The
Sun Yat-sen suit
Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan) (1866-1925), the
Provisional President of the new Chinese Republic proclaimed
in 1911, is credited with the modernisation of Chinese
men's dress. It is said that he instructed Huang Longsheng,
a Western-style tailor from Zhejiang Province, to design
a suit based on one commonly worn by Chinese men in
Japan and south-east Asia. The early form of Sun Yat-sen
suit (Qilingwenzhuang) had a closed stand collar
and centre-front buttons. The design of the Sun Yat-sen
suit changed significantly over the course of some 50
years.
A major and lasting change to the design of the Sun Yat-sen suit (Zhongshan fu) was the incorporation of elements of German military dress including a turndown collar and four symmetrically placed pockets. Over time small stylistic changes were made to the design. It is the later style of Sun Yat-sen suit which was further modified and adopted as China's national dress by Mao Zedong after 1949.
Nationalism
in dress
Long after Sun Yat-sen's death, popular mythology
assigned a revolutionary and patriotic significance
to the Sun Yat-sen suit, even though it was essentially
a foreign-style garment. The four pockets were
said to represent the Four Cardinal Principles
cited in the classic Book of changes and
understood by the Chinese as fundamental principles
of conduct:
The five centre-front buttons were said to represent the five powers of the constitution of the Republic and the three cuff-buttons to symbolise the Three Principles of the People
Soviet
influence on Chinese dress
During the first decade of the People's Republic
of China (1949-59) the Soviet Union exerted a
strong influence on Chinese economics, industry,
art education and culture. Russian experts were
invited into universities and colleges to teach
students. Soviet artists also taught at the influential
Central Academy of Fine Art in Peking, training
artists in Socialist realist painting techniques.
Russian language, Marxism and Leninism were compulsory subjects and Russian language skills enhanced one's social standing. Dress too, came under Soviet influence. Those women who wore the fashionable Lenin suit, a jacket and trouser ensemble made from cotton or sometimes wool, were displaying their political allegiance.
Young Pioneers were regarded as the hope of the future. The triangular red scarf was said to represent a corner of the Communist flag, dyed red from the blood of martyrs. This outfit was worn to a rally for Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square on 1 October 1961, China's National Day.
The
Mao suit: ideology expressed through dress
Mao Zedong recognised the power of dress to project
nationalism and ideology. On 1 October 1949 at the grand
ceremony in Beijing marking the founding of the People's
Republic of China, he wore a modified form of the Sun
Yat-sen suit. Mao had worn this style of suit since
1927 but it was only after 1949 that it was adopted
by the majority of the Chinese population. It is known
in the West as the Mao suit.
During the 1950s to 1970s most older men wore the modified Sun Yat-sen suit, while the young preferred a military-style suit known as zhifu. It differed from the Sun Yat-sen suit in that the upper and lower pockets were concealed with a flap and had no external button. To Western eyes both the uniform and the Sun Yat-sen suit appeared similar. Also known as military plain clothes, this all-purpose, loose-fitting outfit worn by the majority of the population became the sartorial symbol of Communist China.
The zhifu was worn by both men and women, of all ages and classes. The dominant colours were navy blue and grey. In addition to the zhifu, men and women also wore a limited range of clothing styles - mostly trouser suits differentiated by the styling of the collar and pockets.
The
Great Leap Forward
After the establishment of the People's Republic of
China in 1949, Western-style suits were a symbol of
the old society. Fabric was expensive but labour
was cheap, so many people had clothes refashioned. And
in the late 1950s after the disastrous Great Leap Forward,
which was to have increased productivity, rationing
was introduced for most materials and commodities, which
made recycling clothing imperative.
In the 1960s people were so poor they could not afford all new clothes, giving rise to the invention of the pretty face, a false shirt front attached to a jacket.
Military
dress in the People's Republic of China
A person's rank can be discerned by observing details
of their uniform. At the most fundamental level rank
was reflected in the number of pockets on the jacket.
From 1966 onwards a soldier's uniform had two upper
pockets whereas an officer's uniform had two upper and
two lower pockets.
Garments
for women
Women's clothing from the 1950s to the 1970s was functional
and limited in style. Most women dressed in sympathy
with the proletariat and wore loose-fitting trouser
suits, lacking in ornamentation. The most common colours
were dark blue, grey or khaki. There was a range of
jacket and shirt styles, primarily distinguished by
the detailing of the collar and pocket.
[画像:Patriotic wool suit]
Patriotic wool suit:
Patriotic wool, also known as rag wool, is so-called
because it is woven from leftover threads swept
from workshop floors combined with a small amount
of good wool.
This suit was made for a 30-year-old technician working in a textile factory in 1961, a time of severe economic hardship. Despite its poor quality, the fabric was popular because ration coupons were not required to purchase it. The jacket and trousers were made at different times hence the different colours of the fabric. Powerhouse Museum collection. 98/126/12.
