Two pieces of food for thought:

  • https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3198984/china-chic-trend-builds-young-peoples-patriotism-cultural-confidence (Chinese people starting to dress in the Han fashion again)

  • https://web.archive.org/web/20210210074724/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/world/asia/new-zealand-rawiri-waititi-tie.html (Māori politician kicked out of parliament for not wearing a necktie, turns into a whole dispute, eventually wins)


Now if you look at Chinese parliament, well I don't have to tell you what you'll see.

What would it take for Chinese politicians to start appearing in Han dress?

(not advocating for this, just a stray thought I had)

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Always worth noting how bland and basic American styles of apparel tend to be. Any effort to add color or pattern or panache to an outfit gets razzed out of style by the same people who freak out over a woman with pink hair. Chinese styles of dress are so wildly anathema to the western puritanical look that they can only really gain traction in a country absent that toxic misogynist social setting.

    I imagine we'd start seeing politicians adopt the style in areas where western business interests have the least impact and spreading outward from there. Not really expecting it in Hong Kong or Shanghai any time soon. But I guess we'll see.

    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
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      edit-2
      2 years ago

      The Chinese call American/western style 土, roughly pronounced tŭ I haven't been keeping up enough with c/Lang to know the full context. But it roughly means dirt. So it'd mean some like "dust level drip"

      • Gimbrone [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        "Tu" means earth. Western dress is 西装, "western costume". It used to be quite fashionable in the post-Qing era. It showed you weren't a slave to tradition like so many others, and were forward-looking and progressive.

        • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          My ability to follow chinese memes is a little slow bit it had been the insult to describe western fashion for a while. If they changed it I hadn't seen anything on doyen