Su embroidery (苏绣, Suzhou Silk Hand Embroidery Art) is the general name of embroidery products in Suzhou, the traditional folk arts. It is one of the four famous embroideries in China and was listed as one of the national intangible cultural heritages in 2006.

More than a thousand years ago, Wei Zhuang once wrote the poem "Spring Tour, apricot blossoms blowing all over the head", walking towards the apricot forest during the blossoming season, and the apricot blossoms would fall on hair bun at the wind. In ancient times, seasonal flowers in addition to floating down in the hair bun, but also may be inserted in the hair or brim, embellished as a touch of spring color in the ancient head. Putting flowers on the head is also called Zan Hua 簪花 (Flower Hairpin, or wearing flowers). In ancient times, both Sheng Hua and Xiangsheng Hua were used to Zan Hua. Sheng Hua is flower, and Xiangsheng Hua is a kind of fake flower made in imitation of a flower. All the flowers mentioned in this article are Sheng Hua. In the Han Dynasty, although the culture of wearing flowers was not really formed, but flowers had already entered people's lives in various forms. For example, on the day of the Chongyang Festival, people in the Han Dynasty, in addition to climbing mountains and drinking chrysanthemum wine, would take off dogwood flowers and wear them around their waists to avoid disasters and repel evil…

Unlike modern clothing, which is updated so frequently, the development of antique Chinese clothing was not only accompanied by the change of dynasties, but also combined with the level of fabrics of the time. However, there is no doubt that different periods in ancient China had distinctive fashion items.   01 Shenyi in Han Dynasty In 1972, when the three-month archaeological excavation ended, the archaeologists of Tomb No. 1 of the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha were still excited. During the subsequent work, they discovered a dozen pieces of well-preserved Western Han costumes, thus opening a window for later generations to peek into the aesthetics of the dress worn by ancient Chinese 2000 years ago. The relics of the tomb that the archaeologists cleaned were from the tomb of Xin Zhui, the wife of Li Cang, the prime minister of Changsha in the early Western Han Dynasty. Based on archaeological and textual records, we know that there were two main types of clothing for the ancient Chinese during the Qin and Han dynasties. Type Yichang (衣裳), in which the clothing of the upper body and the lower body were not connected; Type Shenyi (深衣) in which the upper garment and…

Ready to start deepening your hanfu wardrobe? Start looking into some of your closet staples here: hanfu underlayers!

China has a long history of tea drinking, which emerged in the Tang Dynasty and became prosperous in the Song Dynasty. It is in this context that the story of A Dream of Splendor takes place. In the drama, Liu Yifei as Zhao Pan'er, together with two girlfriends, opened a tea store in Bian Jing, the capital of the Song Dynasty. With Zhao Pan'er's excellent marketing skills, Sun San Niang's delicious pastries, Song Yin Zhang's wonderful Pipa performance, and most importantly, Pan'er's extensive experience in Dian Cha, as well as Cha Bai Xi, their tea store has achieved initial success. Dian Cha (点茶, whisking tea), as an important part of Chinese tea culture, is the main tea drinking method in the Song Dynasty, and also an important way of leisure and entertainment for the literati and ordinary people. Cha Bai Xi (茶百戏, tea painting art), also known as: Fen Cha (分茶), Shui Dan Qin (水丹青). Firstly, the finely ground tea powder is injected into the tea bowl with boiling water, while stirring with a tea whisk, the tea froth floats up and forms a suspension. Then use the teaspoon and water to draw words and patterns on the surface. Cha Bai…

Wedding dresses have become more and more sophisticated in recent years and continue to bring pleasing looks to the audience. But if we rewind the time to twenty years ago, would we be able to see such a wedding dress look in a costume drama?

This year's hottest costume drama: A Dream Of Splendor (梦华录, Meng Hua Lu), started broadcasting. Crystal Liu, Chen Xiao, Ada Liu, and Jelly Lin lead the cast. Since the airing, Meng Hua Lu's popularity has been high. Over 200,000 netizens have rated the drama 8.8 out of 10 on Douban. It is worth mentioning that among the TV dramas in the past five months of 2022, there are only four cdramas with a rating of over 8 on Douban: 8.3 for "The Record of Strange Things", 8.2 for "Beyond", 8.1 for "A Lifelong Journey " and 8.0 for "The Wind Blows From Longxi ". A Dream Of Splendor tells the story of Zhao Pan Er (Crystal Liu), a tea store owner in Qiantang, waiting for news of her fiance, Ou Yang Xu (Xu Hai Qiao), who has gone to the capital (Bian Jing) to take the imperial examination. Unexpectedly, when Ou Yang Xu was admitted to Tanhua, he betrayed Zhao Pan Er and married the daughter of a high-ranking court official. Zhao Pan Er is puzzled and sets off for the capital to ask for clarification. In the process, she befriends Gu Qian Fan (Chen Xiao), the commander of the…

