As 2024 draws to an end a large swath of the Asian continent is preparing to celebrate the closing of the Year of the Dragon to make way for the year of the Wood Snake. While the Dragon represents good fortune and luck the Wood Snake is well known for its affinity to luxurious goods and mastery over skills that require a lot of expertise. With this in mind, now seems the best time to explore the fashion of the Orient and see what Chinese culture offers the world in 2024. You might be surprised to see how cultural clothing items from China have greatly impacted how we see Asian fashion today.

Chinese Tradition and the Hanfu

While nowadays, it is pretty easy to partake in Chinese games available online, like the site Arkadium games have mahjong which you can play for free, or even taste traditional Chinese meals thanks to your local Chinese restaurant, you might not know that clothes, as we know them today, owe a lot to the Hanfu. The Hanfu is, as the name implies, the traditional robe worn by the Han people of China. The popularity of the Hanfu since its introduction in the second millennium BC spread all around Asia inspiring some other iconic cultural apparel like the Hanbok for Korea and the Kimono in Japan. During the 17th century, there was also a surge of interest towards the Orient in Europe which saw many arts including fashion take a lot of influences from China during the rise of the Chinoiserie artistic movement. While many of these inspirations had different flavors of Orientalism and imperialism attached to them nowadays, they remain artifacts of an old relationship between the East and the West regarding fashion.

Special attire for Special occasions

Generally speaking, when we speak of special events in China we think of the Chinese New Year or wedding ceremonies for example. In these events, you will see many people wearing the Tang suit. The Tang suit is extremely recognizable by its straight collar And its buttons made out of woven rope which are often called frog-style buttons. While the original inspiration was won by the people of Manchu as an everyday where it has become a unisex attire that can be worn for many important events. In those cases, generally, the tang suits will be adorned with bright colors as well as many characters from Chinese lore as a sign of good luck and good fortune. It is one of the most widespread and most recognizable attire that has come out of China especially when we talk about modern fashion and mother and depictions of China in media.

The Zhongshan Suit and Modernity

This design is very much inspired by our last entry where we talked about the tang suit. While many people might know this design as the Mao suit the reality is that it was first popularized by a man called Doctor Sun Zhongshan hence the name. One of the best ways to look at the Zhongshan suit is by looking at the tang suit and a modern western suit jacket side by side. You might easily recognize the fact that this jacket is essentially a Chinese take on the modern suit jacket which is meant to not only be useful with its many variations that can have up to four pockets but also be a great everyday wear that can suit both casual and formal events. In the same way you would wear a dress suit in the West the Zhongshan suit serves the same purpose while offering a very different appearance that can be very flattering depending on your physique. The symmetrical shape as well as the centred buttons allow for a very strong and impressive figure for men.

Now that it has become easier than ever to be able to connect with cultures from around the world it’s no surprise that China is leaving a very big impression on the worldwide communities. As we see China play a bigger and bigger role on the international stage both economically and politically chances are we will see more of Chinese culture be exported to the West to the great pleasure of those who are interested to see the potential crossovers between western and eastern cultures. Only time can tell all fashion will be affected but chances are that a new equal partnership between Chinese and Western designers could be very interesting for the fashion industry. It will be interesting to see what comes of all of this.