The myth of nationalism: Chinese consumers’ activities and cultural interpretation in hanfu consumption

The myth of nationalism: Chinese consumers’ activities and cultural interpretation in hanfu consumption | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The myth of nationalism: Chinese consumers’ activities and cultural interpretation in hanfu consumption Pengze Bai This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7785301/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Recently, hanfu culture is increasingly popular and influential in China. Some research tend interpret hanfu culture as a symbol of nationalism, or emphasise the influence of nationalism in hanfu culture. However, hanfu culture involves a significant part of consumption activities, while the influence of symbolic references or political implications of clothes in consumption is problematic. Darwing on an eighteen-month ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that hanfu consumption is driven more by tastes rather than a political agenda of nationalism. Specifically, by intensively engaging the cases of hanfu culture related social events and hanfu consumers’ experiences, this article illustrates that: First, hanfu is interpreted as a part of traditional Chinese cultures in consumers’ opinion; Second, such traditional Chinese culture rather than nationalism is the primary concern in enthusiastic consumers’ mind; Third, casual consumers appreciate the beautiful appearance and extraordinary experience in hanfu consumption, while traditional Chinese cultures are not their primary concerns; Fourth, casual consumers may intentionally keep away from potential political implications. This research advances the theoretical interpretation of political influence in consumption activities by highlighting individuals’ agency. Additionally, it supplements the empirical understandings of hanfu consumption in China, and illuminates a potential direction of exploring contemporary Chines cultural phenomena. Social science/Anthropology Humanities/Cultural and media studies Social science/Cultural and media studies Humanities/History Social science/History Social science/Sociology Introduction Hanfu is originated from the ancient Han ethnicity’s clothes. Most of hanfu in contemporary China are re-designed by modern clothes designers. In some cases, designers elaborate on making their designs loyal to the exact forms of ancient Chinese clothes, in order to emphasise the connection between modern hanfu and Chinese traditional cultures. Such connection provides hanfu a potential of being not only a fashionable type of clothes, but also a symbol of Han ethnicity (Leibold, 2010 ). Further, research on hanfu culture suggest that hanfu culture involves a commitment to a political proposal of nationalism (Davis, Xiao, Wei, 2025 ). However, hanfu culture and hanfu culture community is not a homogeneous group of people who share a clear cultural consensus, and hanfu culture is becoming a popular type of fashion consumption (Wang, Colbert, Legoux, 2020 ). Nationalism’s role in hanfu consumption is problematic, since fashion consumption is highly fluid and personal (Bennett, 2005 ; Kawamura, 2005 ). This is not to claim that fashion consumption or hanfu consumption does not have political implications, or political influences does not exist in fashion consumption or hanfu consumption. Instead, this study intends to explore nationalism in Chinese consumers’ consumption activities by investigating an empirical question: whether nationalism is a potential important role in hanfu consumption. For examining consumers’ motivations and experience, an intensive engagement of individualised empirical data is applied. An ethnographic fieldwork of participant observation, nonparticipant observation, interviews, and informal discussion is conducted in two cities in Mainland China for eighteen months. In this article, I will present the details of the cases from fieldwork, in order to offer a thick data and corresponding analysis about consumers’ experience and understandings of hanfu culture as well as hanfu consumption. For clarity, consumption in this article follows a common definition in consumption study academia: Consumption includes acquisition, appropriation, and appreciation (Warde, 2017 ). Based on such understanding of consumption, the details of the cases of hanfu consumption will demonstrate how consumers encounter hanfu culture, how consumers wear hanfu in their daily life, and what consumers appreciate from wearing hanfu. Through presenting these details, I intend to present a solid evidence-based cultural interpretation of hanfu culture, and illustrate that nationalism is not an outstanding influential factor in these cases of hanfu consumption. In the following sections, I will firstly offer a literature review of recent research on nationalism in hanfu culture, along with critiques of overemphasising symbolic references and political implications in consumption studies and culture studies. Second, I will introduce the methods. Then, I will present the cases and analysis of the following four phenomenon: (1), Hanfu carries traditional Chinese cultures, and