my hanfu favorites

Shoot Background & Influences

BTS shot by Christabel Choi

The captions from the prev posts went over the general gist of the shoot background already—the idea was to do a shoot in the California, where both my sister and I grew up, reimagining the Eurasian Steppes in the golden hills. "Culture clash" was very much the name of the game, the more collaboration the better.

The concept for this shoot combined a number of different aesthetics. While the designs were significantly historically inspired (as is the case with pretty much all the hanfu I’ve designed) this was less of a ‘historical recreation’ type shoot and more of a fashion/editorial exploration into cultural crossing-over, especially in the context of Han Chinese diaspora, the mobility of culture, and the relationships between form and function in fashion.

Californian History & AAPI Month

Source: John Chinaman on the rail road [graphic] : Union Pacific Rail Road. UC Berkeley Library Digital Collections, Chinese in California, 1850-1925. Source caption: Several Chinese workers on a railroad hand car in an arid landscape.

California hosts one of the largest populations of asians in the US—percentage-wise it loses to Hawaii (18% vs 52%), but in sheer numbers, there are approximately 7.1 million asian people in California, more than any other state. About 1.9 million of those are identified as Chinese.

If you grew up in the US (or at least if you grew up in California like me) you’ve probably heard this story before, but the earliest big wave of Chinese immigrants to America was during the 1849 gold rush, when immigrants flocked across the pacific to chase the American dream embedded in the glittering harvest of the San Francisco gold fields. This is when a lot of older Chinese-American culture was established, by the railroad workers of the later 1800’s, and it’s part of the reason why there are so many Han people in California.

Source caption: Ging Cui, Wong Fook, and Lee Shao, three of the eight Chinese workers who put the last rail in place, on a float at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in Ogden, Utah. Photo by courtesy of Amon Carter Museum of American Art Archives, Fort Worth, TX

One of the US’s biggest accomplishments during the 19th century was the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, running from Iowa to California, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the continent of North America. The project was completed by two companies that each started on one coast and expanded towards the other side, meeting in the middle.  Central Pacific Railroad was the company starting from the west coast, and they hired swathes of Chinese immigrants in California for railroad track-laying and construction—it’s estimated that Chinese immigrants made up 80-90% of the workforce.

Src: “Chinamen going to work on the California and Oregon R.R.” Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California. Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, Stanford University.

Despite these large numbers, Chinese immigrants faced a number of discriminatory acts that, until fairly recently, were mostly ignored when looking at American history. The most famous of these was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred most Chinese laborers from entering the US for over six decades, but a lot of the hostility, resentment, and stereotypes around Chinese immigrants was built way before the law was signed. In addition the insane wage gaps and dehumanizing treatment, the railroad era was where a lot of the racist eye-pulling and yellow-skinned caricatures started, digs at Asian customs and appearances that still persist today.

Src: Donner Pass - "Double Happiness" design base marks. 1865-68. Site #2, Paul Chace Photographs Documenting Chinese Railroad Workers. Stanford University Libraries. Source caption: Slide of a "Double Happiness" bowl. Ektachrome transparency.

I grew up right next to San Francisco—this story has been told to me over and over. While I’m not a descendant of immigrants from that time—there are very few of those left, actually, due to active systematic efforts to prevent the increase of Chinese populations—it remains a critical part of Asian-American culture that shaped how society views and interacts with Asian-Americans, regardless of their origin, today.

The Golden Hills

Photo I took with my phone of the hills when scouting the photoshoot location in January. Literally the greenest I've ever seen them. Me, Yulan, and one of the photographers drove over late January to scout the place and meet the horses.

The gold fields of San Francisco no longer boast the same riches that it used to, but the hillscapes in California are still extremely distinctive natural wonders. California is very dry—we've been going through a drought for years, which is definitely not good, but it does result in distinctively yellow hills that almost seem to glow when golden hour hits. Every relatively long drive in my childhood history is inevitably framed by these golden hills, looming above the road on both sides.

In the recent years the rainfall has been increasing a little bit, which is good news for the wildlife. Some of the hills have been green for the first time, and I kid you not it was a startling sight for me on the way between college and home during breaks. It's definitely a good thing, god knows we do NOT need more wildfires, but I will still remember the dry yellow fields fondly just because of their place in my memories.

(Or if we don't get lucky the rain might dry out again and we might get that hay back anyway, but. That's a different problem.)

Western Cowboy Aesthetic

Truth to be told, I've never been a big fan of the western aesthetic (it does NOT look good on me), but for this shoot it seemed extremely relevant. Not only is California one of the protagonists of the whole Westward Expansion thing, the Gold Rush era was extremely pivotal in the development of the western aesthetic.

