Mao suit
The Mao suit (after Mao Zedong ), known in China as "Sun-Yat-sen suit" ( Chinese 中山裝 / 中山装 , Pinyin Zhōngshān zhuāng - " Zhongshan suit "), after Sun Yat-sen (mostly known in China as Sūn Zhōngshān ), is a suit for men and women introduced by Sun after the founding of the Republic of China in 1911.
history
At the end of the Chinese Empire under the Qing , China was increasingly confronted with foreign cultures that shook the Sinocentric image after Chinese culture had been shaped for a long time by its pioneering role in East Asia . In the beginning of the 20th century, culture underwent major changes, particularly under Western influences, and strong currents formed in Chinese society , as with the May Fourth Movement .
Chinese clothing was also subject to many changes during this period: Western suits were worn and women's clothing was adopted from abroad. Local warlords wore both Qing-era clothing and Western uniforms.
Western military advisers, including the German military, reformed the Chinese army, which resulted in the New Army of the Qing Dynasty. Since the original clothing was too impractical for the new types of weapons, uniforms based on the western model were introduced.
The Chinese education was reformed also on the Western model, and both military drill and uniforms made their way in training. Many Chinese students also studied abroad, in Japan and the Soviet Union, and contributed to the inflow of foreign values.
In order to give the republic a new face after the fall of the Empire, the first provisional president of the Chinese Republic, Sun Yat-sen (known as Sūn Zhōngshān in China ), who himself lived in Japan and other western countries for a long time, commissioned Schneider to create it a new suit. In China this was known as Zhōngshān zhuāng , named after his client.
In 1923, the Kuomintang made the suit mandatory for Chinese officials, and Mao Zedong wore the suit from 1927. In 1948 it was accepted by the supporters of the Communist Party when they came to power .
When the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949, Mao Zedong wore this suit. It was only he who made it popular, so that the suit owes its name to him in the western world .
Mao brought politics into everyday life through his course, so that clothing also took on a political role. There were never any dress codes under the communist government, but the population dressed in the “proletarian fashion”, even if “bourgeois” Western clothing and the qipao were initially still worn, the latter for official occasions, among other things.
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution , Mao appeared in a green uniform, which was then taken over by the Red Guards on its own and thus shaped the ideal of clothing in the following period. Western suits ( 西服 , xīfú , the actual men's suit ) and modern women's clothes were branded as "bourgeois" and banned. To dispose of the four old values , the Red Guards forcibly removed the denounced clothing from the porters. These were both western clothing and traditional clothing from the past empire. Removed garments were displayed as trophies and their owners could be punished. Under the communist influence, gender differences in clothing were leveled out, and women increasingly cut their hair short.
The suit found its way into everyday life and was also worn on special occasions such as weddings.
In search of appropriate clothing for the people, East German designers were called to the People's Republic for support in 1956 .
These clothes dominated the fashion of the 1960s and reached its peak during the Cultural Revolution. In the early 1970s, the Mao suit also became popular with intellectuals, but after the end of the Cultural Revolution and the admission of mistakes under Deng Xiaoping , the importance of the suit decreased more and more.
For decades the suit was worn as a symbol of the zeitgeist or ideology before and during the cultural revolution due to political pressure. In contrast, the majority of Chinese today are unlikely to see this suit as an expression of identification with the initial policies of the Chinese communists, or identification with the original values, ideals, or identification with the advocates of the Chinese approach to a classless society. Today the suit is considered to be a kind of politically correct clothing that is worn on official (political) occasions or as an official costume in political leadership circles. Chinese citizens now mainly wear suits and other clothing with a western style.
In the early 1990s, the Mao suit became popular again as youth clothing in the wake of Neomaoism and comes from a kitsch- based consumerist view of Mao Zedong's legacy. Today it bears more traits of a commercial glorification in the form of a lively pop culture rather than traits of a leader cult of Stalinist or even North Korean characteristics, as was still the case during the cultural revolution.
Appearance
In the design according to Sun Yat-sen there are elements of Japanese student uniforms, which are in turn derived from Prussian uniforms , with the stand-up collar , elements of German military uniforms and influences of local, peasant clothing with the outer pockets. The jacket was worn with western pants. Uniforms of Chinese students that already had similar elements are also seen as precursors. Reference is made here to the orientation of education according to the western model and an import of styles of Japanese student uniforms is assumed, since many Chinese were studying in Japan at the time.