the cultural references rather than political implications are the primary feature of hanfu. (2), Enthusiastic consumers of hanfu mainly appreciate hanfu’s cultural references of traditional Chinese cultures, and they are open to modified hanfu because they also appreciate the beautiful appearance of modified hanfu. (3), Causal consumers of hanfu mainly appreciate the beautiful appearance of hanfu and extraordinary experience of wearing hanfu, while the cultural references of hanfu are not their primary concerns. (4), In the case of mamianqun (a subtype of hanfu), consumers intentionally weaken the recognisability of hanfu, while hanfu has a potential strong political implication. Literature review The mainstream research on hanfu explore the mechanism and influence of hanfu’s symbolic reference to nationalism. The role of materialised symbols in the formation and influence of nationalism and national identity is well investigated (Anderson, 1991 [1983], 2020[2008]). In Mainland China, cultural heritages of various traditional Chinese cultures are frequently exploited as materialised symbols of nationalism (Blumenfield & Silverman, 2013 ; Zhang & Wang, 2024 ). Materialised symbols appear in not only governments’ promotion activities, but also in popular cultures (Li, 2021 ). Hanfu is one of influential materialised symbols originated from cultural heritages, and wearing hanfu is widely interpreted as a cultural practice of expressing ethnic identity, patriotism, and political position of supporting Chinese government (Carrico, 2017 ). Based on such interpretation, recent research define the core issue of hanfu dressing practices as the interaction between individuals’ cultural expression, state’s ideological agenda, and cultural/political influence in the field of popular cultures. However, this research path overemphasises the symbolic aspect of hanfu, and to an extent, underestimates the mundane aspect of hanfu consumption in consumers’ everyday life. According to the frame of interpreting hanfu culture as a nationalism, symbolic reference is the primary interest in the consumption of hanfu. Leibold ( 2010 ) provides a systematic description and analysis of the interaction between individuals’ cultural expression and state’s ideological agenda. Drawing on the internet discussion about some social hot spot problems, Leibold ( 2010 ) explores Chinese youth’s articulation of Han ethnicity, and suggests that hanfu (along with other material culture such as traditional music, calligraphy, and Confucianism) is used as one of flags to promote traditional cultures of Han ethnicity, in order to strengthen the self-identity of Han ethnicity. Such frame of understanding hanfu culture as a practice of nationalism has echoes. Davis, Xiao and Wei ( 2025 ) interpret hanfu as a “soft nationalism” emerged from online participatory practice. They (Davis, Xiao, Wei, 2025 ) suggest that hanfu culture is “a quietly spoken yet assertive nationalism”, which accommodates the grand narrative of Han nationalism and patriotism into people’s everyday lives by wearing and presenting hanfu (an iconic visual representation). Likewise, Fan and Ip ( 2023 ) examine hanfu dressing practices of Chinese migrant youth in the United Kingdom, and they suggest that hanfu is a carrier of an imagined community (ancient China, which is a symbolised home) for Chinese migrant youth. Law and Qin ( 2023 ) argue that hanfu practices in Mainland China tend to present hanfu as a visual representation of an imagined lost elegant past of ancient China. In Law and Qin’s work (2023), they found that hanfu enthusiasts interpret their hanfu dressing practices as a reattainment of the elegant lifestyles. Mayer and Pawlik’s research (2023) on hanfu’s presentation on mass media and social media also suggest that hanfu is connected to an imagined elegant past of ancient China. The frame of interpreting hanfu as a nationalism illuminates the complex of Chinese youth’s bottom-up nationalism. However, the role of symbolic references of clothes in clothes consumption is problematic. Interpreting clothes consumption through symbolic references is a long-standing approach and produces fruitful outcomes (Baudrillard, 1981 [1972], 1996 [1968], 1998 [1970]; Bauman, 1998 , 2005 ; Douglas & Isherwood, 1979 ; Featherstone, 2007 ; Giddens, 1991 ), but critiques on overemphasising symbolic references of clothes are also wide and insightful (Appadurai, 1986 , 1994 ; Arnould & Thompson, 2005 ; Miller, 2010 ; Warde, 2014 ). For example, Van der Laan and Velthuis (2016) found that consumers manage daily clothing choices according to social norms, dressing codes and their personal tastes. In this case, clothing practices involve little motives of exploiting the symbolic references of clothes. Another example is Miller and Woodward’s research (2012) of jeans. Miller and Woodward (2012) argue that jeans have little symbolic references due to its ubiquitous existence in everyday life, and thus consumers wear jeans as a default suit for their daily clothing choices. The research of jeans shows that clothes are not always capable of carrying clear symbolic references. An influential theoretical tradition in