Src: Turner, Christopher, "The Story of Levi's Blue Jeans," 29Secrets

I'm talking, of course, about Levi Strauss's blue jeans, patented in San Francisco on May 20th, 1873 (also Jacob Davis, but his name didn't make it onto the brand so I guess nobody remembers him lmao). Strauss himself was Bavarian-American, born in Germany to a Jewish family, but moved to the States in 1853 with his family.

The patent that was filed wasn't exactly just for the jeans—denim pants had already existed, of course, but the main feature that they figured out was that they could reinforce stress points on those pants using metal rivets. That was the key discovery—that they could extend the usefulness and lifetime of these pants during hard labor with this innovation.

Src: The Dodge City Peace Commission in 1883, some wearing a Boss of the Plains, Wikimedia Commons, June 1883

Another example is the cowboy hat—while not specific to California, John Stetson's invention of the hat was rooted in function, because he had experienced being a miner in Colorado prior to his hatmaking business taking off. His design worked because he had personal experience working in those conditions, and because he was able to incorporate multicultural influences: for example, his first Boss of the Plains design was an adaptation of the Mexican sombrero jarano.

The hat was functional: it was wide-brimmed and waterproof, protecting you from the sun and rain. Since it was waterproof, it could be used to scoop up water while outdoors, and it was light enough not to be a burden. The most high-quality hats were made of beaver felt from beavers (this unfortunately devastated their population until people realized that they were going to end up with No Beavers, and eventually were able to get their population back up to least concern by present day). Eventually it developed into the Ultimate Western Men's Fashion Statement.

Src: Land in a new territory is auctioned off in this tent. California. 1904. Rare historical photos.

I want to emphasize that this innovation was made on behalf of hard laborers. It was revolutionary and ended up being such an essential part of America's fashion legacy, but its beginnings were in functional workwear, specifically the kind worn by people who did hard day labor: ranchers, miners, railroad workers, etc, people who went out in the sun and built this state's infrastructure, many of whom died for it.

In terms of ranchers and cowboys, though, we come upon an interesting parallel between eastern & western fashion and function. Symbols like cowboy hats and blue jeans are internationally recognizable as fashion statements now, even though their initial usage was functional. This "function defines fashion" concept is one of the key things I wanted to play with here.

Xianbei People and Horsemanship in Northern Wei

Src: Northern Wei map. Wikimedia Commons. December 2022.

If you've been in the hanfu community for a bit you may have heard of the lump period referred to as the "Wei-Jin-Southern-Northern Dynasty Period," which is referred to as a group because of how short the individual ruling eras were (stuff changed around a lot, and a lot of them also coexisted, so it gets confusing).

One of the more well-known and relatively more long-lasting dynasties in this period is Northern Wei, which lasted from 386 to 535 BCE. It ruled over Northern China at the beginning of what we called the Northern & Southern Dynasties, but more notably, it was ruled over by the Tuoba/Tabgatch clan of the Xianbei nomads, who were Proto-Mongols that dominated the Mongolian Plateau at this time. They unified into the Xianbei Confederation ~second century BCE, often involved in conflicts with the Han and Xiongnu people.

Src: Seattle Asian Art Museum. Figuras de terracota china. Extranjeros a caballo. Dinastía Tang. Wikimedia Commons.

After the Tuoba clan took over as Northern Wei, they gradually became more and more sinicized (on purpose, it seems) as they introduced intermarriages with Han people with the royal family, used Chinese surnames, and adopted a more sedentary lifestyle. By the end of the Tang Dynasty most people had lost track of the distinction, with Xianbei people either assimilating into the Han population or splitting off into the later Proto-Mongols like the Rouran Khaganate etc. etc.

As a nomadic group, the Xianbei people were primarily herders and relied on animal husbandry, also moving around on horseback. One of their greatest inventions that allowed them to triumph over the other groups at the time was the invention of the stirrup, which allowed for greater maneuverability on horseback and during warfare. While they're not as well-known for it as the Mongolians, horses pop up everywhere in their art, possibly (im not sure i didnt check) more than any other animal.

Src: Zhang, Fan, Xianbei Zoomorphic Plaques: Art, Migration, and Human-Environment Entanglement, Arts 2022. Source caption: Plaque of a crouching horse, gold, excavated from Liujiazi, Horqin Left Middle Banner Banner, Inner Mongolia.

Their clothing also seems to be extremely suited to horseback riding—the narrow sleeves, higher collars, and head coverings all helped protect against the harsh winds and intense sunlight of the Mongolian plateau. The high, round collar also allowed for a greater area of overlap than the traditional Han cross collar, making it harder for the robe to be blown open by wind or movement. Fit-and-flare silhouettes gave the lower body room to move while the upper body was more fitted, freed from the obstruction of extra fabric.