Over time, the Mao suit has undergone various changes. Under Mao Zedong, the stand-up collar was replaced by a narrow round collar and received more elements of peasant clothing, and the trousers worn with it were influenced by traditional trousers.
The suit has two sewn breast pockets and two side pockets sewn on the side. Each breast and side pocket has a flap (flap) and can be closed with a button. The collar is narrow with a short, folded-over fold and is felt to be constricting by the wearer. The jacket is closed tightly to the collar with five centered buttons. The emphasis is on symmetry and balance.
The material of the suit consists of cotton or a mixture with synthetic. The suits are in the colors gray, khaki and indigo blue . Despite the uniformity, these colors paradoxically highlighted a hierarchy in the population: peasants and workers wore indigo, soldiers of the People's Liberation Army wore khaki and party cadres wore gray.
Over time, individual attempts were made to break through uniformity among the people themselves by making slight modifications to their suits.
meaning
While the Mao suit under Sun Yat-sen stood for the upheaval after the Empire and the new China, under Mao it became a symbol of the revolution and a sign of conformity . This made him a national symbol of the revolution.
He also supported the dissolution of the individual in the collective and the work in Danwei , the local work units, and led to the strengthening of the national feeling . He symbolized revolutionary abstinence and contributed to the abolition of gender differences, and also renounced the consideration of the female body as an object through bourgeois norms.
The various components are said to have a certain symbolism:
According to Sun Yat-sen, the three cufflinks of the suit stand for the three principles of the people , the four pockets for the rights of the people. About the inside pocket of the suit he says: "It stands for the right to impeach corrupt and incompetent politicians." ( Sun Yat-sen ) Alternatively, the pockets are related to the four principles of Yijing ( I-Ching ) and the five buttons to the Powers of the Constitution of the Republic of China.
The name of the blue ants resulted from the Western idea that the Chinese people went to work in uniform clothing. However, the population did not wear a uniform; rather, the communist government used clothing as an important differentiating criterion for functions and classes.
Related items of clothing
A military form of the Mao-suit is the Zhifu ( 制服 - "uniform"), which manages the bags among other without buttons.
Under Soviet influences, the Lenin suit ( 列寧 服 / 列宁 服 ) was worn, with which political loyalty could be shown.
Mao look
In line with the style of the Mao suit, the look of a high-necked jacket model was also referred to as the “Mao look”. Their characteristic was the stand-up collar .
Pastiche
The Chinese-born American photo artist Tseng Kwong Chi photographed himself with sunglasses and a Mao suit as a tourist in front of sights ( East meets West ).
The sculptor Sui Jianguo (* 1956), who claims to be a former member of the Red Guards, began his series on Mao suits in 1997, in which he put personalities such as Karl Marx and Jesus Christ . Regarding the suit today, he said: “The suit has become a consumer good. You wear it like you hang a Che Guevara poster on the wall. ”( Sui Jianguo )
Web links
- Johnny Erling: Made in China. How the Mao suit 2.0 should conquer the world. In: Die Welt from February 4, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Eduard Kögel: The Mao suit . In: archplus 168 . February, 2004, issue 168, archplus Verlag GmbH, pp. 24-25, ISSN 0587-3452 ( excerpt ).
- ↑ a b c d e Valerie Steele: China Chic: East meats West . Yale University Press, New Haven, London 1999. ISBN 0-300-07930-3 .
- ↑ a b c d Tina Mai Chen: Mao Zedong and Sun Yatsen suits. In: Edward L. Davis (Ed.): Encyclopedia of contemporary Chinese culture. Routledge, London 2005. ISBN 0-415-24129-4 .
- ↑ a b c d Kai Strittmatter: The Chinese straitjacket. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . August 18, 2004, accessed July 13, 2006 .
- ↑ a b c Evolution and revolution: Chinese dress 1700s-1990s - Mao suit. Powerhouse museum, 1997, archived from the original on May 13, 2006 ; accessed on October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Alfons Hofer: Textile and Model Lexicon. 7th edition. Volume 1, Deutscher Fachverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-87150-518-8 , keyword “Mao-Look”.
- ↑ Ingo Mörth: Colorful ants on the rainbow: How clothes (and clothes makers) make people. (PDF; 297 kB) In: One Minute. Andreas Egger. Martin Egger. Catalog for the exhibition “Stop one minute, individual”. Retrieved July 13, 2006 .
- ↑ Diana Yeh: Weighted soul. In: culturebase.net The international artist database. February 18, 2004, archived from the original on June 14, 2006 ; accessed on October 2, 2019 .