Only a few days ago, the first—ever China Hanfu Day was held to encourage young Chinese people to wear and take pride in hanfu, the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group (汉族).
The organizers said, "Traditional culture is the lifeblood of China. We hope young Chinese people can wear our traditional clothing during festivals to show China's unusual culture to the world. This will also make them understand the culture better and feel proud of being a Chinese." The event invited people to post their pictures in traditional clothes. By April 22nd, 2018, it had already got over 155 million page views, with thousands of people sharing their pictures.
Historically, hanfu has influenced many of the neighboring cultural clothing including the Japanese Kimono and Korean Hanbok. However, hanfu started tofadewhen Manchu people took control of China. Luckily, there has been a rise in popularity over recent years. According to Hanfu Information(HI), a hanfu promotion (宣传) group, over 21, 000 sets of hanfu were sold online earlier this year. Another online survey by HI in 2017 showed that over 88%of people believe that wearing hanfu is a good way to learn about Chinese culture. It's true that the number of hanfu fans is growing.
The organizers say they will make China Hanfu Day a yearly event and that they have set the third day of the third month of the traditional Chinese calendar as the date of the event.