The Duanwu Festival (端午节, Dragon Boat Festival) has long been transformed into a concrete and profound contemporary cultural symbol in the annual ritualistic repetition of the action. As the fifth day of the fifth lunar month approaches, various flavors of Zongzi are marketed, many traditional villages begin preparing for dragon boat races, and Chinese office workers and students await the holiday with great anticipation. Are there any other traditional Duanwu customs that have continued from ancient times? And how did the ancient people prepare for the Duanwu Festival? Let's search the Duanwu Festival in the classic paintings that have been passed down through the ages.   Eat Zongzi Whenever the Duanwu is mentioned, Qu Yuan is the most familiar to people. In order to commemorate Qu Yuan, who committed himself to the Miluo River, on every fifth day of May, people throw Zongzi into the river; at the same time, they make dragon boats to expel the augur dragon so that Qu Yuan's flesh will not be robbed. This is also the most widespread source of Zongzi and dragon boat racing. As the most ritualistic necessity of the Duanwu Festival, eating Zongzi has long been a popular habit for all Chinese. Many…

2021 can be considered a prolific year for Chinese hanfu costume related programs. In addition to the familiar Henan TV, which presents a wonderful tour series on the occasion of Chinese traditional festivals, there are also a number of hanfu programs based on Chinese hanfu, traditional dance, and traditional sports events. This article sorts out these programs for you and will continue to update the latest ones. In chronological order by program broadcast.   2022 24节气系列 · 24 Solar Terms   2022 端午奇妙游 · The Marvelous Tour of the Dragon Boat Festival Broadcast time: June 2, 2022 Type: Gala Duration: 56 minutes https://youtu.be/-qtMsHX86x8 2022 The Marvelous Tour of the Dragon Boat Festival is a Duanwu Festival program produced by Henan TV and co-produced by Youku. The program tells the multiple origins of the Dragon Boat Festival by expanding from the commemorating Qu Yuan to knowledge about astrology and solar terms.   2022 元宵奇妙游 · Lantern Festival Wonderful Tour Broadcast time: February 14, 2022 Type: Gala Duration: 52 minutes https://youtu.be/nnVdmtrbNLo "Lantern Festival Wonderful Tour" is a series of "Chinese Festivals" produced by Henan TV and co-produced by Youku. Through 3 chapters, the audience can feel the hope of "Yuan", the romance of…

  Chen Xiao (陈晓) Main costume drama works A Dream of Splendor (Gu Qian Fan) Nothing Gold Can Stay (Shen Xingyi) The Qin Empire III (Mi Yan) The Three Heroes and Five Gallants (Bai Yutang) Legend of Lu Zhen (Gao Zhan) To be announced Long Life Long Street (Main Role) The Ingenious One (Main Role)   Chen Xingxu (陈星旭) Main costume drama works Goodbye My Princess (Li Chengyin) The Legend of the Condor Heroes 2017 (Yang Kang) To be announced Love When The Stars Fall (Shao Dian You Qin) Feng Lai Qi (Main Role)   Cheng Yi (成毅) Main costume drama works The Imperial Age (Young Zhu Di) Love and Redemption (Yu Sifeng) The Promise of Chang'an (Xiao Chengxu) Stand by Me (Qi Yan) To be announced Immortal Samsara (Tang Zhou) Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Zhu Ye (Main Role) Si Hai Zhong Ming(Main Role) The Lotus Casebook (Li Lian Hua) General Order (Main Role)   Gong Jun (龚俊) Main costume drama works Word of Honor (Wen Ke Xing) The Player (Ren Yi Xia) Unique Lady (Zhong Wu Mei) To be announced Legend of Anle (Crown Prince Han Ye) Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Yue Hong (Main Role) Si Ming (Main Role)   Jeremy…

