While most of us associate the Chinese dragon with men, the idea of a Dragon Lady was very popular in the West in the 30s. To the West, Asian women were dangerous, domineering, mysterious but sexually alluring at the same time, and countless films and pop culture references played on that stereotypical idea of an Asian woman. To be fair, the women of the West weren’t spared of the femme fatale stereotype either so I think it is fundamentally a female objectification issue, and in the context of America at the turn of the last century, it was complicated by racism.
The Original Chinese Dragon Lady
But the Western men were not alone in their vile objectification of women, or Chinese women. The Chinese men, too, had lots of tales of female spirits who “tempted” men and filled them with lusts. The most poignant one, personally, was the case of the Investiture of the Gods, a 16th century Chinese novel.
Image of Anna May Wong, a famous Chinese American actress in Hollywood in the 30s who was seen as the archetype of Dragon Lady on screen. Also, her biopic is in the making starred by Gemma Chan from Crazy Rich Asians.
In it, the creator of mankind, a goddess called Nüwa, was the main culprit of the downfall of the Shang dynasty (an ancient empire some 3,000 years ago). The story goes that the last king of Shang dynasty saw her sculpture at the temple, and was sexually attracted to her. He wrote poems expressing his lust and spoke of marrying the goddess. Upset by his blasphemy, the goddess brought down 3 nymphs (spirits disguised as beautiful women) to seduce him, causing him to neglect his nation and became cruel to his people and eventually the downfall of his empire.
Sounds about right for the idea of a “Dragon Lady” huh?
Except that this was a very problematic portrayal by the then extremely patriarchal Chinese society, of the goddess of creation who was an important female figure when Chinese society was still matriarchal.
The Chinese society (like many others) started as a matriarchal one which meant that kids would only know who their mothers were, and not their fathers. Thus Nüwa exemplified that far ancient part of Chinese when women ruled together as a community. It was only when the Chinese society slowly transited into a patriarchal one that a male creator Fuxi came into existence and they both came to be known as the creators of mankind.
In fact, Nüwa had a different name back then, it was Nüxi or Xihe (Xihe was also known as the Guardian of Sun and Moon way back, and she eventually was split into The Mother of 10 Suns and Chang-E The Goddess of Moon. I did a reinterpretation of her in my Sailormoon Series). She was said to have created mankind from the soil due to her extreme boredom of being alone on earth, which is a further evidence that there was no male figure at the very start. Also, it was believed that primitive societies did not associate sex with birth-giving, so they did not think that men were necessary in the birth of a child, while women could give birth to both genders.
Interestingly, like the story of Adam and Eve, snakes were involved in this creation myth. And like many civilisations such as the pre-Classical Greek, snakes were often associated with the female goddess/creators. Fun fact: China formed a matriarchal society some 40,000-50,000 years ago and Greek slightly later, and China transited into patriarchal some 3,000 years earlier than the Greeks. During my research I came across this book in which the author said there is no culture where paternity was ignored in prehistoric times, I think she didn’t study Chinese texts because there were many mentions when paternity was ignored including the birth of the ancient ruler of Shang dynasty being a result of his mom swallowing the egg of a black bird.
Painting from Western Han (3rd century BCE) with Fuxi the male god holding the Sun and Nüwa the female goddess holding the Moon.Eastern Han (1st century CE) wall engraving with Fuxi holding a tool to draw square, and Nüwa holding a tool to draw circleTang Dynasty painting from Astana graves (8th century) with Fuxi holding a tool to draw square, and Nüwa holding a tool to draw circle
After transiting into patriarchal society, subsequent Chinese artworks/records depicted the male and female creators as having the body of a snake. Now snake has been an important and highly regarded creature in ancient societies, and was present as a totem across civilisations. A far cry from its villain identity today.
The dragon, seen as the ultimate symbol of the Chinese ruler, was based primarily on the body of a snake (with many accessorising features from other animals such as the deer’s antlers, bull’s nose, Eagle’s claws, Tiger’s palms etc.). While some ancient Chinese tribes saw themselves as descendants of a bird, others saw their ancestors as snakes, and it is for this reason, the creator of mankind were depicted as snakes.
The modern Dragon with her snake body, eagle claws, beatle shell eyebrows, gill-like ears, and antler-inspired hair and accessories.
This styling was designed in collaboration with Aaron Han (@aharw) assisted by gabby @ga.bae.be Makeup assisted by Danny @chenlingx0 with Jamie as model Photo by Aaron and I
Symbolism of an Emerald Dragon
Yes, I call it Emerald, although prevalent sources translated it as Azure because of the context of its name.
Languages and words take on the meaning of the context, and in this case, the Emerald Dragon represented the regeneration of life in Spring. While the word Qing 青 could refer to blue and green (as in the case of the same character ‘aoi’ 青い in Japanese) in Chinese culture and at times even Black, it would make sense that the Qing Long would be green like the colours of Spring leaves. The ancient people saw colours quite differently from us today, which probably explains why humanity didn’t have separate words for green and blue way back.
The emerald dragon’s boots is a reference to its green/blue scales of the snake. A Tang period hairstyle to exaggerate the shape of the head to look like a dragon. An a vintage Gucci green jacket to signify the luxury and royalty of the dragon as an auspicious animal.
The Emerald Dragon represents Spring, when flowers bloom and butterflies flock from one bush to another. This costume from the Legend of Miyue is obviously a copy of the Japanese dress, which I will go into detail another time.
Japan and China
The East, where the Sun rises, is also associated with the Emerald Dragon. And of course, the land of the rising sun in our modern memory, also refers to Japan. So I’m going to share w a few funny stories about Sino-Japanese historical relations, and muse over how the Chinese inverse-appropriates the Japanese culture these days.
One of the most hilarious accounts I’ve read about Japan and China relations was one that happened in 607CE. The Japanese diplomat of Asuka period Japan Ono no Imoko presented a letter from the Japanese female emperor (Yes, it was a female emperor!) to the Sui dynasty emperor with the following line:
日出处天子，致书日没处天子，无恙
Greetings, from Son of Heaven where the Sun rose, to Son of Heaven where the Sun set.
Clearly I was bored and wanted to try a few different renditions with different mood for this portrait. Which is your favourite?
Now, I don’t know how you understand it, but I thought that is HILARIOUSLY APPALLING! Because as romantic as it sounds with the mention of sun set and sun rise, of heaven and all, I can totally imagine how offended the Sui dynasty emperor must’ve felt upon hearing it. The general consensus today was not that he was offended by the “sun set” part, but by the fact that Japan saw itself as an equal with China (Chinese emperor had always thought of themselves as the superior one to its neighbouring countries). And true enough, he told his liaison officer that he did not wish to hear from the “Barbarians” if they continued sending such rude letters.
I have styled the Dragon Lady in a Japanese-Chinese fashion also because Chinese pop culture depiction of ancient Chinese women over 1,000 years ago have always been extremely influenced by the Japanese aesthetics. And the Chinese liked to claim that it was because the Japanese were influenced by Chinese aesthetics at that point in time. I find this inverse-appropriation by the Chinese extremely interesting because instead of looking at their own artefacts to uncover the original Chinese look of the period, they decided to turn to the Japanese’s interpretation and evolved adaptation of the Chinese culture.
The long flowing hair was indeed valued by the ancient Chinese, but in nowhere could we find women draping it down like the Japanese during the Heian period although women did drape a little of their hair down with a knot at the neck area.
Have a look at the Han Chinese style vs the Heian Japanese styling of hair:
Chinese Han Dynasty female figurineChinese Han Dynasty female figurineJapanese Heian style femaleThe Han woman would not have long flown hair, or loose hair (unlike what has been portrayed in shows). It is a very Japanese-influenced aesthetic. So is the multi-coloured, layered robes with a long tail, like their juni-hitoe.
