Tangzhuang (Chinese: 唐裝; pinyin: Tángzhuāng; lit. 50 is a kind of Chinese jacket with Manchu origins and Han influences, characterized with a mandarin collar closing at the front with frog buttons. It is an updated form of the Qing magua, itself a more fashionable adaptation of the riding jacket once worn by Manchu horsemen. Nowadays, the tangzhuang is one of the main formal clothing worn by Chinese men on various occasions; overseas Chinese also wear it as a form of fashion or to express their cultural identity. Tángzhuāng is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the clothes’ Chinese name, hanfu wedding dress written as 唐裝 in traditional characters and as 唐装 in the simplified characters now used in mainland China. In fact, “Tangzhuang” is basically the Chinese style of dress in the late Qing Dynasty. Its spelling may vary a little in other romanizations or dialects. Foreigners call “China town” as “Tang People Street”, and naturally call Chinese clothing “Tangzhuang”. The origin of the term “Tangzhuang” also has a taste of “export to domestic sales”. It is thus also sometimes translated as a Chinese jacket. Instead, most Chinese people came to accept the designers’ original name for the garment and some even expanded it to describe any form of traditional Chinese clothing. Han officials’ clothing under the Qing Empire. In southern China and among the Chinese diaspora, dialects like Cantonese refer to Han Chinese-as opposed to all Chinese nationals-as “Tang people” rather than “Han”. Following the 1911 Xinhai Revolution and 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the “Mao suit” (Zhōngshān zhuāng) gradually displaced the changshan and magua in most contexts. Over time, it evolved from a protective apron for the changshan into an item of Chinese fashion in its own right and even a mark of imperial favor. After the fall of the Gang of Four in the late 1970s and the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s Opening Up Policy in the 1980s, traditional clothing began to experience a revival in mainland China. Variants of the magua became noticeably more common in Chinese fashion from the mid-1990s. In 1993, US president Bill Clinton tried to bring trade talks back on track by inviting the heads of the APEC member economies to personally attend what had until then been a ministerial conference. He requested leaders’ clothes remain informal and presented each with a leather bomber jacket bearing the APEC logo as a memento. The next year, Indonesia followed suit and presented batik shirts; the world leaders then humored Suharto’s request that they wear them for a group photo. The jackets given to the APEC leaders were a blend of Chinese motifs and western design, made from silk supposedly artificially enhanced to be stronger, softer, more wrinkle-resistant, more water-absorbent, and better ventilated, with longer-lasting and brighter colors. Mao suits had been displaced by western-style suits; minority groups often had recognizable ethnic costumes but styles of Han clothing (hànfú) had varied from dynasty to dynasty, with the most recent Qing forms heavily influenced by the Manchus and their oppressive dress codes. They featured cotton knotwork instead of buttons and a design of peonies surrounding the letters “APEC”. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on 21 October 2001 and for the “Leaders’ Family Portrait” afterwards that closed the event. Beijing to other large towns around the country as far afield as Lanzhou in Gansu by the next Chinese New Year. Even after the end of its fad, the tangzhuang continues to have a place in Chinese fashion. The tangzhuang-and its perceived inauthenticity as ethnic clothing-is also credited by members of the hanfu movement with having inspired their cause and a revival of actual traditional Han clothing, despite the Chinese public’s usual confusion about its origin. The APEC jackets were intended to reflect “both traditional Chinese flavor and modern ideals”. China used the “Tang suit jackets” again for its 2014 APEC summit, but with an updated style in maroon, green, and blue that The Guardian unflatteringly compared to Star Trek uniforms. The original version also employed shoulder pads to give a stronger silhouette. 3D “solid-cutting” (t 立體裁剪, s 立体裁剪, lìtǐ cáijiǎn) process developed in Europe. Tangzhuang are available in a variety of colors, although the most common are red or blue. The brocade is often decorated with a repeated pattern of embroidery. Common designs involve the repetition of auspicious Chinese characters such as fú (福, “happiness”) or shòu (t 壽, s 寿, “longevity”) for good luck and good wishes. Tangzhuang are usually fastened with decorative knotwork instead of buttons. Ding, Min (2019). Rethinking Chinese cultural identity : “the Hualish” as an innovative concept. J. Saravanamuttu, Bernhard Platzdasch, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Religious diversity in Muslim-majority states in Southeast Asia : areas of toleration nad conflict. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Chew, Matthew (2007). “Contemporary Re-emergence of the Qipao: Political Nationalism, Cultural Production and Popular Consumption of a Traditional Chinese Dress”. The China Quarterly; Cambridge. Dickinson & al. (1990), p. Official site, Beijing: Sina Corporation. Dev. Report (2002), p. Butcher, Asa (18 Apr 2017), “The Tang Suit and Its Qing Dynasty Origins”, GB Times. Dickinson, Gary; et al. 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Wong, Stephen (26 Aug 2006), “Han Follow Suit in Cultural Renaissance”, Asia Times, Hong Kong: Asia Times Online. Zhao, Andrew Jianhua (2008), Fashioning Change: The Cultural Economy of Clothing in Contemporary China (PDF), Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh. Zhang Wenjie (26 Nov 2003), “China’s Silk Industry: A ‘New Silk Road’ to the International Market”, CCTV, Beijing: SAPPRFT. This page was last edited on 2 March 2024, at 05:25 (UTC). Zhao, Andrew Jianhua (2013), “Designing a National Style: The Tangzhuang Phenomenon”, The Chinese Fashion Industry: An Ethnographic Approach, London: Bloomsbury, pp. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.