinese. For the convenience of daily work&life, Han Chinese also wear the shorter robe/dress, or in the word of modern times, a long jacket. So, “jiaoling youren” means if the collar is crossing, then you can only have the left side covered the right side and never do the opposite. Han Chinese people, no matter a man or a woman, wear a skirt as the lower garment. Inner garment of Hanfu has a name of “zhongyi”. Similarly with the upper garment, they also wear trousers/pants for convenience. It consist of shirt and pants, mostly in white color. Just like modern people wear underwear, hanfu traditional ancient Chinese also wear dudou and underpants beneath zhongyi. Ancient Chinese people wear zhongyi even when they are sleeping, it plays a role of pajamas in modern times. Hanfu served as the most characteristic clothing for the Han Chinese for more than 3000 years and faded away after Qing Dynasty. Fortunately, an “Hanfu Revival Movement” is growing up in China in recent years. More and more people take Hanfu as daily outfits, wear it and go through the streets in the city.
