Finnane Antonia. Changing clothes in China: fashion, history, nation

New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. — 359 p.: illustr. — ISBN: 978-0-231-14350-9.A century ago, people in China dressed in clothes very different to those worn today. The man about town was usually clad in a jacket and longrobe (Fig.1.1). The well born woman, rarely to be seen in public, wore a long jacket over a pleated skirt, her hair commonly constrained by a wide embroidered or bejewelled band. Labouring people, men and women alike, wore jacket and trousers. Trousers, cut wide or narrow, were standard wear for Han (Chinese) people, whether or not concealed by an outer garment (Fig.1.2). The country was then ruled by Manchus, and had been for more than two and a half centuries. Manchu and Han men dressed alike in the Manchu robe, but Manchu women were readily distinguished from Han women by their distinctive hairstyles, platform shoes, and longrobes (Fig.1.3). The distinctions were sometimes blurred. In the imperial capital, Beijing, Han courtesans might dress in Manchu style, and Manchu fashions showed the influence of Han dress. On the edges of the empire flourished other styles of dress, some similar to and others radically different from either Han or Manchu clothing. The wearers were aboriginal peoples of lands that had been brought in to the empire at a relatively late date.