Even though the TV produces and stylists of China refuse to acknowledge it, they have been extremely influenced by the HK period drama creators of the 80s and 90s, who were in turn influenced by the Japanese aesthetics greatly. And fast forward a few decades, the Chinese period drama stylists and consumers have naturalised this Japanese aesthetics, blending what seems Chinese but essentially very Japanese aesthetics into their mix, creating a new fusion aesthetics today.
This topic is fascinating and a fun exploration to go into for a future post.
Yes, I should probably also talk about the recent/age-old debate about Korean vs Chinese dressing in modern Chinese period shows too, some day.
Emerald Dragon, Symbol of Spring, and the East where the Sun rises. It was a creature full of vitality.
While the biggest event in Fashion x History has just concluded, judging from the turnout at the Met Gala, one can conclude that dressing to the theme isn’t quite a forte of A-listers. In the name of greater good, this series will demonstrate how one can be fashionably historically-inspired, while still adhering to certain themes.
AUSPICIOUS BIRDS AND US
Birds have had a long history of being seen as auspicious creatures and totems in Chinese culture. The Sun, for example, was represented by a three-legged bird. And of course, we are all very familiar with the phoenix, which at some point became synonymous with the bird in question I’m discussing today.
It has been known by many names in the Eastern part of the world, Zhu Que by the Chinese, Suzaku by the Japanese, Jujak by the Korean and Chu Tước by the Vietnamese. It symbolised the southern constellations of the night sky, and the element Fire.
Because of its association with fire, the vermillion bird is often thought to be the phoenixes by the West. And yes, plural because the Chinese Phoenixes fenghuang had gender (Feng was the male, and Huang was the female, and they combined into a singular identity somewhere down the road later on), while the Vermillion Bird did not.
The phoenix was believed to have the colours of the rainbow while the Vermillion Bird took its colour from the fire. Was that a phoenix or a vermillion bird that we spotted in Mulan? hmmm…..
Mulan (2020) live action movie featured a ‘phoenix’ which actually looks more like the Vermillion Bird of the South. Disney probably got confused between the Chinese and the Western phoenix.
Although some sources said that the ancient Chinese thought the stars in the southern night sky resembled the vermillion bird, thus the assignment of this symbol, it is unlikely so as the Vermillion Bird of the South as well as the Black Warrior of the North did not come into existence in the constellation assignment until much later (about 2,000 years ago) while the ancient Chinese were already very familiar with the constellations for far longer and had assigned the Dragon and Tiger to them first.
THE STYLING
Since Tang and Qing dynasty has the most fun and daring make-up trends ands styles, our styles were mainly based on these two periods, jazzed it up for modern taste.
The vermillion bird wears vintage Thierry Mugler jacket, with big exaggerated shoulders but sleek silhouette to emphasize it being an animal of the skies. A single red feather nose piece is the only thing to hint at it being a bird.
This styling was designed in collaboration with Aaron Han (@aharw) assisted by gabby @ga.bae.be Makeup assisted by Danny @chenlingx0 and Silas @operatang Photo by Aaron and I
The styling was done in a manner to represent the animals but also not in a literal sense. The traits that are used are symbolic, just like the animal themselves are symbolic.
The Vermillion Bird obscures half of its face with a Bian Mian fan which is a half-oval type of fan with a history of over 2,000 years. Originally made of bamboo, it evolved to other materials overtime and the one in the shoot was made with an emerald green silk gauze with weaved patterns. Very understated, and quintessentially Chinese. Its subtletly is juxtaposed with the red feather nose piece of The House of Malakai styled by Aaron (@aharw) to suggest its avian nature. Of course, the collar design and the Tang style (circa 8th century) wing-like eyebrows are also suggestive of that.
Section of the reference brow from Tang. This is a painting on silk screen uncovered from the Astana tombs.
Underneath the nose piece, were rouge blushers across the cheeks which some might recall seeing on famous 90s Chinese singer Faye Wong, or more recently, singer Rainie Yang. Except that it’s a lot more intense, as it would’ve been how the Tang people of the 10th century were copying the Tibetans during that time in this style of make-up.
Who wore it better? Left Faye Wong, Middle a Tibetan lady, Right Rainie Yang.
Obviously celebrities typically don’t do much research when they try on different make-up styles, pretty sure the socialites of Tang didn’t either, it was probably just cool or fun for them to experiment with a different styles because this style of blusher was deemed barbaric by the early Tang rulers, and had requested for the Tibetans to stop this practice. Who’d knew that a few hundred years later, it would become vogue at the end of Tang!
And just in case you thought the hair looks non-Chinese (like the typical long hair at the back in Chinese period dramas), I’d like to point you towards the Dunhuang murals from the Tang dynasty (same period), and look at the blushers and the hairstyle and accessories, it’s really quite Over The Top:
Section of Dunhuang Mural in Mogao Cave no. 61 with a noble lady of late Tang accessoried with many large and elaborate hair pins, haircombs, and the Tibetan style brick-red rouge on her cheeks.
The lip was also historically based on the last dynasty of China—Qing dynasty. Similar to the Tang rulers, the Qing were not of the Han ethnic group although they have adopted a great deal of the Han practices after ruling over this Han-majority land for centuries. The Qing lip would typically be just a red dot on the bottom lip, but there were instances where the top lip was also painted fully.
Picture of Imperial Consort Pearl (Zhen Fei), who was rumoured to have been drowned in a well in the Forbidden City by the Empress Dowager Cixi. She has the Qing style lip with a dot an her bottom lipi in this picture.
The Modern Vermillion Bird wears vintage Thierry Mugler jacket, with big exaggerated shoulders but sleek silhouette to emphasize it being an animal of the skies.
The fringe skirt by Raf Simon for Calvin Klein is a reference to its long tail feathers.
Unlike the Phoenix, the Red Bird is just red, while phoenixes were said to be of rainbow colours.
The vermillion bird wears vintage Thierry Mugler jacket, with big exaggerated shoulders but sleek silhouette to emphasize it being an animal of the skies. A single red feather nose piece is the only thing to hint at it being a bird with its front skirt is a reference to its long tail feathers.
The broad shoulder look was never really a Chinese thing, as sloping shoulder would look better in the traditional Chinese garment that has no shoulder seams. But that changed in the 40s with women adding shoulder-pads to their Cheongsams to accentuate the shoulder. This look is exemplified by the Japanese Singer in China Yoshiko Yamaguchi, most famously known by her Chinese stage name Li Xiang Lan 李香兰:
Left: Famous American-Chinese writer Eileen Chang Right: Yshiko Yamaguchi/Li Xiang Lan in broad shoulder Cheongsam
QUINTESSENTIALLY CHINESE CRAFT, ACCESSORIES AND AESTHETICS
The Western fashion is very big on silhouettes of the dress, while the Chinese has always been about the hair, the craftsmanship, and the understated luxury where one needs to be close enough and in the ‘right circle of knowledge’ to appreciate the weave, the texture, the material, the motif etc. There’s a lot of secrecy behind many of the crafts, and that made them exclusive, therefore a sign of prestige for those who recognise them. Yet, in Chinese culture (quite unlike the Japanese), the craftsmen are anonymous, and undervalued in the grander scheme of things because the Chinese aesthetics has always been literati-led and the craftsmen were more of the ‘technicians’ to the literati’s ‘artistic vision’. Not unlike the many craftsmen working anonymously behind designer brands that bore the mark of the big name designers who most likely did not make those items themselves.