Src: Paintings on west wall of Xu Xianxiu's Tomb of Northern Qi Dynasty. Wikimedia Commons. Note: Northern Qi succeeded Northern Wei and had a more mixed Xianbei-Han culture thing going on.

Xianbei and other Hu fashion seemed to have entered Han consciousness en masse following this period—while sinicization ultimately pretty much buried the Tuoba clan, cultural exchange was still a two-way street. Pants as outerwear, more fitted silhouettes, and other trends eventually made way for the vibrant mixing pot that was the Tang Dynasty, incorporating elements from all over and transforming them into new innovations.

Shoot Reflection Shenanigans

Shot from Sylvia that didn't make the cut because Hong's elbow was in the way

(Mostly a record made for myself to remember all the things that went wrong with this, because I want to remember everything that happened, not just the good parts)

Logistics/Coordination Problems:

Group chat planning shenanigans w/ @ktw-shu

Shoot was pushed back like 6 times because of the weather, because California decided to rain ONLY on the days we planned for the shoot (I shit you not, not the day before not the day after, ONLY on the days we planned for the shoot). It went April 12th -> April 21st -> April 22nd -> April 23rd -> April 22nd again -> April 27th -> April 28th, twice because of weather and once because of horse scheduling, and then three more times after we had to cut the third model. This was the bane of my existence for the entire month of April.

The final date we landed on, April 28th, was on the same day as my final presentation—it was originally not up as an option, but because of all the scheduling issues we made it work by handing off most of the props/materials to Yulan ahead of time, having me go straight from the final presentation to the BART station and hightailing it down to Fremont (we had a hotel room there for prep) as fast as possible. The prep timing was tight, and we ended up being about an hour late to the shoot, but all things considered it could've been worse. I was tired as hell by the end of the day though.

BTS shots of Hong and Sylvia, our two talented photographers

Between weapons masters, photographers, models, and horse people I cannot express just how much work it was to coordinate a total of eleven people, plus one that handed off weapons beforehand, many of which were showing up at different times. This was mostly done by my sister, props to her for handling most of the logistics; it was an absolute nightmare, but in the end I'm glad we managed to get everyone together.

Braiding Shenanigans:

My first batch of ultra braids for Esther (which I braided myself) were too short, so I had to re-order them from tb because I didn't have a way to connect hair fibers smoothly by myself (more on that in the styling post)

The braids were lowkey kind of a safety hazard, we did so much cardio running around to reposition them. The main worry was that the horses would step on them, so we made sure to follow the rule that the horses were not to move unless we had at least one person on each braid holding them off of the ground and away from their hooves.

Horsey & Location Shenanigans:

Ruby & Paulo from scouting the shoot in January

Originally we were going to use horses Ruby (black) and Paulo (palomino) from Giddyup Productions; however, due to the scheduling issues, Paulo was not at the ranch on the day of the shoot, because he was being held at a training facility that day. Instead they were able to borrow Lou (also black), Ruby's son, from someone else at the ranch, on the condition that we didn't ride him, only posed with him. The contrast between Paulo and Ruby's coloring would've been great, but it was also kind of nice that we ended up with a mother-son pair.

Ruby & Lou with Lexi (horse handler) on the day of the shoot

The hills behind Arriba Vista where we shot were STEEP. The horses had no problem of course but we were lowkey wheezing climbing up there. I'm glad we ended up rescheduling to a day when there was zero rain rather than trying to shoot through the rain (which was a possibility at the time), I think we all would've slipped and cracked our skulls open if it was still muddy up there.

The yuri shots don't show me thirdwheeling in the back holding up the braids LMAO

Sky was beautiful, sun sank real fast though. We were fighting against time the whole time; there were a few shots I wanted to get but had to cut out because there wouldn't be enough time. By the time we ended it was fully dark and our fingers were so cold that we couldn't type on our phones until we sat in the car for a while warming up.

Hong's camera ran out of memory mid-yuri shots so the last ones were all by Sylvia

I cannot emphasize enough how many cow pies there were on that hill, I stepped in at least 3 and I think so did everyone else

Yuri shots were actually completely unplanned, but boy am I glad they happened

Post-Shoot:

Post-shoot we went to Haidilao Fremont, it was awesome and we ate lots of hot pot (it was so cold)

We thought we lost one of Christabel's thumb rings but it turned out that it was on her hand the whole time

Coming back down the hill after the shoot was over (Sylvia turned around and shot this super cute bts shot at the last second)