Traditionalists: The Hanfu Movement

The Hanfu movement, some say, started around 2003 when a man named Wang Letian (pictured) wore Traditional Han Chinese clothing called Hanfu out in public. His actions (according some Chinese media outlets) started what is called the Hanfu Movement which is a group of people that wish to see Traditional Han clothing incorporated into daily life in China. Supposedly (again according to critical media voices) the movement was brought on by popular TV shows where the protagonist travels back in time to imperial China.

In China there are 56 different ethnicities. The Han Chinese comprise of about 91% of the population making them the dominate ethnic group in China.

The other 55 ethnicities have vibrant cultural traditions whose expression is seen as a good thing in China. The Han Chinese however have become a very Westernized people and this movement has been viewed (by some of the media and the government at least) very negatively.

Though some have called the movement frivolous, the Chinese government views it as dangerous.
To make TV "safer" for the people of China, the government's television censors have issued guidelines which all but ban TV dramas from featuring time travel saying they “lack positive thoughts and meaning.” and “casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation.”

The People's Republic of China, being a very repressive regime, is highly sensitive to anything that might challenge it's authority. When the Communist rebels under Mao took control of the country they set about to destroy the "four olds" in China. The four olds being Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Ideas. The Communists in China have a deep hatred for Chinese culture which they see as backward and dangerous to the Communist mentality and are suspicious of any cultural revival.

Criticisms of the movement include the movement is "awkward time travel" or those in the movement are just showing off or trying to attract attention. Critics also say that Hanfu is impractical for modern living.

One criticism against the movement which should be addressed is that those in the movement are mixing traditional and modern clothes together which is making an "awkward time travel". For example they criticize mixing Hanfu with modern shoes or backpacks etc. They also say that it looks awkward to see people wearing Hanfu using computers or going into modern buildings.

This criticism is empty however as the goal of the movement is not to "time travel" but to make Hanfu as common as western clothes and incorporate it into modern life. What they fail to see is how after the fall of the Qing empire, China broke completely with the National styles of Chinese clothing. In other words Chinese styles did not modernize, they were completely replaced with styles that are not Chinese in the slightest. Therefore those who wish to dress "Chinese" have no choice but to go back to more ancient styles of clothing as there is no modern version of Chinese dress; it is all western. Those in the Hanfu movement simply wish to be actually "Chinese" in their dress not return to living as ancients in ancient society.

There can be no doubt that to revive Chinese identity merely in the sphere of clothing would have drastic consequences on the rest of Chinese public thought that would hasten the decline of the very un-Chinese  Communists regime. It is important to note that already it has awoken the practice of many other Traditional Customs such as archery, tea ceremonies, traditional Han weddings and other rituals. This is why the "Reds" fear this movement and have taken the first step in crushing it; by banning TV from favorably portraying life when China was actually Chinese.

The war of between Revolutionaries and Counter-Revolutionaries sees battles at every element of human life. This is because The Revolutionaries seek to "change" (or destroy) the Moral Order and Natural Law that governs the universe. The way they think they can destroy Natural Law is by making Man into something Nonhuman which they do by convincing the masses to do the exact opposite of every Natural tendency of Man.

It is for this reason that something seemingly trivial like Traditional clothes must be cherished by Traditionalists and defended to the best of our ability; after all the Communist Revolutionaries in China think it very important and they should know.