Another style with hair full of Chineseness. Velvet silk flower of bird motif, Chinese-Hakka style wound silk flowers, and purple jade flower. Bodysuit by Richard Quinn, Nose piece by Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy, styled by Aaron han (@aharw) Hair and accessories by me, make-up by Silas and I.
And just to transition into the more purely Chinese look, we did another look with more Chinese accessories, and also a Tang style hair and make-up with Qing lips. You probably think that it is a copycat of Frida Kahlo, honestly we didn’t realise it until it’s been done, and I immediately recalled a stranger getting in touch to borrow from me my silk flowers for her dressed-up costume party (she stopped responding the moment I told her the price of the flowers. I know, the value of these things aren’t very apparent to those who are not familiar with them).
I use a lot of lacquer and silk flowers because they are so, so, archetypically Chinese but most people just think of Chinese = gold. When in actuality, Chinese didn’t really use much gold in the ancient past. Or Green Jade (Jadeite) for that matter.
I love the emerald green silk scarve that has the auspicious clouds motif done in silver and gold couching technique.
Notice the green bangle? That is a vintage carved lacquer bangle (very rare to come by as typically it would be in red/cinnabar). Carved lacquer came about sometime during the Tang dynasty as well (circa 8th century or so) and became quite a thing later on so even though lacquer was used in many Asian cultures, carve lacquer can be said to be quintessentially Chinese. It is an extremely tedious process, as you would require hundreds of layers of paint, painted and dried, and painted and dried, before you can reach just a few centimetres of thickness for carving.
The Met (HAH!) had an exhibition on lacquer/cinnabar in 2009, you can read the synopsis HERE.
For the Traditional Chinese Vermillion Bird, I’ve decided to go with a wedding look because we often think of phoenixes for Chinese weddings, yet the colour that brides often wear for that occasion would be Red which is actually the colour of the Vermilion Bird. And since the Vermillion bird is often confused with the Phoenix, and more often than not used interchangeably with it, might as well throw the two into the same mix. If you can’t beat them, join them!
Styled, shot, accessories by me.
And you don’t say, Silas certainly looks a bit like Gemma Chan here don’t you think?
For this time round, she’s wearing cinnabar carved lacquer bangles. One is red-on-red, one is red-on-black. Both are vintage pieces.
Now, I shall introduce you to the real Chinese filigree and cloisonné craft for hair accessories. Not the fashion jewelry type worn on the red carpet at the Met by Chef Melissa King for her nail protector. Apparently it was supposed to be inspired by Empress Dowager Cixi (who is, by the way, NOT the last empress of China, contrary to what the Chef wrote on her insta).
The thing about traditional craftsmanship that came from a lineage of thousands of years, is that they get finer and finer, and they are often consumed by the imperial family so the demand for finesse is extremely high. Also, they are all about understated luxury. If it’s that big a bling, it’s probably too crass for them.
Filigree nailguard with ruby, pearl and kingfisher feather inlay. Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.Close-up details of the nailguard
The Palace Museum collection has quite a number of nail guards made from the Imperial Chinese filigree craft, completed with gems, pearls and kingfisher feathers on many occasions. You can zoom in to see the fine details of these nailguards, and they are extremely intricate —as fine as the kingfisher feathers.
In order to give you a bit more context on the scale of these intricacies, I shall zoom in a little bit on the filigree and cloisonné of the phoenix hairpiece in my photo which has similar craftsmanship as the palace museum nail guard above.
It is made with tiny grains of freshwater pearls and ruby (I think, I can’t remember the stones cos I have too many of these accessories.. lol). Her earrings are also filigree and cloisonné phoenix. SUPER AUSPICIOUS I KNOW!
I did an apprenticeship a couple of years back on filigree, cloisonné and kingfisher feather craft in Beijing, and it was through this process that I came to fully appreciate just how intricate this craft is. It’s not the type that you can see on photos or videos, that’s why celebrities wouldn’t really wear them because they don’t show up on screen that well cos they’re too tiny.
Extremely close up view of the phoenix filigree and cloisonné hairpin.
If you zoom in close enough, you can see that the edges of the wings is made up of tiny dots of gold. It’s actually very very fine silver threads gilded in gold, twisted into like a braid-like structure and welded onto the base. When I did my apprenticeship, the first thing to do was to learn how to pull the thick silver threads into fine strands, finger than human hair. And how to twist them in shape without breaking them. Sorry about the resolution, it’s just too fine for my camera. I will do better next time.
Our vermillion bird bride with a hair full of intangible cultural heritage craft—silk flowers based on Palace Museum collection, and a fan of another type of intangible cultural heritage craft—Kesi, also based on Palace Museum collection.
Since this set is all about intangible cultural heritage and fine Chinese crafts, I threw in the Kesi (literally translated to carved silk) fan. This is a replica of the Qing dynasty fan in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The side profile you can see butterfly hair pieces made of dyed silk using the wound silk flowers craft, and also dyed goose feather accessories to replace the kingfisher craft. This hairpiece is based on the Qing dynasty item in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
The topic on Kingfisher feather is contentious, and there are many modern attempts to replicate the effect of kingfisher feather without the cruelty of it. Even the Qing dynasty rulers implemented a ban on using kingfisher feathers for accessories (with limited success obviously).
The cloisonné was one of the historical ways during the Qing period which middle class women could get a pseudo kingfisher feather colour accessory while the aristocrats continued with theirs.
These days, wound silk accessories, dyed goose feather, or peacock feathers are all reasonable substitutes. If you’re wondering (as I did), goose and peacock shed feathers quite readily and their feathers are abundant so it’s not like the case of the kingfisher where you need to kill many to get a tiny bit (disclaimer: goose and peacocks are not harmed since you just gather their shed feathers).
I’m actually making a series of accessories with these type of feathers and vintage lacquer pieces, and will be sharing them later half of the year! So stay tuned!
Meanwhile, if you’re planning to have a Chinese wedding shoot, please don’t go red + gold. It’s so cliché and nouveau riche. At least try to add some finesse like turquoise, blue, green, cyan, pearl, aquamarine, lapis lazuli, lacquer… They are going to add a lot more texture and colours to your otherwise crass look. We do, after all, have at least 5000 years of material culture and history to tap on, don’t behave like we only have 50.
Oh no, I was totally not referring to the billionaire daughter’s wedding (which one? so many huh.. :P).
POP CULTURE REFERENCE
The four guardians were first brought to my attention when I was a young latchkey child watching Japanese anime on my couch after school with my sister. Fushigi Yuugi was the name of the anime, and it started with the chapter of the Vermillion Bird of the South—Suzaku (in Japanese). It had all the characters with special abilities, each representing one of the 7 constellations of the southern nightsky under the charge of the Vermilion Bird.
So it is fitting that we start off this series with the Vermillion Bird.
DRAG IN CHINESE CONTEXT & AFTERTHOUGHTS
In the anime, the king of the southern kingdom Hotohori was a man who was as beautiful as a woman, probably very ahead of its time in the 90s.
And in this series, I have worked with Silas (@operatang) to portray this beautiful feminine side of a man. Drag is not new to Chinese traditional culture, except that it was not politicised like the West. The archetypical Chinese Opera look was a result of men trying to hide their masculine facial features in order to look more feminine. And beautiful men were a thing and even recorded in historical texts for thousands of years.
Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi
When I approached Silas for this project, I also intended to try to re-interpret drag as we know it today in a traditional Chinese manner—from the perspective of someone who wants to look as much like a woman in representation according to a male perspective. This is historically related to the oppression of women in public for about 500 years where images and representation of women were manifested through male bodies in public performances, through their ideas of what a woman is like, how we walk, how we talk, or by male painters.
