Dior vs Hanfu Saga: Homage, Copycat or Appropriation?

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The Hanfu scene is bustling with excitement (for better or worse) today because of the Dior Fall collection. In particular, the black mamian skirt look-alike (Dior Pleated Skirt) and its pairing with the corset which looks suspiciously also like the way the modernised Ming dynasty (14th-17th century) hanfu style that you see a lot in the last few years in China.

Homage, Copycat, or Appropriation are all just similar concepts to different ends/results and of different intentions. I’m too lazy to be politically correct or prescriptive about their definitions and nuances, but the simplest way of looking at it is probably whether the finishing looks as good as, better, or worse than the original item/style that they are trying to emulate. Or if they managed to establish a strong style/design through thoughtful innovation on top of the original which makes it a new style by definition.

THE ORIGINAL ARTEFACT IN HISTORY

Here’s the original Ming style Mamian Skirt and the vest-like (or if you want to sound pretentiously superior, corset-like) undergarment artefact image:

The low cut with strings tying together is actually the front of the vest

This is a silk gauze brocade skirt with its pleats laid out flat. When worn, it would look like the Dior skirt.

THE MODERN HANFU INTERPRETATIONS

The Hanfu movement has been in full swing for a while, and there are many young Chinese designers who have came up with lots of variations of the Ming style modern hanfu wear which you might find shockingly similar to the one by Dior:

Even I have done that pairing once upon a time in my In Search of the Chinese Red series:

So they’ve shortened the skirt length, modified the fastening/securing mechanism of the skirt, and matched the undergarment as a summer top with the mamian skirt.

For autumn/fall/winter season, the Mamian skirt is even nicer to pair with winter coats and other basics as I did during my Sabbatical Trip. Thanks in advance for indulging me in my pre-covid + pre-baby travel trip photo-sharing.

IN VENICE

IN NYC

Of course mine were the original length skirts with tie-string fastening mechanism which was the most traditional method for the Chinese. But you could see just how non-costumey they can be if you paired them properly. I also have black mamian with subtly weaved motifs and golden thread weaved patterns. I’m a huge fan of Mamian skirts (Have more than a dozen of them of different colours and materials).

Anyway…

When it comes to innovating a nice fastening mechanism, I would say Dior 0 : Hanfu designers 1

Honestly for a S$5,500 skirt, I expected better. But obviously the Hanfu makers were probably also copying the kilt makers in the waist fastening mechanism.

Dior’s skirt buckle

Taobao Hanfu designer’s skirt buckle

One of my favourite part about the vest-like undergarment of Ming is the Ming style metal frog buttons that lined the front middle part of the undergarment as in the one below:

They’re wonderfully diverse and beautifully made, and often adorned with precious stones such as the ones below:

The least that Dior could do was to invest some of their marketing budgets into these finer details. They can keep the clean lines and ‘minimalistic’ look (sometimes I suspect minimalism is just an excuse to cut cost), but those metal eyelets and straps are hardly anything worth shouting about.

MAMIAN SKIRT, SCOTTISH KILT, DIOR—What are the differences?

My first instinct when I saw the controversy erupting was, hang on, maybe they’re just inspired by their own ‘Western’ (sorry I’m using such a loose term) dressing—kilts. But then someone noted that the kilts had full pleats at the back, whereas the Mamian skirt had the same flat panel front and back which was exactly what Dior had. And yes, we also saw how the Hanfu makers copied the kilt’s way of securing the skirt:

Although I can’t be 100% sure but from the video (based on how the skirt moves when the model is walking) it appears that the back flap of the Dior skirt also has that ability to flip open up from the back just like the front. [Update: OK, I can confirm that the Dior skirt is EXACTLY the same structure and everything as the Chinese Mamian skirt, video explanation below the image]:

This artefact is from the Southern Song dynasty (12-13th century) of China, and it already had the earliest form of the Mamian skirt. Interestingly, such skirts were initially worn by the courtesans (who were, as usual, always at the forefront of fashion), and then it became a skirt popular amongst the aristocratic women by the Ming dynasty.

Obviously everyone loves the Mamian skirt. The style has survived for almost 1,000 years now, with fashionistas constantly trying to emulate it in different forms, and it has not only fascinated the Chinese. The Western designers of our days were equally fascinated by the Mamian skirts and Dior’s 2022 Fall design is by no mean their first encounter with the Mamian skirt of China.

Back in 1998, the legendary John Galliano had presented several dresses inspired by the Qing dynasty Mamian skirts as well:

Here are the actual Qing era skirts and the resemblance is pretty evident:

But wait, Dior’s not the only one!