the field of cultural studies support interpreting cultural consumption as an expression of political proposal (Hall & Jefferson, 2006[1976]; Hebdige, 1997 [1979]; Yinger, 1960 ), but recent research tend to argue for a portrait of consumers who are less sensitive to political agenda or symbolic references of commodities (Author, XXXX; Hodkinson, 2016 ; Muggleton, 2000 ). Based on Maffesoli’s ( 1996 ) theory of neo-tribes, Bennett ( 1999 , 2011 ) argues that consumers may participate in a social gathering with other fandom peers, but such participation does not have a commitment to an ideological agenda or an identity of being a member of a subcultural community. Bennett ( 2005 ) claims a tendency in contemporary societies that consumers tend to express their tastes by consuming commodities in stylistic ways of purchasing, appropriation, and appreciation of iconic commodities. Inspired by these recent critiques on overemphasising commodities’ symbolic references and political implications in consumption activities, this article engages hanfu consumption from a perspective of investigating consumers’ wearing experience rather than constructing a potential narrative of nationalism. Specifically, consumers’ feelings, motives, and habits of wearing hanfu are the primary concerns in delineating and analysing hanfu consumption. From an empirical study aspect, I intend to contribute to the understandings of Chinese consumers as well as Chinese nationalism in hanfu consumption: Consumers’ consumption of hanfu involves significant concerns of personal tastes, daily clothing convenience, and pursuits of extraordinary experience, while nationalism is minor in many cases. Methods I conducted an eighteen months ethnographic fieldwork and twenty interviews. My fieldwork was conducted mainly in Chengdu, China. I chose Chengdu as the main research field because it is a city famous for being youth culture (and hanfu culture in particular) friendly. Chengdu’s being youth culture friendly is not just a general description that can be used to describe any economically energetic city with a high ratio of youth population. Chengdu’s government implemented a tourism and creative industries oriented policy around twenty years ago. One of the major accomplishments of this policy is that Chengdu successfully makes itself a synonym of youth culture in mass media and social media. An interesting thing happened in the interviews outside Chengdu can somehow indicate this accomplishment: Every time I mentioned that I conducted fieldwork in Chengdu, the interviewees would comment that Chengdu is a good place to explore youth cultures. Besides the fieldwork in Chengdu, I also collected data from other cities as complementary sources. I conducted some short-term visits in Xi’an, which is also a city famous for being hanfu culture friendly. I recruited some interviewees from other cities. The data from other cities are expected to strengthen the analysis as a triangulation proof. The data from Chengdu and other cities allow me to have diversified participants’ data, which helps a qualitative research to go beyond an interpretation of specific micro-level cases, and reach a potentially generalisable theorisation of a type of social phenomenon (Burawoy, 1998 ). During the fieldwork, I conducted many participant/non-participant observations and interviews in turn. Once I finished some interviews, I usually found some new ideas and interesting phenomena. Then, I would go back to the fieldwork, and once I found enough new problematics, I started another round of interviews. Such observation-interview-observation model allowed me to identify and address potential theoretically important issues from fieldwork, so to theorise consumers’ practices from a perspective of abductive analysis (Timmermans & Tavory, 2012 ). Such combination also allowed me to keep a balance between field-driven (delineate the details of research object) and theory-driven (obtain sufficient data for addressing theoretical issues) (Lichterman, 2002 ). I participated in many hanfu-themed social activities. Some of them were hosted by local governments and commercial organisations. Some of them were hosted by a local hanfu community, hereafter anonymised as Hanfu Culture Community and abbreviated as HCC. HCC is an NGO though it did not have a permanent physical office places and basically all works were managed online. Here are some examples of the hanfu-themed social activities: trips of visiting Buddhist grottoes, long-spout kettle tea art sessions, kunqu opera shows, hanfu photography, and hanfu theme carnivals. I visited some tourism old towns themed with Chinese traditional cultures. The most of “old towns” are newly constructed with a theme of ancient China for tourism in recent years. In other words, old towns are theme parks. Hanfu, as a part of Chinese culture, appeared in many old towns. The interviews intensively covered some key topics, such as consumers’ motives, habits, and opinions on hanfu cultures and nationalism. I conducted twenty formal interviews and some informal chatting in person or online. The interviewees have diversified age groups, occupations, and residential places. All