So as a result, as it is today, men could be more ‘feminine’ than we are (small sample size, but the 2 women involved this shoot can attest to that!). Maybe femininity has often been depicted through the male gaze, so what we see is often a man’s ideal woman image (not how we actually behave, but how they fantasize us to be). So a man could possibly represent very well this ‘ideal femininity’ if they are in touch with their feminine side. Silas showed me some Asian drag queens who are absolutely gorgeous and live up to the ideal female archetype upheld by society (we’re all fellow subjects of the male gaze in this instance!).
I also wondered about the concept of ‘womanface‘ in western drag practices, where features of what it meant to be a woman were used as content for jokes, as part of the overall ‘ridiculous’ look. I’m not sure if I prefer that, or the over-romanticisation of female body during our oppression (as in the Chinese context). Two extremes of the male take on femininity.
Food for thought I guess!
AND because you lasted till the end of this article, you are rewarded with a Vermillion Bird Instagram/facebook selfie make-up filter! Click on the hyperlinked text to claim them:
Because of Fashion’s close associations with consumption, it has often been dismissed as frivolous in modern context. However, fashion, in its fundamental form, has all along been a highly politicised matter. A woman’s body is never her own, and how she dresses, the shape of her body parts, and her fashion choices were more than just superficial indulgences. Fashion has often been, especially in the context of ancient Chinese societies, a highly controversial political and moral signifier.
But you would be mistaken to think that Chinese women were way more repressed than their western counterparts. For one, if you’ve heard of the ‘bra-burning feminist‘ term (which didn’t really happen btw), you might be surprised to know that while this call for liberation from the constraints of bras happened in the late 60s America, Chinese women have been calling for liberation of their boobs in the name of female empowerment way back in the early 1910s! That’s 50 years before!
The next time you see an old photo of Chinese women, or an antique Chinese dress/Cheongsam, notice the chest area. It should be rather flat.
Most people are familiar with the done-to-death use of the bound feet as a mark of female oppression in ancient Chinese societies. But it was believed to be an influence from the West. In their initial stages, it wasn’t even all that small. Rather, it was more of a narrow feet aesthetic. Subsequently, as with everything, it lots its original sense and became festishcised into the form that we recognise today.
Early 1910s was the onset of a huge wave of Western influence in Chinese society. With the fall of the Qing empire, and return of many western-educated Chinese, the concept of “Westernisation” was exceptionally attractive to the Chinese literati. The flapper style in the 20s also caught on its run in China.
While we all know about foot-binding, very few know of the equally long-standing chest-binding practice which coincidentally fitted the flapper fashion in the early 20th century in the West. The irony is that while the women of the West embraced flapper fashion with flattened chest as a symbol of liberation from their corsets, at the same time, the women of China had flat chests as a result of the same constraints that the corsets imposed on their Western counterparts. So even though the more progressive Chinese literatis (men and women) of that time called for a liberation of their ‘natural breasts’ but it was not until 1927 that it was officially launched by the government. So Chinese women still maintained a very narrow and flat side body profile before that.
A more traditional Chinese woman in the early 20s would have her hair long and neatly combed up, and in two-piece dress as that was the traditional way of dressing for thousands of years. The one-piece robe was not a Han Chinese practice after the Han dynasty. Which is ironic but this little detail became relevant in the debate on the origin of Cheongsam.
And the East and the West met in the middle. The western flapper fashion was a natural fit to the Chinese women’s new feminist consciousness and their (newly-liberated)bound-chest silhouette. Think about it this way, if there is a mom-bod trend in fashion now, I would definitely be the biggest avocate and buy a million of the “mom-bod fashion” dresses. #justsaying. That’s probably what went on in China in those days, with women finding this ‘western’, and ‘modern’ fashionable look easy to transit into with their existing body.
Women who just came out of the Qing dynasty period would still have relatively flat chest, and the practice of chest binding and preference for small chest continued in the consciousness of many as a mark of elegance. I know, even my mom who’s born in the 50s still subscribes to that. This coincides with the aesthetics of the Flapper style in the 20s, which adds to the attractiveness and ease of adoption of the western fashion during that period.
The traditional Chinese dress, which is generically referred to as the Hanfu is done with a flat cutting (Kimono has a similar structure). To put it simply, you can put it on a flat surface, and fold it easily without having a lot of uneven parts such as the seams around the boobs and the butts popping out. It is technically not totally flat but that’s a topic for another day.
For the purpose of the shoot, we had all the models binding their chests (if they are well-endowed) so that the fabric of the dresses would drape nicely down instead of having a bulge at the chest level that’s too vulgar for the cutting of the dress. If you think that having feminine curves is what defines a Cheongsam, then you’re probably referring to the less traditional (relatively so) Cheongsams that were influenced by the Western cutting. Early cheongsams were very comfortable, loose fitting and less sexualised. My personal favourite style to go with my mom bod.
Most people probably have tried on a Yukata or Kimono (probably more likely than a piece of Hanfu). And you would have noticed that the general aesthetic is to have a flat chest waist and butt line, essentially having a special bra that presses your chest down is one of the important accessories. Traditional Hanfu, due to its flatness, has similar aesthetics. The explanation which I found through my own experience, is that you would look bloated if you have big boobs as the excess fabric would drape down your body like you are pregnant since it is not fitted to your body shape.
So an ideal Chinese beauty in the last few hundred years, would have no boobs (and shoulders) essentially.
Because fashion is an important way for women to project their ideological stands, you could tell who were the ‘liberated’ new age women and the traditionalists.
There were two camps of women at the turn of the century:
The traditionalists who kept their hair long, with bound chests, bound feet and loose-fitting Qing dynasty two-piece top and bottom. They would mostly be home-bound.
The revolutionists who cut their hair short, campaigned for the liberation of natural boobs as a sign of their intellectuality, and a slightly less baggy dress. It could be a mix of western dresses, early form of cheongsam (one-piece and two-piece). And they loved a good party.
The socialites and women from the big families who were educated overseas started cutting and perming their hair, and they design their dresses by merging traditional Chinese elements with the Western styles, and many of them were inspired by the Art Deco style which worked perfectly in an Asian setting as it was very much influenced by the East with its designs peppered with Chinoiserie amongst its other influences.
I wrote ‘liberated’ because you’d have thought that they would’ve been less more moderate in their approach to women’s dressing identity, as the more ‘woke’ group. However, fashion, as always, is bound to be politicised regardless. Haircutting became a political statement, and more educated women saw it as a physical manifestation of their revolution against the patriarch and it was the true spirit of that time.
Before Cheongsam, there were many different types of dress-robe-vest-top styles resembling the eventual form of Cheongsam. They were influenced by both the Han and Manchurian women fashion of that time and evolved organically into the eventual form we know today. Besides the revolution in dressing, there was also the revolution in hairstyles and the cessation of foot binding and chest binding. It was more of a fashion trend as well as a political move towards a perceived liberation of women of that period.
The ‘liberated women’ saw it as a mission to ensure that all the ‘oppressed’ women who still conformed to tradition have their hair cut and started going about forcing everyone to do so. Little did they realise that hair meant so much to the traditional Chinese, not only as a symbol of filial piety, but also as a symbol of one’s very identity, one that is equally important as their ideal of a liberated female identity. So one of the village woman who had her hair forcefully cut, commited suicide. And in an even more extreme case published in a female magazine, it was said that villagers saw women dressed in military wear going around cutting women’s hair, and a group of over 30 women escaped into the middle of a lake on a tiny boat which eventually capsized (presumably drowning everyone on board).