When was the traditional Chinese fan born and what did it first look like? These are no longer available in kind. According to the speculation of Mr. Shen Congwen, the traditional Chinese fan was used at least not later than after the appearance of pottery in the Neolithic period.   Pre Qin Dynasty In ancient times, human beings picked a leaf of a plant or a feather of a bird in the hot summer, and simply processed it to fan the wind and take shade from the sun, which is the prototype of the original fan. In the initial era, the fan was called "箑(shà)" or "萐(shà)", and also "翣(shà)”", and only in the later development was it unified and called "扇(shàn)". The above-mentioned different fan of the ancient name, but also reflects the material of the fan at that time are bulrush, feathers, bamboo, and so on. The oldest fan excavation artifact at present is a short-handled bamboo fan, also known as Bian Mian (便面), unearthed from an ancient tomb of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Jing'an County, Jiangxi. As the earliest image of a fan, it appears on a bronze pot unearthed in Chengdu, which belongs to the…

In recent years, hanfu has been flourishing all over China, and there are large and small hanfu events held every month. So what are the specific cities with the best hanfu atmosphere? Hanfu Zixun launched the Top Hanfu Cities of China contest to reflect the different development of hanfu around the country. With 62.01% of the votes, Chengdu, Sichuan topped the list, the only city with more than 50% of the votes, and was drastically outperformed by all the other cities. Xiuwu ranked seventh, which should have a lot to do with its success in holding the first Hanfu Expo in 2021.   NO.1 Chengdu (成都) The No. 1 hanfu city is: Chengdu. After pandas, hot pot and mahjong, Chengdu has a new calling card: the Hanfu capital. It is not only because of its nationally known "Hanfu Street", but also because it has nearly 220,000 hanfu lovers, the first in China in terms of the number of Hanfu Tongpao (同袍; Hanfu fans call each other Tongpao). Chengdu's excellent hanfu culture atmosphere cannot be separated from the local government's strong support for the promotion of hanfu culture.   NO.2 Hangzhou (杭州) Hangzhou, known as "Hang" for short, was known as…

Cdrama Heroes (Say Hero Who is Hero, 说英雄谁是英雄) launched on May 23rd, the drama stars Joseph Zeng, Yang Chao Yue, Liu Yu Ning, Baron Chen, and Meng Zi Yi. It tells the story of Wang Xiaoshi, a kind-hearted teenager who goes down to the mountains and enters the Jianghu. He meets Bai Choufei, Wen Rou, Su Mengxiu, and others by chance and builds a deep friendship. In the adventure of the capital Jianghu, they experienced the brotherhood and romance of youth, and gradually grew up from ignorant teenagers to become unique heroes. Martial arts has always been a favorite genre of film and television, a series of classic martial arts works, such as "The Return of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", have left a deep impression on the audience. However, the times have changed, and the martial arts drama of our time should be how to shoot? This is the question that every martial arts drama creator thinks about. And "Heroes" has given its answer. "Heroes" are adapted from the martial arts novelist Wen Rui'an's work of the same name, and he is one of the four great masters of the new martial arts, along…

Summer is coming soon! Here's how to pick out your hanfu for summer vacation!

The tiger hat (虎头帽, tiger head hat) is a typical child's hat style in Chinese folk costumes with the image of a tiger. Tiger hats, tiger shoes, tiger bibs, tiger dudou, etc. as an important part of Chinese children's clothing, with distinctive characteristics. The tiger is considered a kind of auspicious beast in Chinese traditional culture, and is an important object of totem worship for the Chinese nation. The tiger hat as a folk handed down to this day a kind of children's hat ornament, with the tiger as the image, hat shape, the pattern is also more tiger head model, so-called the tiger hat.   Origin and Development Origin 1: Ancient China was a traditional agrarian society that experienced a lot of hardships in claiming nature's materials, and various symbols and forms of divine power to help ward off disasters emerged. The tiger, as a positive symbolism, was recognized as a sheltering god that could block disasters, and the tiger totem has been passed down to this day in the worship of many evil suppresses. People gradually infiltrated this worship as a belief into the people's daily life, and developed unique handicraft clothing such as tiger hats. Origin 2: Chinese tiger…

In the past two years, the development of Chinese short length series has become more and more rapid, and this year, there has been a succession of "Please Don't Spoil Me", "Got Old Recently", "The Killer Is Also Romantic" and other popular series. While the influence of short length series is being developed rapidly, innovation and quality are becoming more and more important. On April 16, a Chinese short length series about ancient women's sumo wrestling, "Women Wrestling (瓦舍之素舞遥)", caught the attention of netizens in particular. The short length series industry has never been short of quality episodes, but Women Wrestling is willing to step out of its comfort zone and seek more possibilities in the industry, acting as a pioneer to find a breakthrough and actively try new topics, which makes us feel the vitality of the micro-short series industry.   New China-chic style theme "Female sumo wrestler of Song Dynasty?" Many netizens are attracted by the plot of the series on social media platforms. This has brought hot intuitive feedback to "Women Wrestling". Since the start of the broadcast, Tencent Video has broken 65 million viewers. "Women Wrestling" is the first part of The Theatre Trilogy (瓦舍三部曲). The whole…