usage of the contents from formal interviews and informal chatting obtained written or verbal consent. An interview usually lasted for around 1 hour. The topics of the interviews were slightly different due to the research progress, while the majority of the interviews’ topics were shared. The interviewees are diversified. Hanfu cultures are widely recognised as a type of youth cultures or subcultures (Wang, Colbert, Legoux, 2020 ). However, I found that many participants reached middle age and some of them were even retired elders. So, I recruited participants across age groups. The participants’ occupations were also diversified. I interviewed undergraduate and postgraduate students, designers in creative industry, salesperson, product manager, instructor in a museum, government employee, and an owner of a small company. Some of them are quite different from the general public’s imagination of hanfu consumers (teenage students). For example, a participant was working in Chinese government which usually requires the employees a highly conservative and formal clothing style. A problem in interview was that interviewees occasionally could not precisely describe their perception of the clothes’ cultural meanings, and they usually used some vague wordings to express their feelings such as “sense”, “ethos”, or “match”. For stimulating the interviewees’ thought in order to obtain more specific and clear description, I showed many pictures of the clothes during online interviews. This strategy of object interview successfully strengthened the clearness of interview data (Woodward, 2016 ). A positionality problem and meanwhile an ethical concern is that most of consumers and interview participants are women. I, as the researcher and the investigator of the data, am a man, which naturally set a barrier (even a risk) and potential bias in terms of analytical perspectives. For overcoming this problem, I applied three principles during the fieldwork and interviews: (1) Always disclosed my identity of a researcher; (2) Always conducted research in public spaces; (3) Intentionally included male interviewees for balancing and comparing opinions from female and male consumers. All names mentioned in this article are pseudonyms. Hanfu carries traditional Chinese culture Hanfu is widely recognised as a part of traditional Chinese cultures. Nowadays, hanfu becomes a materialised symbol of traditional Chinese culture because of hanfu’s distinguishing stylistic visual appearance. Hanfu appears in many government-organised and non-government-organised social activities that have a theme of traditional Chinese cultures. In the following paragraphs, I will offer three cases of hanfu in social activities, in order to illustrate how hanfu is presented as a symbol of traditional Chinese culture. The first case is a government-organised hanfu culture theme festival in Chengdu. The festival included a hanfu catwalk show, performance of traditional Chinese music, and temporary retailing shops that sold artefacts featured with traditional Chinese culture. In advance of the festival, the retailing shops’ owners bided for the temporary shop places. Most of temporary small stores were in open air (most of them only had one or two tables). The commodities were various Chinese traditional products such as tea, archaised handicrafts, and local traditional snacks. A nearby theatre participated in the festival, and provided performances of dramas that adopted from Chinese ancient stories and operas. Besides professional performances, the festival also included some informal performances. A small parade team (three or four performers in different timeslots) moved around the festival area. The parade team wore hanfu and acted different roles, for example peddlers. They occasionally interacted with travellers according to their roles. For example, a male performer whose role was a peddler carried a shoulder pole with two baskets and yelled “come and find good stuffs!”. In addition to the parade team, some performers stayed in several reserved places and invited traveller to take group selfies. These performers also wore hanfu and acted roles. The performers were hired by local government or third-party service providers. Some of performers were professional performers while the others were part-time amateur performers. The second case is a non-government organised commercial activity, which is a long spout tea pot lesson. This was a three-hour session of teaching the participants the skills of using a long spout tea pot. The session was regularly organised by HCC. The participants were encouraged to wear hanfu during the session as the instructor did. The instructor demonstrated the history of tea and long spout tea pot, the skills of using the long spout tea pot, and the art of appreciating tea. The session was provided in a courtyard in Wenshufang, which is a commercial avenue developed from a bazaar next to Temple Wenshu. Temple Wenshu is an active religious place of Buddhism as well as a famous tourist spot due to its remaining buildings of ancient Chinese architectural styles. The most parts of the courtyard were occupied by a company that provided service of