Young people dressed in hanfu use their mobile devices at an event marking the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, at a park in Beijing. Photo: Reuters Young people dressed in hanfu use their mobile devices at an event marking the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, at a park in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
Young people dressed in hanfu use their mobile devices at an event marking the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, at a park in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
Wee Kek Koon
Opinion

Opinion

Reflections by Wee Kek Koon

Qipao out, hanfu in? Advocates for traditional Chinese clothing have some problems to resolve

  • People in China who want the traditional dress of its ethnic Han majority to be as widely accepted as the kimono in Japan and ao dai in Vietnam have a problem
  • Hanfu changed over the centuries – do they take styles from one era or mix and match them to create a “traditional costume”? Besides, hanfu is not easy to wear

Wee Kek Koon
Wee Kek Koon

Updated: 11:44am, 26 Aug, 2021

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Young people dressed in hanfu use their mobile devices at an event marking the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, at a park in Beijing. Photo: Reuters Young people dressed in hanfu use their mobile devices at an event marking the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, at a park in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
Young people dressed in hanfu use their mobile devices at an event marking the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, at a park in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
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Wee Kek Koon

Wee Kek Koon

Having lived his whole life in the modern cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, Wee Kek Koon has an inexplicable fascination with the past. He is constantly amazed by how much he can mine from China's history for his weekly column in Post Magazine, which he has written since 2005.