Mamianqun-Gate: When Chinese ‘Wolf Warrior’ antics hamper defense of Han dress heritage worldwide

This post was originally published on medium.com on July 30, 2022, and is republished here for archival purposes.

“Dress > Human Rights” writes the counter-protest sign held up by a Uyghur activist to the background of Chinese protesters outside the Dior brand flagship store on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Saturday July 23, 2022. @Byron_Won Twitter

In my 2017 Medium article, I expressed a concern commonly shared by the founders of the Hanfu movement — whom are now silenced from iterating it publicly on the Chinese internet — that under Xi’s regime that consolidates all forms of national and heritage pride into fervor and his ruling legitimacy, the civilian, grassroots movement to distinguish the Han ethnicity from “The Chinese Nation (zhonghua minzu)” is being hijacked by the pervasive state propaganda machine and at risk to a disasterous derailment in support, which has already happened once in 1913 with the rise and fall of Yuan Shikai as emperor.

That fear is now coming to actualization.

Since the establishment of Huafu Day by the Communist Youth League (CYL) in 2016, hanfu has since shifted from simply a topic in civil society and online into a recurring event endorsed by the CYL and local governments as cultural and heritage initiatives. So when the story began on July 15, 2022 with China’s official paper, The People’s Daily, ran the netizen discovery of the skirt in Dior’s 2022 Autumn-Winter collection as being uncannily similar to the traditional garb, it amplified the shock value of the news with the power of official authority, raising the stakes to a matter of national heritage and intellectual property rights.

As Chinese geo-politics deteriorated with Hong Kong’s protests in 2019 and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020, the actions of “little pink” Chinese patriots protest are increasingly taken for granted as voices anathema to universal values and sensibilities. Now, despite having full-well and legitimate reasons for protest that would have been otherwise faced squarely had it been any other group, China’s ‘little pink’ militant expatriate protesters’ violent and vitriolic tendencies towards the free world over their country’s recent expansionism and infringement of human rights brook no sympathy from the global community. Now, when the tables turn, the ‘wolf warriors’ become the boys (and more often the case here, girls) “crying wolf” instead.

Chinese Expert Relegates July 5 Xinjiang Incident to Three Types of Inequality

The Xinjiang Incident’s causes are due to Unequal Ethnic Policy, Unequal demographic Policy, and Unequal Economic Policy (Original in Chinese, posted July 8, 2009)

By: YI Fuxian, MD, PhD
Translated: Juni L. YEUNG, FXKQS 

A Difficult Choice Both Ways – The Rise of Hanism and what it Warns us

Original by kingsreturn. TRANSLATION COMPLETE, Chinese version from http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/1447939.shtml.

The rise of Hanism (Han ethnic-based nationalism) is an issue to the PRC government, and a challenge to its policies. Photo from the dinner party after the Shanghai Yokoso! Japan fair in Shanghai, where Hanfu promoters are anguished from being censored and stopped.

Subtitled: The spring of conflict, the autumn of numerous events

Forward:

When a story just begins, we probably do not notice its existance, until we reminece it afterwards, everything that has past then becomes all the more moving and amazing. Hidden outside from people’s line of sight,  the hidden tides are creating a new kind of ideology, and what we think we see are but crawling vines, but actually these vines are only but an accessory or periphery of some kind of gargantuan leviathan. Pride is in gestation, repeating in occasion. The living historical fate is still tying down this country, and some viewpoints that used to not pose a problem, began to spread among the Internet and reality. In this country of confused thought, certain events in history that are set in stone faces ‘innovative’ redefinition, with different political agendas and ethnic requests, and this trend is already established. Suppression or ignorance could not stop this kind of separation and change. Although its budding origins were noticed since the beginning, all we had done was wait and see with a mindset for enjoying another’s misfortune, or pass by in total apathy.

Keywords: Ethnic memory, cultural symbols, racial/ethnic divide, Hanism, extreme ethnic nationalism

Abstract:

This essay is based on iconic events in the cultural scene of china in the past decade, linking the ethnic policies in PRC since the Opening Reforms, with particular focus to the audience the rise and spread of Hanzu-zhuyi (trans. Hanism, Han departmentalism), as well the social realities and strenuous conflicts among various free media, and a prediction for inter-ethnic relationships in China in the future, suggesting possibilities for the event of ethnic division and creating methods for its prevention.

Rethinking the Hanfu Movement, Nov. 08 (Pt.2 Organization & Politics)

First, my apologies for the late coming of this article, in light of rushed midterms and reorganization of information from a bad case of writer’s block/laziness.

In this post, I will attempt to explain in more detail over previous comments and questions made in this blog over the organization of the Restoration Movement. Since there were questions posed in previous comments, I will answer them in Q&A format first.

I will admit that as a lutenist (guqinist, if I may) I am definitely no professional critic of national policies or commentator of world politics. However, over the entire month (4 weeks) of preparing this article and its various revisions I am hopeful that other ethnic Chinese and fellow members of our global village understand that the baseline of understanding an ethnicity is its unseparable and untarnishable heritage, cultural or genetic.

Rethinking the Hanfu Movement, Oct. ’08 (Pt.1: Temporality)

Ming-standard wedding in Beijing, Oct 4, 2008.

Continuing onto some thoughts on conflicts and infighting of some issues in the Hanfu Restoration Movement as part of the Huaxia Renaissance movement, namely onto major ongoing criticisms and unresolved concept standpoints. The purpose of the Hanfu Movement is to ‘restore the impression of Han Chinese clothing (to the Chinese) to the Han Chinese tradition, in response to correcting the mis-impression of tight-formed Qipao and button-up tunics (which we call Tangzhuang today) as representation of all Chinese tradition, which should not be perceived as dead’. It may seem redundant or blindingly obvious to those who are aware , after 3 years of dedicated promotional work. However, the government still does not give any official response to the movement, nor have they responded positively by adopting Hanfu as the representational image of the Han Chinese people, but rather reinforce the Party policy of ethnic diversity, and support ‘traditional’ movements abiding by the Qing standard. While it may sound perfectly fine, the support from the Chinese government to ensure the cultural propriety of the Han Chinese is marginal at best.

I digress.

The year prior to the Olympic Games marked the golden era of actual results in Hanfu awareness promotion. Many shops were getting a significant foothold as sustainable enterprises, and the Hundred Scholars petition made headline news. However, if one look back on the ‘history’ then, as well as today, there are many voices of disagreement within the movement that remain largely unresolved and un-unified. While it will be impossible to list them all, I will try my best to list as many as possible..

***

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?