hosting traditional Chinese wedding ceremony. The owner of this company was an acquaintance of the instructor. Hanfu appeared almost everywhere in the courtyard. The third case is a kunqu opera public lecture. Kunqu is a subtype of traditional Chinese operas. This lecture was advertised by HCC, and hosted by a commercial cultural product company. A local community in Chengdu paid the company for the services of offering lectures and organising other cultural activities or social gatherings for the residents in the community. Along with opera costumes, hanfu was mentioned a few times as an example of traditional Chinese cultures. A few of audiences attended the lecture in hanfu. In the above cases, hanfu is more likely to be recognised as an iconic item of traditional Chinese culture than a flag of nationalism, even in the activities that were organised by governments. The organisers of the activities intentionally built an ethos of immersing in traditional Chinese culture by presenting hanfu in the activities. In the first case, performers instrumentally wore hanfu for presenting a Disneyland-park-like visual appearance of ancient Chinese sightseeing. Likewise, hanfu was one of traditional Chinese cultural elements in the second and third cases. In these three cases, the primary reason of hanfu’s presence is hanfu’s cultural reference to traditional Chinese cultures, rather than hanfu’s potential political reference to nationalism. For clarity, I do not intend to claim that nationalism is totally absent in these social activities. In the opening ceremony of the hanfu culture festival, officials of local government presented and gave a speech about the connection between traditional Chinese culture and patriotism. Some political slogans of nationalism occasionally appeared in the festival field. However, as I aim to argue, these nationalist references are not the primary reason of presenting hanfu in the social activities. The traditional Chinese culture that are carried by hanfu is the primary reason of involving hanfu in the social activities. Modified hanfu: culture, convenience, and beautiful appearance Interestingly, during the fieldwork, I did not find that many consumers were committed to nationalism. Instead, many consumers showed their worries about the influence of nationalism. For example, one of the interviewees, Zhao was once interested in hanfu due to hanfu’s aesthetic value, but eventually gave up. She explained that she was scared by the nationalists’ comments on social media, especially the hatred speech that wearing wrongly-designed hanfu is a betrayal of history and nation. The so-called “wrongly-designed hanfu” refers to modified hanfu. A person who is not familiar with hanfu culture can hardly distinguish modified hanfu from hanfu, while modified hanfu and hanfu are qualitatively different in the eyes of enthusiastic consumers of hanfu. A hanfu is a hanfu only if its design followed the design aesthetics of ancient Chinese clothes. Modified hanfu, in contrast, is designed according to designers’ or contemporary popular tastes. Modified hanfu adopts some iconic elements of hanfu such as long loose sleeves, archaised embroideries, and stylistic collar. Modified hanfu’s design changes some hanfu’s traditional features for fitting modern urban life. For example, a hanfu skirt is usually very long (it reaches the ground), while a modified hanfu skirt is probably a short skirt (it may not reach the wearer’s knees). Zhao’s worry about modified hanfu is reasonable, since negative comments on modified hanfu indeed exist among consumers of hanfu. However, consumers’ negative comments are provoked by modified hanfu’s failure of fulfilling consumers’ desires of appreciating the cultural meanings. In other words, consumers may have a positive attitude to modified hanfu if modified hanfu can present traditional Chinese cultures well. This attitude can be illustrated by two cases, Feng and Shen. I met Feng in the long spout tea pot lesson. At the age of thirty-one, she was a white collar in an education company in Chengdu. She was interested in and enthusiastic to promote Chinese traditional cultures, and she attended regularly in social gatherings featured with Chinese traditional cultures. However, the major reason that she was attracted by hanfu was hanfu’s beautiful appearance rather that the cultures carried by hanfu. She had been a consumer of hanfu for four years. The first time she was exposed to hanfu culture was in 2013, when she was an undergraduate. She met some hanfu enthusiasts (also peer students in the university where she was studying) who were wearing hanfu and advocating for hanfu culture. However, she was not attracted because she thought those hanfu were not beautiful and did not fit the needs of everyday life. The turning point was in 2019. She travelled with her friends in a suburban park and met a photographer’s studio that provided clothing rental of hanfu. She enjoyed the beautiful appearance of those hanfu, and rented a suit of hanfu with her friends. They took photos in many places in the park, then they met other travellers who also wore hanfu, and had a friendly chat. This experience inspired