This was so unnecessary on hindsight because top-down approach never works in meaningful conversion. Eventually, women naturally started cutting their hair as they saw more celebrities, socialites/courtesans and famous people doing so. It became so popular that Beijing even started a female hairdressing school in 1928 with a minimum qualification requirement even.
The importance of soft power.
When you look at the old Chinese posters of the republican era, you’d always find women who permed their already very short hair. And even hair perming, went through a politicised process of being first banned by the government to eventually embraced by everyone. What’s interesting is that the first Chinese woman to have been recorded with a permed hair was in 1926, and she went all the way to the Philippines to do so. The price was about the monthly salary of a professor in China’s top university. So those who could afford it naturally were the celebrities, women from rich families and likes, and that became a highly sought after fashion by the masses before being banned in the mid-30s in the name of prudence and simplicity as a highly valued quality of women (with limited success of course).
So, fast forward 100 years or so, women and how we dress/look are still subject of public interest and debates related to morality and value. And we think that we have come a long way? I guess not really!
Public Service Announcement:
This series of photos were taken in partnership with the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall to create more visual educational content online. They are currently running a Republica era women’s fashion exhibition (a small scale one–managing expectations here) Modern Women of the Republic: Fashion and Change in China and Singapore from now until 12.12.2021.
Meanwhile, I’m still working on the #Yanzilou immersive online film project, hoping to start sharing more with you in mid September, so stay tuned!
We also appreciate contributions to Hanfugirl to allow us to produce and share more topics which are rarely written in English, and even less represented in images. I have a few projects (besides Yanzilou) that I’m dying to make such as the four guardian mythological creatures of the constellations, Chinese Weddings reinterpreted, Chinese gods and fantastic beasts… We’ll get there some day. Slowly, but surely.
Special thanks to Lin Tong for her knowledge, amazing retro vintage hairstyling, hairpin, and the velvet blue dress. Sharon (Dressed up dreams) for light and the Hanfugirls for modelling!
Many years ago I curated an exhibition in Melbourne’s Brunswick Street Gallery, exploring the boundaries between Folk Art as Fine Art pieces in the setting of a gallery. This remains one of my favourite topics–the breaking of artificial (and pretentious) barrier between what is considered folk (therefore kitschy and low-class) vs fine art. So we have come of the time of the year when folk art and traditions rule our celebrations, and you can never be too kitsch for it–THE CHINESE NEW YEAR! And since today’s the 7th day of the Chinese New Year, also known as the day of the Human/People (we were believed to be created by the mythical goddess on the 7th day), there’s nothing more suitable than to talk about birth and tiny human in this edition!
There is no end to the cliches and stereotypes related to this Chinese festival, but the best part about it is, I’m learning and starting to enjoy these cliches and stereotypes simply because they do reflect the very folk and down-to-earth part about my culture. As a traditionally agrarian society for thousands of years, the farmers were only second to the officials and literati (technically), and their art and customs should be equally celebrated as that of the literati even if they seemed really simplistic and unrefined to our modern consumeristic eyes.
Being an agrarian society means that the folks were deeply atuned to the changing seasons, and the crossing of one entire year to another meant the greatest of all seasonal celebrations. The Nian Hua (CNY folk woodblock prints) were visual representation and expressions of these simple folks’ well wishes for the family, friends, and nation in the coming year, and they were carved onto woodblocks for mass printing so that everyone could have a piece of the well wishes in their household. China is the inventor of woodblock (and later on movable) printing and paper (yes, Gutenberg didn’t invent the printing press), so the practice of printed posters for new year was widespread from as early as the Song dynasty (11th century).
The prints which started out as prints of deities for protection and blessings became increasingly popular in the Ming dynasty that followed, and took on a lot of different subject matters that are much more relatable to the everyday folks by the mid Qing dynasty.
I think for many of us, when we think about the woodblock prints would think of the image of a child with a carp (at least that’s the case for me anyway). So I took the opportunity to dress my tiny new model for a shoot, exploring the different aspects of children’s attire and the symbolism of auspiciousness in the process! It isn’t Chinese New Year Woodblock Print for the folks if it isn’t filled with contrasting colours and auspicious imageries!
One of the most symbolic children’s apparel would be the belly wrap–earliest finding dated to about Tang dynasty in the 7th to 10th century. Although probably not necessarily in the current form as we recognise it to be today, the practice of covering the front area and exposing the back definitely went way back.
Left bottom in red rectangle: children with belly wrap from Dunhuang Grottoes; Right: Children in different forms of red belly wraps from the Song dynasty
It was believed that when you cover the belly area of the child, you are protecting his overall wellbeing and health as the stomach was seen as the master of all 5 major organs, and that it prefers a warmer environment. Basically most of the common illnesses related to kids would/could be attributed to having cold air going through the stomach.
If you noticed the shape of the belly wrap, you would notice that its base is somewhat rounded, instead of the corner of a sharp lozenge shape, and the other 2 corners at the two sides would be sharp edged. Apparently it was to echo the Chinese believe that the sky is round and the earth is flat–the harmony between heaven and earth and that the human is connected with such natural order even for a child. In the more elaborate forms, the belly wrap would be embroidered with all kinds of auspicious motifs such as the “5 vernomous creatures” (snake, toad, scorpion, lizard and centipete). In a society back in those days where infant deaths were abundant, it was hoped that these vernomous creatures would drive away the evil spirit and real
Kids would also always wear what is known as the Longevity Lock necklace, which acts like a goodluck charm. The necklace is in the shape of a Ruyi (Everything goes according to one’s wishes) wish well wishes carved onto them and usually made of gold of silver although there were also those made of jade, silk, fabric and other materials. The origin of it is was due to the fact that in the ancient past especially in the Ming dynasty when the government was trying to push for the use of paper currencies, gold and silver were not permitted to be used for transactions, so the rich would then use whatever gold or silver they had to make into accessories instead. Yes, the TV shows probably had us all fooled into thinking the rich could just take out one of the gold ingots in exchange for things, but the reality is gold was only reserved for high officials and royalties, and in the Tang dynasty it was usually gifted by the emperor so you couldn’t just simply give away or use something the emperor bestowed upon you, could you?
The image of young child in red belly wrap with a longevity neck ring on a lotus might remind you of Thumbelina (Chinese version), but these element make up an iconic auspicious image in Chinese tradition, occasionally with an added frog at the bottom of the painting. It was believed that such image would bless you with many sons as lotus is the homophone of “continuous” and its many seeds symbolises fertility–童锁带莲，贵子连连(Child with longevity lock and a lotus, brings you son one after another).
You would probably think of Nezha, or Hong Hai’er (Red Boy of the Bull Demon King from the Journey to the West), now that we put a lotus, the neck rings and the red belly wrap together.
Left: one of the many images of Nezha; Right: then iconic look of the Red Boy
The original idea of Nezha was actually a Zoroastrian god from the Persian culture–Nowzar, a great warrior and hero. Zoroastrian was very openly accepted and practised by Persian migrants to the Tang empire in the 8th to 10th century. Many deities in Chinese Buddhist and Taoist traditions as we know today are absorbed from different cultures outside of China and Nezha is one of them. Buddhism absorbed Nowzar and then Chinese Taoism followed suit in adopting its story, and somewhere down the road we have a fusion of all these different cultural beliefs and many versions of the story.
The Chinese story of Nezha was that of a righteous and impulsive child born into a noble family in the Tang dynasty with superb combat abilities (despite his young age). He got into a fight with one of the dragon kings (there were different dragon kings governing different parts of the seas), and killed him. In order not to implicate his parents for what he did, Nezha stood before the gods and shaved his own flesh and bones, and severed his own limbs as a form of self punishment. Buddha then reassembled and restored his broken body using the lotus roots for his limbs, and revived him.
