Interlude: Vepres a la Vierge en Chine (CD), XVIII-21

明清北堂天主教晚禱

After a while of hot writing on Hanfu issues, I need a break before I go on. (Whew!)
So here is something I’ve been meaning to write for a while – yes, I know that this is a very Westernized painting…of the Holy Mother and Lord Iesu (yes, gasp!) in a very Eastern context of them in the ‘garb of the Tartars’, but that’s beside the point today.

A Brief of Actual Results from Chinese Culture Renaissance Mvt.: Established Businesses

Beijing New Year’s Guqin Yaji 2005 – Hanfu Movement was on the rise.

The Hanfu Movement was not without its origins or causes. Tracing back to the 1990’s was a re-focusing of Confucian studies among Chinese scholars, followed by the de facto cause that was the debut of “Tangzhuang” in the 2001 APEC Conference and Wang Letian’s 2003 walk. Ever since 2005, there was a significant commercial move that began to support the Hanfu movement from the market perspective. After all, it is impossible to support a material culture in a market-economy society without making the Thing in question a commodity. Only then, can we have basis for proving the ideas we support by showing material evidence.

 Let’s take a look at what businesses or attempts have been made over the past 3 years.

Difficulties of Hanfu Promotion & the Overseas Advantage

Promotion during Shanghai's Yokoso! Japan Fair

From 戊子年上海旅游节汉服展示活动报导（2008/9月21日）in Hanminzu.com:

 

“9月21日，上海旅游节活动的第二天，我们移师主会场–位于静安寺的久光百货，展示我们的汉文化。  

在汉网上海团队之前，先有美少女战士与清 妖的COSPLAY表演（清 妖穿得非常恶心），随后，高雅庄重的”故宫”响起，大家身着各式汉服，缓缓上台，开始介绍汉服汉礼。主持人首先声明我们的团队不是COS，向观众说明了汉服才是中国人的传统服饰，而不是旗装马褂。接着讲起了汉服的起源，并且说到汉服对于日韩等周边国家服饰的影响，当主持人在台上讲到剃发易服，并且谴责这种暴行是反人类反文明的时候，横生变故，已经下台的清 妖一阵骚动，活动主办方突然拉过主持人，要求我们暂停活动。 大汉之风、秋波王等人赶过来与活动负责人交涉，一男子（负责人）声称刚才的宣讲内容牵扯到政治，并称刚接到公安要求叫停的电话。

对话内容如下：
某男子：你们这个活动不能继续了
大汉之风：为甚么？
某男子：你们的活动牵扯到政治了？
大汉之风：这怎么能算政治？这是历史常识。
某男子：这还不算政治阿，我们接到公安的电话了，你们不能继续了。
大汉之风：那我们昨天在淮海公园也是这么说的，也没问题啊。
秋波王：接下来就是汉服形制介绍和汉乐了。
某男子：就这样吧，对不起，不能继续了。

很遗憾，第二天的活动就这样被强行终止了，但我们并没有就此离开，而是依旧在台下，大大方方地向游客路人（其中有很多老外）宣传汉服、汉礼，以及我们的正史，也得到了许多善意的理解与支持！

附签到人员名单

酾酒临江、冰凉梦幻、炎汉苗裔、仕风、月之银狐、临水照花人、扬眉天下、真水优香、杨家四郎、朱雀太子、饶交州、秋波王、周鱼、桃之、泺兮、浮云微醉、步虚仙子（携同学）、冰海桑田、念奴娇、河马皇帝、默默白、大汉之风””

Translation:
“On September 21, the second day of events at Shanghai Travel Festival, we moved to the main venue: Jiuguang Department Store at Jing’an Temple, to give a presentation on Han culture.

In front of the Hanminzu.com Shanghai team, were a Sailor Moon and Qing-devil [sic] cosplay performance (the Qing-devils [sic] were utterly disgusting), and after that,
the elegant sounds of the song Gugong (Former Palace) flare up, and we ascend to the stage, wearing various styles of Hanfu. We began to introduce various styles of Hanfu and Han ritual,
and our host first gave a statement that the team is not cosplaying, but to explain to the audience that Hanfu is the true traditional clothing style of the Chinese people, and not Qipao (Robes of the Banner people) and Magua. Following was explanation of the origins of Hanfu, and gave mention on Hanfu’s influence to peripheral countries such as Japan and Korea. When the host explained the Queue Order, and denounced such an act as an anti-civil barbarism, an unexpected change occurred, and the Qing-devils [sic] downstage were causing a ruckus, and the venue host pulled our host over, requesting that we terminate our program immediately.
Dahanzhifeng (netname), Qiubowang (netname) and others rushed over to negotiate with the liason, who claimed that the speech just then involved sensitive political themes, and has received a telephone call from the Gong’an (Police) to pull the stops.

The conversation was as follows:
Man: Your events cannot continue.
Dahanzhifeng (DH): Why not?
Man: Your event has gotten political?
DH: How can this be political? This is common historical fact!
Man: How can this not be political, we’ve already received a call from the Police, you guys can’t go on.
DH: We said the same thing at the event in Huaihai Park yesterday, and we didn’t get any problems.
Qiubowang: And next, we will be introducing Han-style clothes’ standard forms and Han Chinese music.
Man: That’s all. Sorry, you cannot continue.

Regretfully, the events for the second day were forcefully terminated, but we did not just leave then, but continued to promote to passersby downstage on Hanfu and Han mannerisms, as well as our history, to which we have much concensus and support!

