Did Chinese Muslim women ever wear Weimao?
Hi! Thanks for the question, and sorry for taking ages to reply! (depictions of weimao/mili in Chinese paintings & figurines via):
As far as I'm aware, there's no historical record of Chinese Muslim women wearing weimao/帷帽. It's definitely possible that some Chinese Muslim women wore weimao for purposes of sun/wind/dust protection and modesty in public, just as their non-Muslim counterparts did, but there's no evidence that they ever wore it for religious purposes, if that's what you're asking.
The weimao originated from the mili/幂蓠, and was borne out of practical needs to protect the wearer from the elements and to fit in with social customs. It hid women from the outside world and protected their modesty. For men, who also wore weimao-like hats, social rules dictated that when meeting someone face-to-face, one had to greet them or avoid them according to rules; covering the face avoided many formalities and made things easier. Below - paintings of men wearing weimao-like large hats with skirt-like brims (x):
While changes in society and fashion rendered the weimao obsolete, its practical functions ensured its survival, in a way, in the form of the Hakka liangmao/涼帽 (lit. 'cool hat'), which is believed to have evolved from the weimao. Liangmao is traditionally worn by Hakka women while performing manual work, such as farming and fishing, in order to protect themselves from the sun and insects. Below - Hakka women wearing liangmao (1/2):
As for Chinese Muslim women, historically they would have followed the fashions of their time period, class, and ethnic background. They may or may not have veiled for religious purposes, depending on the sartorial customs of the time. If they did veil for religious purposes, whether or not they used a weimao/mili would have depended on their socioeconomic background. The main wearers of weimao were Han Chinese noblewomen of Buddhist or Daoist belief.
For some ideas on what Chinese Muslim women used as veils historically, below are photos of Hui Muslim women in 1950s China (it's been extremely difficult to find reliable photos/depictions of Chinese Muslim women wearing veil-like garments from earlier time periods). Note how their head garments resemble the traditional fengmao/风帽 (wind hat) more than anything else (1/2/3):
It is, in fact, very similar to the fengmao worn by Chinese Buddhist nuns, as seen below (x). It seems likely that the fengmao was the de facto head garment for Chinese women's religious veiling, regardless of religion, at least up until the modern era:
For more references, please see Wikipedia's articles on weimao and mili, as well as my weimao, mili, and fengmao tags.
Hope this helps! ^^
