“神仙姐姐”立志復興漢服

About two years ago, Long Jiayan accidentally watched a video about hanfu, or Han clothing, on a micro blog in China. She didn't expect that it would inspire her life's passion to promote Han clothing and its history.

Hanfu is the traditional dress of the ethnic Han people. However, few Han people wear it daily in present-day China. It can be seen occasionally in festivals, coming-of-age and religious ceremonies conducted by Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist monks.

It is often seen, however, in Chinese television serials and movies.

"I absolutely fell in love with hanfu, including all of its connotations and cultural implications after watching the video," says the 24-year-old in Changsha, Hunan province.

Long was so crazy about hanfu that she, who never learned sewing before, started to make an outfit only four days after she watched the video.

"I searched for information about how to make hanfu and felt after my reading that it was not that difficult, so I just set to work on it," she recalls.

Long's baby was just 7 months old, so she could only make the clothes when the baby slept or when it was being cared by its grandmother.

But Long's idea didn't get any support from her family. "My mother-in-law said I had a 'mental disorder' and it was unnecessary and boring to do that," she says.

Long finished her first hanfu in only three days, even though she didn't have a sewing machine, and she wore it immediately.

"Honestly, I don't know how I managed to keep that mental state then. I was fully at ease, though I had expected that people would look at me strangely," Long says.

Now Long wears hanfu at least half the time. Sometimes she also chooses to wear some modern items to go with her hanfu.

"When I wear hanfu on the street, some people even ask if I'm doing cosplay or wearing a costume rented from a photographic studio," she says.

"But I was quite happy to hear that some children called me fairy sister," she says.

One month later after she made the first hanfu, she bought a sewing machine for 800 yuan ($129).

"I'm the type of person who takes action. I spent all of my pocket money on the sewing machine and the cloth," Long says.

Now Long has her workshop and has made several hundred hanfu, but learning how to stitch was not easy.

"What I can do is to turn to the pictures about hanfu and search for instructions some people post on the Internet. I bought some cheap cloth and tried to make hanfu with that," she says.

Long has so far concentrated on the clothing's cut and form. "I plan to do myself print, dye and embroider on the clothes that I make. But that requires more effort as traditionally pictures are used on hanfu and some pictures cannot be used on some types of fabric," she says.

In June last year, Long launched her online store. Many people have come to her workshop, tried her hanfu and taken pictures, but sales are low.

Long says she has been in debt of more than 10,000 yuan. Her suits mostly cost 300-400 yuan. "But many people still think they are expensive," Long says.

Sometimes, she says, she has to spend more than one month browsing hundreds of webpages and looking into thousands of cloth types to find what she wants.

Long isn't alone in her dream to rejuvenate traditional Chinese culture through hanfu. At a festival where most people wore hanfu, she met Chen Jiaxin, who has launched various traditional ceremonies.

The two are now cooperating.

"Chen's activities need a lot of hanfu. I offer them the costumes they need so that they can make use of them to promote traditional culture," Long says.據《中國日報》報道，約兩年前，龍佳言偶然在中國的微博上看到關於漢服，或稱爲漢衣冠的視頻。她並未預料到這會激發她的生活熱情，去發揚漢服及其歷史。

漢服是漢族人民的傳統服飾。然而，在當代中國，鮮有漢人會每天穿它。偶爾可在由道教、儒教和佛教僧侶組織的節日、成人禮和宗教活動中看到。

但在中國電視連續劇和電影中，可經常看到。

在看完視頻後，我完全愛上了漢服，包括它的一切內涵和文化寓意，”來自湖南長沙的24歲女子稱。

龍佳言對漢服非常癡迷，因此，從未學過裁縫的她，在看完視頻的四天後就開始製作漢服。

“我搜索了關於如何做漢服的信息，讀完後發現並不是那麼難，於是我就開始製作漢服了，”她回憶道。

龍佳言的寶寶僅7個月大，因此，她只能在寶寶睡覺或在外婆照看時做衣服。

但是龍佳言的想法未得到家人的任何支持。她說：“我婆婆說我‘精神失常’，沒必要做，而且很枯燥，”

雖然沒有縫紉機，但是龍佳言僅在三天內就完成了她的第一套漢服，她立刻就穿上了。

龍佳言說：“說實話，我不知道當時是如何設法保持那種精神狀態的。我完全放鬆，儘管我想過人們會用奇怪的眼神看我。”

現在，龍佳言至少一半的時間都穿漢服。有時她也選戴一些現代元素的飾物和她的漢服搭配。

她說：“當我穿着漢服上街時，一些人甚至問我是不是在cosplay，或者穿的是從影城租來的衣服。”

“但我很高興一些小孩叫我神仙姐姐，”她說道。

在她做完第一套漢服的一個月後，她花800元買了一臺縫紉機。

龍佳言說：“我是那種行動派的人。我把所有零用錢都花在縫紉機和布料上。”

現在龍佳言有了自己的工作室，她已經做了幾百套漢服，但學習縫紉並不容易。

她說：“我能做的就是找關於漢服的圖片，在網上搜索一些人發佈的說明。我買了一些便宜的布料，嘗試用它做漢服。”

龍佳言到目前爲止一直集中在服裝的剪裁和樣式上。她說：“我打算在我做的衣服上自己印花樣、染色和刺繡。但那和漢服上用傳統圖案相比更費精力，一些圖案不能用在某些類型的布料上。”

去年6月，龍佳言註冊了網上店鋪。很多人去她的工作室試穿漢服、拍照，但是銷量很低。

龍佳言說她已經欠債超過1萬元了。她的一套衣服大多是花費300-400元。“但很多人仍覺得那很貴，”龍佳言說道。

她說，有時候她不得不花一個多月的時間瀏覽數百個網頁，尋找成千上萬個布種才能找到自己想要的。

龍佳言在她用漢服復興傳統中國文化的路上並不孤獨。在一個大多數人穿漢服的節日裏，她遇到了發起過各種傳統儀式的陳嘉欣。

這二位現在正在合作。

龍佳言說：“陳嘉欣的活動需要大量的漢服，我爲他們提供所需服裝，以便他們可以利用服裝來促進傳統文化。”