n October 22, 2023, in celebration of the traditional Chinese festival known as the Double Ninth Festival, 27 Hanfu lovers dressing in a traditional Chinese clothing, gathered at the Buttes-Chaumont Park in Paris. Both Chinese people and French enthusiasts enjoyed the activities,” said Jing Jing, the organizer of this event, also the founder of a Hanfu amateur group in France known as the “Mugua (木瓜) Association”.

Established on August 9, 2022, Mugua gathered “as a response to the Dior’s cultural appropriation,” Jingjing recalled. The group quickly assembles 80 members, majority of which are Chinese people and few are French enthusiasts. Named after a line from an ancient Chinese poetry collection The Book of Songs, “You throw a peach to me, I give you a white jade for friendship,” Mugua has organized various cultural activities to display Chinese traditional food, art, and handicrafts in Paris. 

Similar Hanfu amateur groups have flourished in Paris. Established in 2008, Boyan Association has been organizing Hanfu Festival in Paris for ten years. As the largest Sinology association in France, Boyan has members of nearly 400 people, of which 30% are French. 

Such cultural activities are welcomed by the Paris government. “We only need to apply on the governmental website when planning a Hanfu event, specifying the venue, scale, etc. The government may provide subsidies based on the situation and help us to promote our event on its website as long as our event is open to all Parisians,” added Jingjing.

“Hanfu is incredibly elegant, and different colors and patterns symbolize various social statuses,” Davy, a French member of Boyan, noted when first attending Hanfu activities. Philippe, joined Boyan in his sixties, pointed out that the uniqueness of Hanfu lies in its ability to serve as a vessel for tracing back China’s rich history.

As traditional attire of the Han nationality (China’s largest nationality), Hanfu has a rich history dating back to Zhou Dynasty. However, traditional clothing is no longer convenient to wear in modern times and fades away in the course of history. On Nov. 22, 2003, a Hanfu enthusiast donning traditional attire on the streets in Henan Province, made Hanfu return to the fore and hit the headlines. This momentous occasion has since evolved into an annual gathering, drawing Hanfu enthusiasts from near and far.

With the rise of social media, Hanfu culture has flourished over the past two decades, piquing the interest of the younger generation. “In 2014, I once searched weekend activities on Douban (a Chinese social media platform), and I chanced upon a local cultural event where I had the opportunity to participate in various traditional activities dressed in Hanfu,” said Jing Jing. 

Data show that the number of Hanfu lovers in China has maintained a growth rate of more than 70% for four years, and the market size of Hanfu is expected to reach 19.11 billion yuan (2.64 billion dollars) in 2025.

Reformed Hanfu reserves some of the Han elements according to the traditional form and is redesigned to be applied to modern daily life. In Paris, people love “Sino-foreign eclectic” design, to combine Hanfu with Western-style shawls, top hats, or handbags. Shi Guang, a Chinese student studying fashion design in Paris, loves to match Hanfu with other styles of clothing.  

“I often wear Mamianqun (马面裙) with a Western-style shirt to work, which attracts the attention of my French colleagues, who are also eager to try it.” Said Zoey, a Chinese member of Association Boyan.

Some would persist to wear traditional attires to educate the origin of Hanfu. Photographer Xuan Xuan once wore a set of Hanfu and sang Chinese songs at a cultural event in Paris. He seized this opportunity to tell the audience that this kind of attire originated in China. “Many foreign onlookers come to praise our appearance and request photos with us,” Xuan Xuan mentioned.

The modern revival of Hanfu is about to mark its 20th anniversary, Boyan and other Hanfu groups are busy with arranging events to celebrate this anniversary and invite more people around the world to embrace the beauty of Hanfu and traditional Chinese culture.

The authors are student members of the Backpack Reporting and Research Paris 2023 (Next Generation of Journalists Program) of  Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).