Feng to further explore hanfu culture. Beautiful appearance was Feng’s primary concern in consuming hanfu, while she also appreciated the traditional cultural meanings that were carried by hanfu. Feng enjoyed modified hanfu and agreed that modified hanfu indeed helped hanfu being increasingly popular. Feng did not agree that buying and wearing modified hanfu is a betrayal of traditional Chinese culture. Feng bought and wore some modified hanfu in her daily life. She appreciated the cultural meanings of hanfu, while she also appreciated the utilitarian designs of modified hanfu. For example, some modified hanfu change the long wide sleeves/skirts of hanfu to short tight sleeves/skirts for convenient daily clothing. Despite of her recognition of modified hanfu’s achievements, Feng still maintained a critical opinion about modified hanfu: Modified hanfu is “beautiful but shallow”, while hanfu is “beautiful with and because of historical and cultural value”. As She emphasised in the interview, “the true aesthetic value” of hanfu is hanfu’s combination between Chinese traditional cultures and beautiful appearance. Shen was a film producer and a researcher in culture studies at a university. I met him in a three-day trip of visiting Buddhist grottoes. The Trip was organised by HCC. Shen was a senior member of HCC, and Shen was an expert in Buddhist grottoes, so Shen led the trip team as a tour guide. Shen was in his late thirties, and had been an enthusiastic hanfu consumer for over ten years. Shen was enthusiastic to promote hanfu culture. He wore hanfu all days during the trip, and he occasionally gave a brief introduction to the hanfu that he was wearing when he was illustrating the history of Buddhist grottoes. Shen frequently claimed that wearing hanfu in daily life is absolutely a normal thing and encouraged the trip team members to wear hanfu, though the most of the trip team members were simply enjoying Buddhist grottoes with limited interests in hanfu culture or wearing hanfu in daily life. Although Shen had a strong commitment to hanfu culture as well as traditional Chinese cultures, hanfu is hardly more than a part of his cultural omnivore tastes. Shen had expert knowledge of the art history of Buddhist statue, though he did not have any religious belief. He appreciated not only Buddhist statues in China, but also Buddhist statues in significantly different aesthetic styles in other countries that have flourishing Buddhist cultures such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan. Despite the sharp difference between Chinese traditional Buddhist cultures and other countries’ Buddhist cultures, Shen appreciated the aesthetic values of Buddhist statues. The diverse tastes of different countries’ Buddhist statue arts were an extension of Shen’s primary interests in Buddhist statue arts’ aesthetic value. Shen also had a wide range interests in youth cultures, such as cosplay photography, anime, and video games, though he was much elder than a typical consumer of these youth cultural products. Such open attitude also applied to Shen’s opinion of modified hanfu. Similar with Feng, Shen appreciated the combination between the beautiful appearance and cultural backgrounds of hanfu while he also recognised modified hanfu’s achievement of promoting hanfu cultures. Shen was hanfu culture enthusiast who was proud of traditional Chinese cultures and passionate to promote hanfu culture. He was open to the flourishing fashion of modified hanfu, but he emphasised that hanfu is a part of traditional Chinese cultures while modified hanfu is a part of modern fashion. Shen held an optimistic opinion of the coexistence of hanfu and modified hanfu. He occasionally told some ironic jokes about how some modified hanfu were misunderstood as authentic historical designs of hanfu, but he managed a balance between appreciating hanfu’s cultural references and modified hanfu’s beautiful appearance and convenience. Afterall, hanfu culture was one of his loosely related diverse hobbies rather than a serious political expression. Casual consumers: hanfu is a type of clothes by nature Feng and Shen were hanfu culture enthusiasts and they highlighted the traditional Chinese culture that are carried by hanfu. However, nationalism was hardly presented in their concerns of hanfu consumption. In the cases of casual consumers, expressions of nationalism were also rare. Further, casual consumers showed less interests in traditional Chinese culture than hanfu culture enthusiasts. Causal consumers may simply enjoy the beautiful appearance of hanfu. Yang, a government employee, wore hanfu in leisure time. She was at the age of late twenties. Yang’s first attempt of wearing hanfu was encouraged by her friend. Her friend liked various fashionable new things, and hanfu was one of “new arrivals”. Introduced by her friend, Yang tried a few times of wearing hanfu, and became a fan of hanfu. Yang never engaged in any hanfu theme social gatherings or communities. In Yang’s opinion, hanfu was primarily a beautiful item of clothes, and hanfu’s cultural backgrounds were the icing on the cake. Unlike many of hanfu enthusiasts, Yang did not intend to adopt hanfu into