Princes Diana too wore it once, and Alice Through the Looking Glass film clearly also based Alice’s costume on it.

If you want to read a bit more about the Qing dynasty Mamian skirts, you can hop over to ‘From Hanfu to Cheongsam: The Missing Link‘.

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE?

Taste is subject, of course. That explains why many people splurge on what I would find ugly items. So what is your take on Dior’s latest Fall design that is obviously based on the Ming era mamian skirt?

Personally, I find it a blatant and poorly done copycat attempt (without acknowledgement at that!) because obviously the 2022 design doesn’t create anything distinctly new or impressive. The Chinese has a modern phrase 谁丑谁尴尬 which loosely translates to ‘Whoever does it better wins the game’. This applies to many of the art appropriation claims as well.

And I’m not even going to talk about cultural appropriation in this instance since it’s beyond obvious. But I’d love to hear your thoughts!

And I shall end my post with my Ming style mulberry silk vest embroidered with hydrangeas, in NYC (cos everyone is travelling now and I’m stuck! I deserve this. 😉

Kids in Folk Art & Year of the Ox

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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 😉

Mirage of a Chinese Garden 镜花水月

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Tomorrow’s the western Valentine’s day, and in a few days more we’ll be celebrating the Chinese valentine’s day, thus this article.

A while ago we had a lecture by Jonathan Tan, founder and owner of Blanc Studios, on Chinese gardens. Jon learnt Ikebana from young and is extremely knowledgeable in Chinese architecture and gardens and uses a lot of East Asian aesthetics in his floral design and creations. We were all pleasantly surprised by what we learnt about the Chinese philosophy of a garden and how it was a paradigm shift from the West. The Japanese garden, though inspired by the Chinese garden concept took on its own form and trajectory of development as well!

In an ideal Chinese garden, as I’ve learnt from Jonathan, there’re meandering paths which offer you a different perspective of the garden layout every turn you take. The entire point is not to get from point A to B, but to enjoy the entire walk through it and be surprised by the unexpected sights along the way. In certain more elaborate designs, there would be a pavilion which opens up to 4 directions, each offering you a view of a different season. This reminds me of the ancient palaces which were built to mirror the seasons and the emperor would stay in different side of the palace during the changing seasons in alignment with the 5 elements. You can watch an episode on Chinese and Japanese garden HERE, hosted by Monty Don, a British celebrity gardener (of course, the Brits love their gardens too! of a completely different aesthetic philosophy!).

This is the Chinese lantern that most are familiar with, at night we’ll see a totally different style of lantern which was popularised in the Ming dynasty (14th century) around Souther China.

There were also a lot of odd-shape rocks which reminded the Chinese of the peaks and valleys of actual mountains like Huangshan (yellow mountain) and likes. If you have seen a Chinese landscape on a foggy day (or early morning on a cooling day), you would realise just how realistic the Chinese paintings are (contrary to what western art historians like to say about Chinese paintings being abstract).

And it is interesting how everything were in shades of greys. I had the pleasure of travelling to this ancient town in central China a while ago, and the entire town was covered in thick fog in the early morning and late night. You could sit by the wooden stilt balconies by the river at night, and see the fog move past you. In the morning, if you get up early enough, you can catch the ethnic Miao ladies in their traditional wear and baskets around the backcrossing the bridge. One of my most memorable and recouperative experiences.

I did not know anything about the Dahlia flower until this shoot, because it’s non-native to China. But I fell in love with the dinnerplate Dahlia that can grow to as big as one’s face! I wonder if the Tang dynasty women would fall in love with Dahlia as much as they love the Peony!

But I would imagine the imperial court getting ready for the largest lantern/light festival of the year in the day by hanging lanterns. and there would be long walkways built with fancy lanterns and large lantern displays in other more open spaces.

That’s day time at the imperial garden of Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Maybe. 😛

When night fell, I slipped into a Ming dynasty style (1368-1644) for the three reasons below:

1. The Forbidden City, although mostly associated with the Qing dynasty, was actually built in the Ming dynasty and continued to be constructed and resided by the Manchurian rulers of Qing dynasty after conquering and taking over China from the Ming dynasty Han Chinese rulers.
2. Although Manchurian rulers mandated for all Han Chinese to adopt the Manchurian ways of dressing, Han women were exempted from this and women could still wear Ming dynasty dresses.
3. Throughout history, the nomadic tribes have always looked up to Han Chinese culture as a “high culture” and as a result, emperors and concubines would also occasionally “cosplay” by wearing Han Chinese dresses. There were even portraits of emperors and concubines in Han Chinese wear that survived till today. Of course, they wore mainly the late Ming dresses while I was wearing the early Ming one.

