Traditional Chinese festivals are a good time to experience and share Chinese culture, including its rich and colorful clothing culture. During the last Lantern Festival, celebrated on Sunday, as well as the Spring Festival in late January, it's common to see some Chinese people, particularly youngsters, wear traditional Chinese attire such as the hanfu on the streets across domestic and even overseas cities.

Dressing in hanfu to celebrate traditional festivals has become a new trend among Chinese Generation-Z. Over the weekend, a few youngsters in Beijing's Changping district wore hanfu of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) style and handed lanterns to show how ancient Chinese celebrated the Lantern Festival. In Shanghai's Xuhui district, some 20-year-olds in hanfu gathered to enjoy the traditional Lantern Festival snack Yuanxiao (glutinous rice balls). Earlier in Paris, local Chinese students held a small exhibition to promote hanfu during the Spring Festival. 

At home and abroad, Chinese Gen-Zs are happy to share with people around the globe China's profound clothing culture, something they are interested in and proud of. The Global Times reached students in the UK and China's Hong Kong, who talked about how they celebrated this year's Lantern Festival by wearing and promoting the hanfu locally.

A university student in hanfu performs using the traditional Chinese instrument guzheng at a hanfu-themed event in Hong Kong. (Photo: Courtesy of Postgraduate Student Association, The University of Hong Kong)

A sense of identity

Over the weekend, hundreds of youngsters got together at a theater at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), enjoying traditional culture performances and sharing with each other their personal hanfu stories.

It was a two-day event held to celebrate the Lantern Festival and to propose the setting of "Hong Kong Huafu (Chinese costume) Day." The concept of 'huafu' includes both time-honored hanfu and some more latter-day styles including Cheongsam.

Since 2021, some university students and traditional Chinese clothing lovers in Hong Kong started to propose local authority to assign a day specifically for huafu, when people are encouraged to wear traditional clothes, according to HKU's Postgraduate Student Association, a co-host of the event.

The first big traditional Chinese costume themed event in Hong Kong after the pandemic attracted more than 300 people, 80 percent of whom were dressed in hanfu or cheongsam, said the association's president Luo Moxuan.

"We also prepared nearly 160 pieces of hanfu for participants to try on," Luo told the Global Times.

The event started with participants singing China's national anthem together. Luo said that the hanfu, a vivid icon of Chinese culture and Chinese aesthetic philosophy , can be a good choice for the [Chinese public] to get to know more about traditional Chinese culture, and enhance their national identity and pride.

Compared with older generations, Chinese Gen-Zs, both in Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong, have a greater sense of identity with their country's culture, said Luo. "Here in Hong Kong, I often encounter youngsters in hanfu walking in metro stations, chatting in Cantonese or Putonghua," he added.

A hanfu parade on January 21 in Durham, UK organized by the hanfu society at Durham University (Photo: Courtesy of the hanfu society at Durham University)

"Build a bridge"

Chinese students studying in the UK also promote Chinese traditional culture through various events during the Spring Festival.

Lü Yuexi, head of the cultural department of Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Cambridge told the Global Times that a dinner party featuring traditional Chinese clothing has been held at the St. John's College in Cambridge University on Saturday night to celebrate the Lantern Festival overseas. 

"The Lantern Festival is one of the most important festivals after the Spring Festival. It also includes strong cultural symbols, and we hope to take this opportunity to showcase Chinese traditional culture overseas," said Lü.

"There are so many styles of traditional Chinese clothing, and it is completely possible to set up a themed event," Jiang Xiaoyi, a participant of the event, told the Global Times.

She mentioned that many girls joined the event with customized Cheongsam. "As a Chinese, we have the responsibility to protect our Chinese traditional culture. The Lantern Festival allows me to connect with my family and friends in my hometown in some way. This event is also a consolidation of my own cultural identity."

The hanfu society at Durham Univeristy hosted a hanfu parade and a musical performance in Durham during the Spring Festival.

The head of the society surnamed Situ told the Global Times that about 36 Chinese students wearing hanfu participated to the event and related videos about the event have earned over 50,000 views on social media. "Hanfu, a shared heritage of all humanity has surpassed all prejudice to build a bridge for the world to know the Chinese culture and civilization, and we are much honored to introduce it to the world," he said.