The image of the Red Boy is somewhat similar, but often depicted with 2 horns or partially shaved head with islands of long hair tied up/braided up. The greatest difference is, Nezha was seen as a hero, a symbol of filial piety and redemption while the red child was seen as a rebellious demon child. I kind of suspect that this is the Chinese’s way of judging a child by their parents–one is of noble blood, another is of demon blood. The Red Boy is simply another fierce and powerful child, who inherited superb combat skills and power from the combination of his parents–the Iron Fan Princess, and Bull Demon King:
The Bull Demon King was originally a white ox, which managed to obtain supernatural powers. His official wife (haha there’s a mistress somewhere down the road) holds the mythical Iron Fan that could extinguish any fire, and notedly the fire from the Flaming Mountain (Xinjiang region today). The Flaming Mountain is supposedly the hottest place in China, with a temperature of 47.8 degrees Celsius during summer and surface heat of up to 89 degrees Celsius! The Tang dynasty people gave it its name–Fire Mountain.
It was unacceptable for grown adults back then to cut their hair due to a Confucian classic on filial piety stating that your hair were gifts from your parents, and you should take good care of it and not harm/damage/destroy it in any way as acts of filial piety. One of the most insulting punishment in those days was to shave their head off, so you can imagine how serious the ancient Chinese took this matter.
But children, they are exceptions to this rule. In fact, they are supposed to have their head shaved within their first month of birth because of the belief that the delivery process has tainted their body with dirty blood and its associated bad luck, so you have to shave them off in order to not offend the deities when the child get out of the dedicated confinement room. And for girls whose dark straight long locks were symbols of beauty, it was believed that shaving the head meant that the baby hair will grow to darker, thicker strands.
To strike a middle ground (very Chinese, this dedication to maintaining the middle ground), their heads were not to be shaved completely. In fact, they should always have a areas of hair that’s left unshaved. And you can imagine the many different styles of such–the ancients surely exercised lots of creativity in styling their children’s hair. In a painting from the Southern Song dynasty in the 12th century (傀儡婴戏图 Children playing with puppets, below), you could see that each of the 4 children had a different hairstyle. Those who tied them up, used a red string for fastening.
傀儡婴戏图 Children playing with puppets by Southern Song artist Liu Song Nian in the 12th century
There are a lot of other symbolism related to the Nian Hua (Chinese woodblock print), children’s apparels (embroideries, shapes, colours) and children’s accessories (the longevity lock’s motif and word engravings, shapes, material) which I won’t go into detail yet (too heavy for the holiday period). I hope that this entry kind of just open up certain understanding of how important dressing up was to the ancient people, and the rich symbolism and meanings that they embed into even the most mundane of things!
Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox from #hanfugirl and #hanfubaby! May your year be filled with Auspiciousness like how I’m filling the remaining of this entry with auspicious imageries!
Disclaimer: No child was harmed in the process of the shoot. No make up was applied on her either! It’s all post production 😉
The Chinese has an almost pathological obsession with beautiful feathers.
The Tang dynasty emperor from the 8th Century fell in love with a piece of Indian music called the Brahmin Tune and decided to adapt it into his Chinese court to be played and danced to. He renamed the dance and music Raiment of rainbows and feathers. Instead of kingfisher feather as what most sources said, I think the dancer (Lady Yang) probably wore an outer coat made of different coloured feathers such as peacock, pheasant, and perhaps even parrot (I will talk about parrots in the 8th century in detail the next time)!Nevertheless, the craft of kingfisher feather accessories remains a highly mysterious and valued craft unique to China.
Tang dynasty China was one of the earliest periods with documented proof that feathers were used widely for decorations. It was such a ‘fashion statement’ that even the Japanese adopted this technique in their art from the same period.
I thought of doing one entry related to feathers in particular. And the wonderful brilliance of colours adored by the ancient Chinese (men and women alike, mind you~!).
Example of an antique Kingfisher accessory and you could see the slight change in colour because of the different angle of light that is reflected from the feather. It varies a little when you tilt it.
The oldest use of feathers in Chinese textiles (and accessories) was said to date to as far back as 2,000 years ago during the Han dynasty where the use of the word 翡翠(feicui) which refers to Jadeite today, was originally used to refer to the Kingfisher feathers. Jadeite, actually has a very short history in Chinese culture, as it was from Myanmar and was not very valued by the Chinese until mid to late Qing dynasty (last 300 yrs or so). Nephrite was the kind of jade highly valued by the ancient Chinese.
Anyway, while there were brief mentions of such in poems from about 2,000 years ago, and an excavation discovery from the period belonging to the Xiongnu nomadic tribes revealed textiles made of silk and kingfisher feather–definitely a Chinese influence:
Although it’s not a physical dress made of kingfisher feather that we could get hold of from China itself, or any accessory during that period, but we could definitely see hints of it on paintings or from certain use of feathers in artefacts. Nobody ever confirmed it, but it definitely looks probable that the blue tinge on the crown of the courtesans from Tang was from the kingfisher feathers.
There is no surviving physical kingfisher feather from that period in China, but we could still find remnants of feather decoration on the screens of Shosoin (Collection of the Japanese emperor in the 8th century) below:
It’s interesting to note that the women depicted on the screens look very much like Tang dynasty women, but it was an item made in Japan in a Tang style. How do we know? The feathers of course! Scientists have managed to examine whatever feather was left from the 8th century on the screen, and concluded that they were taken from a bird native to Japan! So it is likely that the Japanese got inspired by the crafts and practices in Tang dynasty China (since they were really quite big on Chinese culture then), that they decided to do a local interpretation of it!
Back to the Chinese imperial use of kingfisher feathers, the Song dynasty emperor was known to award his court officials with robes made from a wide range of materials including one which was made of kingfisher feathers. The practice of making fabric from kingfisher feather dates to about Tang dynasty (some 1,300 yrs ago) as mentioned in famous poet Wang Wei’s poem from that period.
During the Qing dynasty, we could find emperor’s robes made from peacock feather threads. Yes, that’s the peacock feather threads mentioned in the Yanxi Palace drama show as well, except that the one they used in the show looked nothing like the actual one:
One thing about beautiful things such as the shine and colours of silk threads and feathers, is that cameras have problem capturing them in their full glory. The texture is just really hard to captured in a 2D image since the colours of feathers tend to change with the varying angles of light. So the actual imperial robe with the peacock feather looks rather underwhelming in an image:
But if you look unclose, you could probably imagine how exquisite it would’ve been if you see it in person up close and personal:
Just now I mentioned the Chinese opera-like kingfisher feather crown in the Tang dynasty painting. Perhaps it is pure coincidence, but traditional Chinese Opera singers would break their back to get their hands on an entire full hair decoration made of kingfisher feathers.
It was said that the most famous opera singer in the early 20th century, Mei Lan Fang, owned a kingfisher feather full set of headdress made from ‘soft’ kingfisher feathers. Kingfisher feather accessories are divided into ‘hard’ feathers which are coarser and ‘soft’ feathers which are finer. There are altogether 4 types of kingfisher feathers often used in Chinese traditional accessories (mainly for the imperial family or aristocrats in the distant past, and whoever could afford it in the recent hundred of years).
As you can see above, the hard feathers are a lot larger than the soft ones, but even that is not too large at only about 7cm long. The small one’s about 2-3 cm long. Out of which, 60% of them can’t be used due to the existence of black or grey parts or other ‘less pure’ colours.
That is why it was highly controversial lately for Chinese opera singers to admit to owning real kingfisher feather crowns.
