#miansha

Hi! Glad you like my content, and thanks for the question!

The motivations for the hanfu revival movement are addressed in the following posts: 1, 2, 3, so please check them out if you haven’t already. Basically, my opinion is that the main motivations are: culture, history, sense of heritage & identity, and aesthetics. Also, there’s a recent report on the state of the hanfu industry as of Q1 2020 here, which has a section on the reasons why people buy hanfu: 

According to this report, the reasons people gave are:

1) Liking hanfu culture - 40.5%, 2) Hanfu looks good - 36.9%, 3) To promote traditional Chinese culture - 33.6%, 4) To express individuality - 33.3%, 5) Needed for special occasions - 31%, 6) To follow trends - 20.2%, 7) Because of influence from others - 16.7%, 8) To gift to others - 8.3%, 9) Other - 2.4%.

In addition, the report has a section on how Chinese netizens get in contact with hanfu culture, which I think also gives insight into motivations:

These channels of contact/exposure include:

1) Guzhuang (ancient costume) dramas - 61.7%, 2) Online social media - 50.5%, 3) Hanfu promotion events - 30.6%, 4) News reports - 30.1%, 5) Interest clubs - 27.7%, 6) Relatives and friends - 18.9%, 7) Other - 1.9%.

As a result of this growing interest and recognition, the number of hanfu lovers has been growing at a swift rate. As the chart below shows, the amount of hanfu enthusiasts in China in 2019 was 3.56 million, with a year-on-year growth of 74.4%:

The growing number of hanfu lovers, along with “high consumption capacity and high user stickiness”, has in turn led to the rapid development of the hanfu market. In 2018, the hanfu sector’s revenue reached 1.08 billion yuan, and I mentioned in this post that sales were expected to rise significantly in 2019. Well, that prediction was accurate - the market sales volume in 2019 was 4.52 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 318.5%:

Overall, the hanfu revival movement is powered by many motivations, the primary ones relating to culture and aesthetics. Its momentum in recent years is fueled by the proliferation of ancient costume dramas and social media. It’s also an outlet for self-expression - hanfu is rooted in thousands of years of history and culture, while simultaneously having infinite capacity for reinvention and creativity. This last part is what I think makes hanfu so appealing to younger people. 

Hope this was informative!

Sure! There is some cultural significance, and someone with actual historical knowledge can correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I know it:

In a culture where respect and honor reign supreme, even something like looking upon one's face or meeting one's eyes can be considered a huge disrespect. As such, you might see in historical dramas that higher powers either wear a veil or talk to guests while divided by a partition.

Throughout Chinese history, the mili/weimao (veil hats) were worn by noble/highborn women to both protect their skin from the sun/mosquitos/dust, as well as to retain their anonymity while they were out in public. This also bled into Japanese culture in the form of the uchikatsugi, which holds a similar meaning and connotation.

Hi - thanks for the question, and I’m glad you love my blog!

The veils worn over the lower part of the face that you see in Hanfu photoshoots and Chinese dramas are called Miansha/面纱 (veil). As far as I’m aware, they are a modern artistic liberty and were not actually worn as accessories by the ancient Chinese. Nevertheless, they frequently appear in Chinese dramas, and have currently become a fashionable accessory among Hanfu wearers. 

So how did this come to be? It’s important to keep in mind that China actually has a history and tradition of veiling the entire face, with examples being the veiled hats called Mili/幂蓠 and Weimao/帷帽 (see here and here for more information) and the red wedding veil called Gaitou/盖头. Chinese drama costume designers no doubt drew on this tradition to come up with the lower-face veil that we see now, which is meant to emphasize the mysteriousness and beauty of those who wear it. Below - Miansha in Chinese dramas, often paired with Weimao (rows 1 & 2):

In a case of art imitating life and life imitating art, Hanfu wearers have drawn inspiration from the aesthetics of such dramas, and subsequently incorporated Miansha into the Hanfu wardrobe as a fashionable accessory. Nowadays you can find Miansha in various colors and designs on Taobao: 

The latest face veil trend among Hanfu wearers is the Mianlian/面帘 (curtain). Mianlian involves a veil that’s made of tassels instead of a piece of fabric:

Nowadays you can find various types of Mianlian on the market, from the simple to the glamorous and blinged-out:

Mianlian can be worn in several different ways - on the lower face, on top of the head to cover the entire face, and on the back of the head as a hair ornament:

In summary, while Miansha and Mianlian are not strictly historically accurate, their current popularity exemplifies a creative reinvention of tradition that I find commendable. Plus, they really do look very pretty! Below - Hanfu street style (Miansha on left, Mianlian on right):

Hope this helps!