NIGHT FALLS

This is a very much fusion design of a Chinese pavilion due to its abundance of colours that filled up most of the spaces. Ancient Han Chinese literatis put a lot of emphasis on the negative spaces, because they believed that the negative space leaves a lot more to viewers’ imagination. An extremely advanced and empowering concept.

The ancient Chinese believed that the sky is round and the earth is square/flat, and so their pavilions were also built with that in mind. Most of the pavilions would have a circular top, and a squarish/angular bottom. Of course, traditional Chinese pavilions are not as decorative and fancy as Chinese aesthetics emphasises the negative space a lot. So having nothing means so much more to the ancient Chinese than having something there–leaves a lot more room for possibilities and projection of ideas from the viewers’ perspective.

The top blouse got longer and longer from Early to Late Ming dynasty, opposite from the development of Korean Hanbok which started similar to the early Ming dynasty style and its blouse got shorter and shorter over time.

If you are familiar with my work, you would realise that I RARELY have women with their hair down. This is because technically, women are supposed to comb their loose hair back after coming of age (15 yrs old) and it would be seen as inappropriate to have loose hair around. That being said, there were also other proofs that occasionally women did let down their hair in history (see what I did there? :P) and in this case, I would also like to allude to the courtesans residing in the Green Mansions (subtle subtext) who were like the geishas and were admired for their artistic and literary talents in the late Ming and early Qing period. The most famous few were the 8 beauties along the Qinhuai River (southern China around Nanjing).

The term Green Mansion was originally used to refer to the grand buildings where kings and nobles lived. Over time, it became a term used to describe the grand places of dwelling of the best courtesans before eventually being loosely used to refer to brothels. It must note that the practice of Geisha was heavily influenced by the courtesans of Tang dynasty China where women were valued for their talents and not so much their looks. Their presence was appreciated by extremely learned or influential men they were brilliant hosts of parties and gatherings. Top scholars in Tang dynasty would be parading around accompanied by the courtesans as part of their celebratory parade. Even the Song dynasty emperor had to beg for the love of the top courtesan, who unfortunately preferred someone else to him.

Of course, there’s nothing more fitting than to pair the Qinhuai lantern (which also started in Ming dynasty) with a Qinhuai courtesan! This entire lantern is handmade from many small pieces of paper folded into shape. Extremely delicate and one of the most beautiful lanterns I’ve ever laid my eyes on! My Chinese friend gifted it to me as she knows how much I love intangible cultural heritage crafts!

There are a few Chinese Valentine’s Day, and the upcoming one which on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar new year (this year it’s on 19 Feb 2019). Traditionally, women were allowed to get out of their house on this date, with lanterns and all, and by Tang dynasty China (about 7th century), people could roam the streets freely to see the majestic lantern displays at night for 3 nights in a row (Yes, there’s a state-imposed curfew otherwise).

More mid-autumn festival than mid-autumn festival. If you know what I mean.

The night comes alive with all the celebrations, performances, firecrackers, and of course, boy meets girls.

Traditional love stories of boy meets girl in ancient China usually happens during this period/on this date. However, in reality, the modern understanding of love rarely existed between married couples and were more prevalent between the courtesans and their patrons. This is an area of great interest because in recent years, Chinese courtesans have been orientalised and eroticised by bad TV shows and it does present a very different perspective of gender equality in ancient Chinese societies.

I am still gearing up for a very intimate, immersive performance which brings to life Tang dynasty courtesan lives and their parties next year (fingers crossed). But so far, the research has been nothing short of fascinating. I’ll reveal more in time to come but it definitely challenges many of our current assumptions of women and courtesans of ancient China. They were like the original geishas.

And since we’re approaching the 15th day of the 1st month of the Lunisolar Chinese calendar AKA The Lantern Festival, thought of just giving you a big moon with some nice reflections to ponder and have some fun playing a Hanfu edition of “Where’s Wally”. I’ve hidden two peonies (one orangy-red and one red) and a butterfly in the picture.

The piece below I’ve decided to call it Mirage of full bloom (镜花水月 jing hua shui yue). The Chinese title is an expression that is often used to refer to things that are beautiful yet unattainable, but its beauty remained in the deepest of our imagination. It literally translates to The flowers’ reflection in a mirror, the moon’s reflection in water.

Have fun!

All original images were taken at the Gardens by the Bay Dahlia Dreams floral showcase by Dressed Up Dreams Photo Studio (aka my good friend Sharon). We edited the images ourselves separately because we have different editing styles. So you can have a look at her edits for variety as well! 🙂