In case you think only the Chinese is capable of thinking up such a way of decorating themselves, hold my baijiu while I whip out the dark history of the West’s use of birds as accessories (includes kingfisher too). It went as far as using an entire bird (completely indiscreet I know, hurts my Asian aesthetics *hairtoss moment*).
Towards late Qing dynasty (the last 200 years), there was a switch to use cloisonne in place of kingfisher feather accessories–cheaper and less fragile. But the kingfisher feathers still has its fan. The last kingfisher factory in China closed in 1933 due to poor economic performance (not so much of the ban).
Like the West, there are laws against capturing kingfishers as they are considered endangered species or protected species. But it was not enforced by the government.
Dyed goose feather (dyed is not dead, no goose is harmed in the process)
Silk or synthetic coloured threads
Well, at the end of the day, it’s really a personal choice. If you wish to YOLO or you wish to do your part in preserving this endangered species of bird.
I am working with a silk-threads craftsperson to recreate certain antique kingfisher pieces, and you can order them from my online shop from November onwards. Yes, will be working on a few items for the shop to raise fund for the performance I’m putting up next year. So stay tuned~!
Meanwhile, here’s a visual feast of the many paintings and artefact of ancient empress and palace women in their beautiful kingfisher feather accessories. Also, beyond accessories, they even made fans, screens and decorated cups with the feathers!
If you’re interested in knowing more about this craft, I have also done up a few “Fact or Fiction” clarification at the end of the article because I do realise that people like to sensationalise things they don’t know much about, or they villainfy things they don’t agree with. Both of which are not useful in understanding this craft.
even the cup is decorated with kingfisher feather
crown made of kingfisher
kingfisher feather fan
Statement: Practitioners pluck the feathers out from birds while they were alive to ensure that the colours of the feather remain brightly coloured.
Verdict: Fiction. People of different agenda tend to sensationalise this trade or craft. The businessmen trying to make it seem like it’s a mysterious colour that has to go through certain “ritual” that’s somewhat mystical to get the colour. Animal rights people trying to make it seem like it is a really cruel trade. The truth is somewhere in the middle especially if you are meat-eater. Since ancient times dead birds have been given as tribute from southern cities or southeast asian region to China and feathers were taken from these corpses.
Statement: The newer kingfisher feather accessories used leftover feathers from the Qing dynasty, leftover feathers from opera troupes or feathers from people who got them before the last kingfisher factory closed in 1933. So it was not killing new birds.
Verdict: Fiction. They are just statements to make you feel better about buying these items. Unlikely to have such abundance of feathers to support so many accessories with such large surface area. Also, it is much more economical to kill new birds than to buy from antique dealers. So if you buy any kingfisher feather accessories that are made in recent years, or antique kingfisher feather accessories that are newly repaired, do know that they’re probably newly killed birds. Although, there are also officially sourced (so not illegal) kingfisher feathers which the Chinese government would get for purposes such as repair of artefacts, or making special items as dignitary gifts etc.
Statement: The vibrant colours on the kingfisher feather does not fade with passing time.
Verdict: Fact. Provided you keep it in pristine condition away from dust and other physical touch etc. Never touch the surfaces with your hands. It is tempting, but resist you must. Dyed goose feather and dyed silk would fade over time (but it’s probably over a long time) especially with constant exposure to sunlight. Cos we all know how fragile silk can be. Feathers, on the other hand, are used to such exposures.
Statement: Kingfisher feather accessories demand is as bad as ivory.
Verdict: Tricky question. Fact if you look at it from the angle of unnecessary killing of a life for one’s vanity. Fiction if you are looking at this being the main cause of bird extinction. Lost of habitat is often the larger concern for the survival of this beautiful bird. The average lifespan of a common kingfisher (there are over 120 species of them) is 5-7 years, although a rare few could live up to 16 years. The reproduction/replacement rate of the bird is also a lot faster than elephants. Plus, the demand for kingfisher feather really isn’t very high as there are many substitutes that are 1/10th the price around. The resale value of kingfisher feather is also not as high as ivory (since actually there are also a lot of kingfisher birds around so there’s no limited supply at this point) so there is not much incentive for people to stock up and sell at higher value.
When I think about Mingyu (my favourite!), I always think about her in the red wedding dress, the wedding that never happened and that pair of scissors that ended it all. So I thought of doing a small tribute piece on the traditional Chinese wedding with a slight twist.
It’s often taken for granted that Chinese weddings have to be red everywhere–red packets, red dresses, red decorations etc. But if you look at history, it was not until the Ming dynasty (sometime around 13th Century) that women started wearing red for weddings, and only around the Qing dynasty (sometime around 17th Century) that both men and women wore red for weddings.
So what did women wear in the past to get married then?
2,000 years ago, Black was the vogue colour, so black and slight linings of red would be worn. The interesting term that was used for red was not what we call it today, it was a special word which referred to the colour of the sun before it sets, so it’s more of an orangy red. The terms which were used to describe colours in the past were extremely poetic, often closely associated with natural phenomenon and mysticism. Of course, the terms would also change in different periods to refer to slightly different colours.
Then after the Han dynasty in about 220 CE, apparently white was the vogue colour for wedding. Yes, Queen Victoria inspired the white gown craze of today, and if you wish to convince your Chinese parents on the validity of wearing white for wedding, look no further than 1800 years ago’s Chinese wedding dress.
Then there was the green wedding dress of Tang dynasty and finally, it was red. So.. white wedding dress? So last^2 millennium.
Then there are the wedding candles. If you were gifted with a pair of scissors for wedding. DO NOT STAB THYSELF. Use it to cut the wick of candles. This is an interesting practice which not many might be aware of–that the ancients would trim the candle wick so the fire would continue burning brightly. This is especially when the wick got too long and would split at its ends if left untrimmed, which affects the fire.
It was said that the origin/mythology surrounding the lighting of candles for wedding came from the Ancient Dynasties period (about 4300 years ago), where Emperor Yao fell in love with a deer nymph who carried the spark of fire. He found her at a mystical cave and just as he was about to approach her, a huge python appeared. He freaked out at the sight, while she just used her magical powers to dispell the python, saving him from further embarrassment (ok, I added this part myself, but it’s true right…). Anyway, on the night they got married, a ball of fire suddenly ignited at the top of the cave (Oh yea, the Chinese invented fireworks, maybe this was their inspiration at some point).
Henceforth, people started burning candles to represent this ball of fire at wedding nights, and the wedding chamber is also known as the cave-room (洞房) in Chinese.
Of course in the show, Mingyu didn’t change into her full wedding attire, because as you might have seen from Qing dynasty photos, they would often wear really elaborate head crowns. I imagined how she might’ve looked had she progressed to that stage in life. I made that crown based on this antique crown which Angelababy wore for her wedding.
Remember that I mentioned in this article about how many shows mis-represented the Qing dynasty bottom back of hair by using some fake add-ons that stuck out like sparrow tails at the bottom? This is actually how it should look like in late Qing dynasty, with natural hair somewhat sagging down a little to form a bit of volume. But this, possibly was also not accurate to the period of Emperor Qianlong. They probably combed it all up seeing that it was still quite early into the Qing dynasty and the fashion of the Han Chinese women and their elaborate hair hadn’t caught on yet.
During the interview, apparently, the director of Yanxi mentioned that even though he was aware that the sparrow-tail back of hair was not historically accurate, he continued with that misconception because he thought people would expect it and that it was for “aesthetic purposes”.
I wonder if it was dumping down or indeed true that Qing dynasty women look better with the sparrow tail at the back. As such, I have taken the liberty to edit my image below to have one with and one without the sparrow tail.
I am interested to hear what you think!
