Hanfu Movement (), also known as the Hanfu Revival Movement (), is a cultural movement seeking to revitalize Han Chinese fashion that developed in China since 2003.
It is a social movement which aims at popularizing hanfu and integrating traditional Chinese elements into the design of modern clothing, as a way to promote traditional Chinese culture. Participants and supporters of the Hanfu Movement call themselves tongpao (); a term, which comes from the :
The term tongpao is literally translated as "wearing the same style of robe" and is also a pun of tongbao () meaning "fellow compatriots".
Historical background
When the Manchus established the Qing dynasty, there were three Manchu cultural impositions which were placed upon the Han people: the queue hairstyle which was universally implemented and strictly implemented, the wearing of Manchu-style clothing in official dress, and learning of Manchu language; the implementation of the latter two was more limited in both scope and effects.
The Tifayifu policy
Upon establishing the Qing dynasty, the Manchu authorities also issued a decree known as Tifayifu (剃髮易服, ), forcing all its male citizens to adopt Manchu hairstyle by shaving their hair on the front of the head and braiding the hair on the back of the head into pigtails known as queue (辮子), as well as to adopt Manchu clothing such as changshan (長衫). Those who violate the Tifayifu policy were heavy punished, even with death sentences. Consequently, this policy caused significant discontentment among other ethnicity, including the Han Chinese, and led to various uprisings across the country. However, those resistances were violently suppressed. Qing Manchu prince Dorgon initially canceled the order for all men in Ming territories south of the Great wall (post 1644 additions to the Qing) to shave. It was a Han official from Shandong, Sun Zhixie and Li Ruolin who voluntarily shaved their foreheads and demanded Qing Prince Dorgon impose the queue hairstyle on the entire population which led to the queue order. The Qing imposed the shaved head hairstyle on men of all ethnicities under its rule even before 1644 like upon the Nanai people in the 1630s who had to shave their foreheads. The men of certain ethnicities who came under Qing rule later like Salar people and Uyghur people already shaved all their heads bald so the shaving order was redundant. However, the shaving policy was not enforced in the Tusi autonomous chiefdoms in Southwestern China where many minorities lived. There was one Han Chinese Tusi, the Chiefdom of Kokang populated by Han Kokang people.
Certain groups of people were exempted from the Tifayifu, including women, children, and clergies. Throughout the Qing dynasty, Han Chinese women continued to wear the styles of clothing from the Ming dynasty. Also, neither Taoist priests nor Buddhist monks were required to wear the queue by the Qing; they continued to wear their traditional hairstyles: completely shaved heads for Buddhist monks, and long hair in the traditional Chinese topknot for Taoist priests. Taoist priests continued to wear Taoist traditional dress (a style of hanfu called "daopao") and did not adopt Qing Manchu dress. After the Qing was toppled in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Taoist dress and topknot was adopted by the ordinary gentry and "Society for Restoring Ancient Ways" (復古會) on the Sichuan and Hubei border where the White Lotus and Gelaohui operated.
The Tifayifu policy was encountered with strong objection from the Han Chinese, whose hairstyle remained mostly unchanged for over thousands of years, and has become part of the Han Chinese culture. As a result, the Qing government implemented the Tifayifu policy on Han Chinese people with increased pressure, resulting in many conflicts and massacres. It was not until early 20th century when the democratic revolutionaries began to view the queue as backward and advocated for adopting short hairstyles for men.