Archaic Rules and Regulations Guiding Attires in China

 
With the establishment of different socio-economic classes came the passing of rules and regulations on the everyday mode of dressing in order to differentiate the rich from the poor. The Zhou Dynasty (1,046-256 BC) brought about national laws on clothing and individual accessories, differentiating various categories of clothing together with court gowns and dresses for a wedding ceremony. This custom was out of order during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) when strict rules on mode of dressing, cloth and accessories production were abolished, and the unrestrained privileged class holding hereditary mode of dressing was developed (Perkins, 2000). The rulers of the Han Dynasty (206-220 AD) adopted the Zhou Dynasty traditions in passing laws on clothing and accessories.

The Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties (220-589) represented a period of noticeable ideological heterogeneity, cultural success, and important scientific development, in spite of recurrent wars and shift in power. During this era, the Wei and Jin developed a distinct upper-class style. The traditional Han culture was changed by northern nomadic ethnic groups when they migrated into central China and settled down with the Han people, influencing and being influenced by the Han mode of dressing. As soon as China was reunified at some point in the Sui Empire, the traditional mode of dressing of Han people became popular again. Throughout the Tang Dynasty (618-907) that came after, a well-built national power and a more comfortable social order led to a new style in a mode of dressing. For example, women started wearing low-cut, undersized dresses, or even narrow-sleeved men’s clothing.

Twentieth-Century Clothing in China
By the 20th century, modern cloths progressively substituted materials prepared or created in long-established ways. Stylish and elaborately made ready-made clothes of western styles found their way into the Chinese world of commercial activity. Hence, large-scale machine-controlled fashion designing became more popular than long-established time-consuming techniques of hand-rolling, bordering, engraving and embroidery (Perkins, 2000). Looking back at the twentieth century’s Chinese clothing, we observe a broad range of designs of cheongsam, the Sun Yixian clothing of unique design worn by members of the Sun Yat-sen as a means of recognition, Qipao, and several other brought from the Western world all differentiating different periods in history. The Qipao, now considered as the usual Chinese dress, became fashionable only in the 1920s.

Originating as Manchurian women’s clothing, incorporating Han clothing traditions and the designs of the twentieth century’s western dresses, it has now advanced into a foremost trend item within the international fashion industry.

In 1978, China began to change their old mode of dressing and chose the free access policy. From that time, the Western mode of dressing and the culture have come into ordinary Chinese people’s way of life. As a part of the dressing code copied from the western world, a chain of trendy western clothing, resembling an incessant twist, is slowly changing the Chinese style of dressing (Perkins, 2000). From the late 1970s, in addition to requesting fashion designers to sew their dresses, the Chinese have started to buy factory-made and immediate-use clothes. The clothes manufacturing industry sprang up and quickly developed together with the free access policy. As observed by Finnane (2008), the influence of the new trends was already obvious on the streets, mainly due to the appearance of skirts and dresses. A variety of shapes and colors appeared in the Chinese dressing style. Looking at the patterns of several kinds of fashionable outfits, it is not hard to distinguish Chinese accepted and recognized dressing from the western mode of dressing.