Tail or No Tail? (haha yes, spot the difference….)
Whenever I meet up with girls who’re interested to join me, their major source of inspiration has often been the 1998 TV series My Fair Princess (还珠格格). It’s been exactly 20 years since its release, and many other Qing dynasty shows have been produced since then with the latest being The Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略), and you could see the slow progression that directors and stylists have made in attempting to be as historically accurate as possible.
Today, I’m going to run through some of the myths perpetuated by Huanzhugege and other Qing dynasty period dramas in terms of Qing dynasty hairstyles and accessories, and where the latest show has gotten it right, where it’s gotten it not so right, and where it’s quite hilarious! 1. THE GOOD: Correcting the hair misconceptions
WOMEN: HUGE HEADDRESS Below are a quick overview at the big headdresses that every Qing dynasty woman seems to be wearing from in productions between 1998 and 2011
I’ve chosen shows which are all set around the period of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) for a fairer comparison, and below is the right evolution of women’s hair from that period onwards.
So you can see, the hair actually got bigger and more exaggerated, with more accessories and tassels later on. the huge flower in the middle, too, was very much towards the end of the Qing dynasty rule in the 1900s. I suppose this is natural as wealth accumulates, the imperial families got more access to resources and were able to indulge more.
And if you go EVEN way back to when the Manchurians FIRST ruled the whole of China about 1600s, women’s hair actually looked like this:
Portrait of Empress Dowager Xiao Zhuang, the consort of the second Manchurian emperor of Qing dynasty China in the early 17th century.
Portrait of Empress Dowager Xiao Zhuang, the consort of the second Manchurian emperor of Qing dynasty China in the early 17th century.
So if you look at the evolution chart, The story of Yanxi looks the most authentic–nobody had that insanely huge hair which clearly belonged to the late Qing dynasty.
A scene from the Story of Yanxi, with women in what’s called erbatou 二把头 (two-headed hair) hairstyle known to be first spotted in about 19th century. Though, the story is set in the 18th century. However, as not much earlier information was avaible, that’s all we could base it on.
Below is a comparison between the hairstyle in a painting in the early 19th century, and the photograph of the last Empress–Empress Wan Rong in the early 20th century. Clearly, the size of the headpiece/hairpiece increased exponentially within one century.
Painting of Qing dynasty manchurian royalties in the 19th century
Photograph of the last empress of China–Empress Wanrong
As the number of artefacts of Manchurian women in their casual wear is extremely rare, it is thus inevitable that the stylist and director of the Yanxi show used paintings in the 19th century as references even though the show was supposed to be about a hundred years before that.
Modelled after the painting in the 19th century even though the story is set in the 18th
19th century painting
In reality, it might most likely be somewhere between the portrait of Empress Dowager Xiao Zhuang, and the one above. Possibly a fancier braided bun on the top of one’s head which eventually slowly developed into a horizontal, longer headpiece like this:
Apparently, the more authentic one is coming up in the show, but more of a rare occurrence than a norm:
17th century portrait by artist Jiao Bingzhen
17th century portrait by artist Mangguli
MEN: HALF-SHAVEN HEAD
In almost every show, the men always had half-shaven head, which is similar to how late Qing dynasty men had their hair done. And in the Yanxi show, it’s a much smaller bunch of hair at the back of the head:
BUT according to a Japanese record in the 18th century, the following would’ve been accurate:
Apparently, at the start, the golden standard was to try to run the braid through the centre of a coin–if it was tiny enough to go through the coin, then it would’ve been a good braid.
Of course, understand that complete recreation would’ve caused an uproar in viewers since it isn’t what most are used to these days. Still a good effort on the part of the stylist/director! 2. THE BAD: Perpetuating the myth of the sparrow-tail-like back
OK, I made the same mistake as everyone thanks to TV from past till present, when it comes to having a sparrow tail-like hairstyle sticking out at the back of the head for Qing dynasty hairdo:
When I spoke to some people who’ve been researching this for a while, I was told that this kind of sparrowtail hairdo was more for the Han Chinese women during the Qing dynasty. And with a bit of research, it does seem true that it was not really until the late Qing that Manchurians started sporting something remotely close to this:
It doesn’t seem quite like the sparrow-tail in the shows, and seem more like sagging hair at the back. To make sure that it is a legit observation, I went to find out many other pictures of Manchurian vs Han Chinese women’s pictures in the early late 19th century/early 20th century and we can safely say that if you have a large headpiece on top of your hair, the manchurians don’t have a sparrowtail-like back. IF they ever have a sparrowtail-like back, which was more of a Han Chinese hairstyle, then they don’t mix it with the headdress.
As illustrated below:
Notice the hair on the ladies back facing or side facing the camera with a large headpiece on, they also didn’t have a sparrow tail like hair.
Notice the back of her hair, it seems more like saggy back than a deliberately sparrow tail-shaped back
This is an interesting picture because it’s a Han chinese lady on the left, with a Manchurian lady on the right. The Han Chinese lady has a very defined, deliberate hair-tail, whereas the Manchurian lady wore her signature headdress.It gets a little complicated in this picture because they’re all Manchurian ladies (except for the second from the right and the two behind). But it does seem that the ones with a tail-like back did not have the headdress on top, and it seemed more like they were emulating the Han Chinese hairstyle instead.
How do I know if they’re Manchurian or Han Chinese in the pictures? Easiest way is to look at their feet–if they have tiny feet like a triangular hoof, then that’s Han Chinese, if they have platform shoes then it’s Manchurian. Manchurian women were forbidden by the orders of the emperor to bind their feet like the Han Chinese, as he saw it as corrupting the Manchurian spirit and values. Although, some did still try to.
Cos, vanity. 3. THE UGLY: The weird random hairstyles in the Yanxi show, and how they’ve been randomly used
That odd sideburn and high bun hairstyle, not to mention smoky eyes 90s look
Gao Guifei (Highest ranked consort, Consort Gao)
Photo of last Empress–Empress Wanrong in the 20th Century
We’ll come to her pearl bead shawl/cloud shoulder-like thing in another article. But there’s probably nothing more jarring in this entire show than this hairstyle. The fringe (with sideburn included) was something that’s so 20th century China, and a braided sideburn, well, I guess has gotta be a 21st-century imagination!
That lunatic-looking attempt to cosplay an ancient mythological goddess.
She was supposed to look like the nymph/goddess of the Luo River, and the most famous painting depicting that mythology is none other than the one below (part of the painting is as shown). The painting was said to be a replica based one by Gu Kaizhi, a painter from about 2000 years ago in the Weijin era. It was a similar look that I tried to recreate when I did my Weijin era shoot last year. I have no idea what inspired the look above… It’s got a bit of everything that one would associate with beauty–dangling accessory which represented daintiness, flowers which represent great beauty, beauty mark on forehead but… that cocoon looking hair… I have no words….
Part of the painting by Gu Kaizhi 洛神赋图 顾恺之
My attempt at recreating that image
Coincidentally, I actually did a quick write-up about the painter Gu Kaizhi earlier last year. Feel free to have a quick read about the first painter who left his name in history of Chinese art! BONUS
In case you’re wondering the inspiration for the really huge hair of the Momo (lead lady-in-waiting), I believe the picture below on the right was the inspiration. It was a non-Manchurian Chinese hairstyle in southern China sometime in the 20th Century. Rather strange that it would be allowed in the Palace though… But I think the stylist/director probably wanted to showcase certain diversity and introduce certain unusual styles of the Qing dynasty. Which I think is great, cos now people can find out a bit more about them!
That’s all for the hair episode so far. Will move on to dresses when I have the chance!
#Hanfugirl 