Chinese clothing is the epitome of Chinese civilization. Traditional clothing colors are influenced by the "Theory of the Five Elements" and are divided into five colors: green, red, black, white, and yellow. The different colors revered by different dynasties reflect the characteristics of their dynasties. In this article, the most representative six dynasties of ancient China are selected: Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, and their popular colors are analyzed.   Chinese Colours in Han Dynasty Characteristics: Simple and natural Popular colors: Xuan (玄, smoky black), Chi (赤, upsdell red), White (白), Green (绿) In 206 B.C., the Han Dynasty was founded. Influenced by the Taoist art of Huanglao and Confucianism, Han Dynasty costumes pursued the essential beauty. The color of Han Dynasty clothing was mainly monochromatic, and it was a respect for the dark and light colors, which made it look dignified, simple and natural. Carried the idea of "ritual rule and Taoism", and fabric dyeing of Han Dynasty clothing followed the beliefs of the five elements of yin and yang, with dark colors representing dignity. Color Xuan in Han Dynasty clothing After the Han Dynasty destroyed the Qin Dynasty, water virtue was revered according to the doctrine…

  What are the 24 Solar Terms The 24 Solar Terms, a supplementary calendar established in ancient China, first appeared in the Han Dynasty. The current "24 Solar Terms" are based on the position of the sun on the return ecliptic, i.e. the annual movement of the sun is divided into 24 equal parts, with every 15° being one equal part, and every one equal part being a solar term, starting from the beginning of Li Chun and ending at the end of Da Han. In traditional farming culture, the twenty-four solar terms occupy an extremely important position, through which the ancients can intuitively and clearly understand the changing patterns of the seasons and climate in a year, so as to master the agricultural time and reasonably arrange farming activities. It not only played a guiding role in agricultural production, but also influenced the ancient people's clothing, food, housing and transportation, and even cultural concepts. The twenty-four solar terms are the product of long-term observation and research on astronomy and meteorology by ancient Chinese people, and they contain a long cultural connotation and historical accumulation of the Chinese nation. After thousands of years of development, the ancients gradually formed many…

The exciting spy war plot, combined with the Three Kingdoms period, what kind of exciting plot will be presented? "The Wind Blows From Longxi" takes intelligence warfare as the basic, and launches a unique game of chance. The drama tells the story of Chen Gong (陈恭, Chen Kun) and Xun Xu (荀诩, Bai Yu), two minor characters. In that era when the country was divided into three and war was raging, they played an important role in the thrilling spy war and wrote a heroic legend outside the history books.   A new image of the spy drama With tension, excitement, and life hanging in the balance, "The Wind Blows From Longxi" maintains a tight plot from the first episode. In Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, Jieting is lost. Si Wen Cao (司闻曹), the agency responsible for military intelligence in Shu state (蜀汉), discovered that during the battle, the Shu spy "Bai Di (白帝=Chen Gong)", who was lurking in the Wei state (曹魏), sent a secret report of the Wei army's battle plan, but it was a false intelligence, which misled the Shu army's decision and directly led to the defeat of the Northern Expedition. Subsequently, the You Xiao (游枭)…

It’s prom season! Now, I know that the age group for prom is pretty small, but I’m going to prom in an outfit of my own this year (I’ll be uploading an outfit analysis of it once I’m done arranging everything in a separate article) and I thought I’d compile a few ideas for anyone else to follow in my steps. This doesn’t only include prom, of course—homecoming, other formal or semiformal occasions (if it’s black tie or has a really strict dress code play  it safe and don’t do something too extravagant), etc. are also great places to show off your hanfu. Matching Ming Dynasty Sets One popular tradition for prom is to match your prom date’s outfit when you go to prom. There’s lots of ways to do this—for western clothing, many people match ties to their date’s dress or vice versa, and a couple wearing both feminine and masculine coded clothing also looks very charming—but, luckily, this tradition matches with a common hanfu trend: couple’s outfits, or CP outfits, as they’re often called. This isn’t just for official couples, of course—plenty of friends, siblings, and the like also wear CP outfits for fun. Some of the most…