It began as the elegant pastime of a historically-conscious subculture and has evolved into a trendy nationwide movement boasting millions of young consumers and led by fashion-conscious youth.

Its emergence can be credited to Singaporean-Chinese Zhang Congxing, who wrote an article about Wang LeTian, a man from Zhengzhou who was spotted dressed in a homemade shenyi (a type of attire).

[16] It can be seen as an attempt to redeem an important part of Han culture, to restore the classical norms of beauty prevailing in earlier times.

Hanfu's classical elegance and unique aesthetic, and the ease with which one can produce flattering photos for social media by wearing it, continue to drive the movement's popularity.

They also note that China, in the face of rising prosperity and modern social pressures, an increasing need to fashion a sense of national identity.

"[22] This term, which is not commonly used in ancient times, can be found in some historical records from Han, Tang, Song, Ming, Qing dynasties and the Republican era in China.

Observing that the apparel most often promoted by the movement are based on the Han-era quju and zhiju, she suggests that other styles, especially that of the Tang era, would also be candidates for revival in light of this umbrella definition.

[29][30] Consensus view and popular opinion On March 8, 2021, the magazine Vogue published an article on modern hanfu defining it as a "type of dress from any era when Han Chinese ruled".

These include a wide and loose style of cross-collar garments with the right lapel covering the left, the use of a flat cutting, and the employment of belts and lace as closures in place of buttons.

After the Qing was toppled in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Taoist dress and topknot was adopted by the ordinary gentry and "Society for Restoring Ancient Ways" (復古會) on the Sichuan and Hubei border where the White Lotus and Gelaohui operated.

[32] Traditional Han Chinese dress was also employed by the short-reigning Hongxian Emperor, former President Yuan Shikai, during his coronation ceremony in 1915.

[33] In November 2003, Wang Letian from Zhengzhou, China, wore in public a homemade shenyi (a kind of Hanfu),[1][34][21][35] thus catching the attention of Singaporean-Chinese journalist Zhang Congxing, who then decided to write an article on him which was published on the Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore newspaper.

Although the implementation of the latter two was more limited in both scope, traditional features of Han Chinese attire, found in all earlier dynasties, disappeared nearly completely from public life.

It seeks to popularize hanfu as fashionable daily wear, and to integrate traditional Han elements into the design of modern clothing.

[王于興師、脩我戈矛、與子同仇。]The term tongpao is literally translated as "wearing the same style of robe" and is also a pun of tongbao (同胞) meaning "fellow compatriots".

Ironically, it was Han officials from Shandong, Sun Zhixie and Li Ruolin who, in obsequious displays of loyalty to the new political order, had voluntarily shaved their foreheads and then demanded Qing Prince Dorgon impose the queue hairstyle on the entire population.

The Qing government implemented the Tifayifu policy on Han Chinese people with increased pressure, leading to conflicts and massacres.

However, Zheng Jing's men and Ming prince Zhu Shugui fiercely objected to the shaving and adopting Manchu clothing, thus also refused to surrender.

[55] The Manchu rulers made the Tifayifu policy increasingly strict over the early years of the Qing dynasty, requiring all male citizens to not only wear a queue, but also to shave their forehead.

The Taiping rebels forced everybody in their territory to grow out their hair, which in turn was disliked by many people who had, by then, grown accustomed to shaving their foreheads.

'Ten rules that must be obeyed and ten that need not be obeyed'), were advocated by Jin Zhijun, a minister of the Ming dynasty who had surrendered to the Qing dynasty:[58] the clothing of living men, government officials, Confucian scholars, and prostitutes had to follow the Manchu tradition;[58][57] while women, children, deceased men, slaves, Taoist and Buddhist monks, theatrical actors were allowed to maintain Hanfu and maintain their customs.

Factors inhibiting the market for authentic and high-quality hanfu include absence of consumer knowledge and the cheaper cost of inauthentic and poorly made spin-offs.

[68] He argues there is no historical basis for specific apparel under the name "hanfu"[68] and that the movement is inherently racial, built on the narrative that Qing dynasty's Manchu rulers aimed to destroy Han people and Chinese civilization, transforming it into barbarism.

Kevin Carrico argues that real historical atrocities, like the Yangzhou massacre and the queue decree, are mixed with the imaginary erasure of Han clothing in the Hanfu Movement.

He claims the movement is driven by conspiracy theories suggesting a secret Manchu plot controlling key institutions in China since the post-1978 reform era.

In 2001, netizens opposed Chinese politicians wearing tangzhuang at the APEC summit, considering it inappropriate and non-representative due to its Manchu origin when over 90% of China's citizens are ethnic Han.

[34][21]They associate the dress with the Qing dynasty, whom they hold responsible for the suppression of Han culture, and for failure to deal with Western predation during the Century of Humiliation.

Proponents cite the persistence of traditional clothing among Chinese minorities and the use of kimono in Japan, hanbok in Korea, and the sari in India as inspiration for the Hanfu Movement, and reason that the Han should have their own ethnic dress celebrated as well.

Proponents cite the persistence of traditional clothing among Chinese minorities and the use of kimono in Japan, hanbok in Korea, and the sari in India as inspiration for the Hanfu Movement, and reason that the Han should have their own ethnic dress celebrated as well.