II. Brief Introduction to Clothing and Clothing Culture

2.1 The Definitions of Clothing and Clothing Culture

In ancient Chinese literature, apparel refered to the clothes and decoration. At present, Hua Mei’s definition of clothing is often used in academic circle. Hua Mei has pided the costume into four categories: the first is clothing including main clothing, the clothes of feet (now we call it socks) and others; the second is accessory decorating the whole body without the function of covering; the third is face-painting; the last one is ornament, for example bag, umbrella, walking sabre and so on (Cai 1). In Oxford Dictionary, clothing is more formal than clothes and is used to mean “a particular type of clothes” that people wear, such as shirts, jackets, dresses and trousers. Clothing is the material form of costume, focusing on its style, color, and apparel fabric.

Clothing culture is a kind of overall culture, referring to clothing, ornament, the way of dress and the overall dress, and also including a variety of factors such as hair, makeup and shoes. Clothing culture is not only the crystallization of material civilization, but also has the meaning of spiritual civilization. Almost starting from the origin of clothing, people have been showing their life customs, esthetic taste, color hobby and kinds of cultural mentality, religious belief through clothing. Clothing culture also reflects cultural awareness, the extent of a nation’s spirit and material development. The clothing culture differences between China and the United States are various. Given this, Studying the clothing culture can enrich the nation culture and further the exchanges between the two countries.

2.2 The Development History of Chinese and American Clothing

China is a country with splendid civilizations, in which the Chinese clothing is an important part. From the change of Chinese clothing, we can see the political change and economic development through the long history. Clothing has played a vital role throughout Chinese society and culture. Clothing was a tool of power when the emperor ruled the world. The role of clothing in China used to distinguish barbarians and civilized people, male and female, status level, the proper and the improper. In thousands of years of Chinese history, the ruler of the every dynasty implemented the clothing institution in order to distinguishing the hierarchy. With the changes of dynasties and as time goes on, Chinese clothing appeared new styles constantly, but there were obvious differences between dynasties. Chinese complete code of clothing and trappings were formed in Han Dynasty. Hanfu was known as Hanzhuang or Huafu. It was the traditional dress of the Han Chinese people. It was said to have been worn by the legendary Yellow Emperor. There were many standard styles, such as informal dress, semi-formal, formal dress and court dress. In Tang Dynasty, the costumes formed a unique open romantic style. The women’s most typical dress images were topless, bare arms, veil, big sleeve, and long skirt. The Tang Dynasty communicated with the world's different cultures, which made the costumes show persified development; The Song Dynasty ruler advocated Neo-Confucianism in order to get rid of the people’s resistance. Clothing modeling was closed, the color was serious and quietly elegant, and the hue tended to be single. The Yuan Dynasty was ruled by Mongolian, so the costumes were special. The main cloth was “zhi sun fu”, a kind of shorter robes with a lot of folds in the waist, and it was quite narrow and tight so it’s convenient for riding and shooting. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established a new dress system. The main clothes were robes unlined upper garment. The emperor used the colors and patterns to distinguish the officials rank; Usually, people could distinguish others’ identities through the length of the clothes and the sleeve size. The Qing Dynasty’ dress changed most in the history of Chinese clothing. The men wore long robes and mandarin jacket (ma gua) and the women wore the Chinese dress (cheongsam). In modern times, western cultural immersion has been influencing the Chinese native culture, Chinese clothing appeared a potential change and entered into a period of persification. Since the reform and opening up, Chinese clothing has been tending to be rich and colorful, fashion and personality. In the contemporary Chinese society, rapidly changing styles cater to a desire for novelty and inpidualism. Chinese clothing culture has been developing for thousands of years, but it still has its own characteristics.