Members Present: (Translation skipped)

(Press Read more to read reflections by the event host, and comments by blog writer)

Rethinking the Hanfu Movement, Sept.08

Fu Lujiang's Proposal for Beijing Olympic Standards

In response to HanfuTor’s email thread “Koreans are attempting to steal Hanfu”.

Thinking back to Fu Lujiang’s proposal for Hanfu as official uniform of the XXIX Olympiad and the resulting Hundred Scholars’ petition, it was in reflection a reactive, unplanned move. Within two months the project was dismissed by the authorities. The actual result was a mix of god-knows-what, primarily from the opinion of the COC and corporate sponsors. While public opinion is always met upon “open ears” (much similar for any UNESCO applications and so forth), the actual results are still slim. Remember that Sun Jiazheng of the Chinese Cultural Department noted explicitly “to let things play out naturally” in response to this proposal just weeks after it being made, and by the next month it was rejected in favor of letting Heng Yuanxiang Corp.’s so-called Tangzhuang take its place. Worst of all, unlike the APEC conference in 2001, nobody will be wearing the ‘new fashions’ of the Olympic games as a new trend or fad or whatever it is, simply because they defy any rational taste for the real world.

News of Korean government and advocacy associations about them claiming important festivities and cultural icons – it is not the first day they have started doing so, nor is it the first time (by now) the Chinese have reacted negatively regarding their inventions ‘taken away’ in propriety. While the Chinese netizens’ response are often directed at false news, the fact that the Korean authorities are attempting to get UNESCO to recognize their traditional clothes and herbal medicine is very real, and the proposal details cultures that leans more toward the Chinese standard than ever (by referring to actual Chinese texts, and even media from our Hanfu Movement research), a factor of Korean culture we can see backed up by today’s mass entertainment.

The movable-type press as invented by Koreans (prior to Gutenburg) is already in most school textbooks; Duanwu/Tano’o (端午) is still somewhat ambiguous (the Koreans claim that although SIMILAR in name, the nature is different), while herbal lore, writing system, and traditional clothing are the current hot topics and up for grabs. The prize – propriety of the heritage in world history, and means of promoting cultural greatness in the clash of civilizations: a ‘copyright’ to a weapon in the war of culture. What more credit needs to be taken away before the Han Chinese get re-recognized?

Procrastination and Dapu’ing

Dapu means cramping oneself in a corner, huddled on paperwork.

Since late spring 2008, I have undertaken the challenge offered by a friend on the Facebook Guqin group to do Dapu work on a piece that is long, challenging, and practically NEVER heard of before. Due to procrastination with my own novels, writing projects, and computer games, I have still not completed it as of the end of September.

 

Similar to my novel writing, my moments of uber-productiveness usually happens in cafes, in class, or in transit. If it weren’t for my frequent travels from Richmond Hill to Downtown during the summer, I wouldn’t even have finished half of the work.

 

Before I go on, let’s give an overview of what Dapu’ing involves. You have a score from a historical source, which has only a bunch of fingerings. Your mission (should one accept it) is to make sense of it by playing it out, and then memorize/record the tempo and rhythm, as well any corrections to the score if necessary.

 

 As it is intensively boring work, this post will cover and update as I go along.

 

UTCCAS 2008-09 First Meeting!

On this Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, we meet at UC Quad!

 UTCCAS will be having its first meeting this Sunday, from 4 to 6PM! Come to listen some guqin music, get to learn more about each other with icebreaker games, and introduction to our cause for Hanfu restoration! We will also be discussing and organizing signups for the Hanfu order and/or workshops on this meeting, so be sure to come!

We will be walking to Chinatown for group dinner afterwards.

Please don’t forget the $5 membership fee!

A snippet about Qipao – from 香港三部曲

血色岛屿

二三十年代，十里洋场的上海是全中国的时装中心，名媛、女明星、交际花的穿着打扮领导、制造时装的潮流。我在泛黄的上海报刊读到这么一首歌谣。
　　
　　人人都学上海样，学来学去难学样，等到学了三分像，上海早已翻花样。

　　可见上海的时装晨行夕变，花样变换无穷。旗袍也是上海女人别出心裁，拿了从前满清旗装加以改造，流行到香港，黎美秀很难不受潮流影响。至于黄得云拒绝穿旗袍，则有她历史的因素，而且情有可原。
　　当她是摆花街南唐馆艳淫中钗、珠锵玉摇的青楼红妓时，黄得云旗装打份，捏着绣花手绢，高跟旗鞋，摇摇摆摆，以满清公主的扮相现身吸引恩客。从良后，她脱下旗装，一直是上身衫袄，下面一条长裙或裤子。爱美的她，当然也不是没有随着时兴从阔身宽裙到腰身衣袖收窄，领子时高时低，裙脚时短时长，花样层出不穷，而是衫祆绣花、镶滚、钉珠片，甚至后来缀上五彩宝石，随着流行，无奇不有。

From this, one can see clearly that some even in the earlier times (late Qing, early ROC) were clear that the Qipao was Manchu and refused to wear it, as some sort of last defense against (whatever was left of) the Chinese culture.

UofT Clubs Day ’08: Review

 

UTCCAS Booth @ Clubs Day, 2008.

The Clubs Day exhibition for UofT St. George Campus is now officially over. As we finish up Frosh week, we also begin school activities and studies. Before we get on with information about our next gathering, let’s go back and take a look at what happened on Friday.