her daily life. She rarely tried to wear any type of hanfu in workplace. This was partially due to the clothing code requirements of her workplace, which was a sector of the local government. Although the sector did not require wearing uniforms, hanfu was considered as too casual to be presented in the workplace. Besides the clothing requirements, Yang also had concerns of hanfu’s capacity of being presented in daily life. She complained that many designs of hanfu were beautiful in picture but cumbersome in ordinary life. The balance between appreciating hanfu’s beautiful appearance and handling hanfu’s cumbersome long sleeves/skirt, in Yang’s mind, was to keep hanfu in private leisure time for occasional traveling or taking photos. In some casual consumers’ opinion, hanfu are a type of cosplay costumes rather than a daily clothing choice. Dong was at the age of early thirties, and was running a small IT company. Besides the decent personal economic achievement, Dong was also a well-educated master’s degree holder, and he was pursuing further education for a Doctorate degree. Dong encountered hanfu culture when he was an undergraduate (more than ten years ago). That was a comic festival. In the mainland China, a comic festival involves not only various cultural products such as comics/anime, video games, and popular TV series, but also performances of cosplay (a role-play performance) acted by professional or amateur actors and actresses. Travellers may also wear costumes and cosplay characters. Dong was a fan of Japanese anime cultures, so Dong occasionally went to some comic festivals for shopping, enjoying performances, and making friends. Hanfu in a comic festival appeared as a type of costumes that can be used instrumentally to cosplay a character in a TV series or video game. In some cases, one might wear a set of hanfu (or modified hanfu) without cosplaying any specific character. Dong was attracted to the exotic experience of wearing hanfu in a comic festival. He explained that he was interested in TV series or video games that have a theme of ancient Chinese fantasy, but it was impossible to bring exact these fantasy stories into ordinary life. Wearing hanfu in a comic festival provided him a chance of role-playing an imagined self who was living an ancient Chinese fantasy story or a romanticised ancient Chinese society. In short, wearing hanfu was a type of temporary extraordinary experience to Dong. Unsurprisingly, Dong kept hanfu in the occasions of comic festivals and never tried to adopt hanfu into his daily life or advocating for any political agenda. Wearing hanfu as a type of costumes is common in tourism industry. In recent years, many “old towns” are constructed and become tourist spots. Old towns are theme parks by nature. They have many archaised buildings in order to offer a wholesale physical surroundings of an ancient Chinese style. Based on the data from the observation in four old towns in Chengdu and Xi’an, hanfu themed photography is a regular service in old town tourisms. Consumers may rent a full set of hanfu from a studio, and take photos while traveling in an old town. Professional photographers in studios also offer indoor and outdoor hanfu themed photography services. An indoor photo may be as simple as a portrait that a person wearing hanfu in front of a plain white background, or as gorgeous as a few people in a well decorated living room with traditional Chinese furniture. If a consumer wants an outdoor photography service, a professional photographer will accompany the consumer in the travel, and take photos once the consumer requests, or the photographer may suggest some iconic landscapes for taking photos. Sometimes, photographers may design a scenario for taking interesting photos. The scenario of a photo may be a lady in hanfu leaning on wooden balustrades and watching koi fishes, or a warrior with ancient Chinese armour holding a sword and taking a break in the middle of a military exercise. Consumers are not ignorant of that the so-called old towns are theme parks rather than authentic historical sites. The point of wearing hanfu and taking photos in an old town is to appreciate an exotic experience, which is sharply different from their daily life. Mamianqun: begin with nationalism and end up with fashion Mamianqun is a subtype of hanfu for women. Mamianqun literally means horse-face dress. Mamianqun is usually a long thin skirt with a piece of straight square fabric in the front. This appearance resembles a horse’s face from the visual angle in the front. A typical design of mamianqun exploits dark colours and simplistic tailoring techniques. This makes mamianqun less attention-drawing, exotic, or extraordinary than other typical hanfu. During the fieldwork, I found mamianqun was extremely popular among the consumers. Almost every female consumer of hanfu had at least an item of mamianqun. According to my observation, I could easily find mamianqun on a random street in Mainland China. Mamianqun had potentials of becoming a flag of nationalism, but it eventually appears as a counter-example to the claim that consumers of hanfu tend to express a political position of nationalism. Mamianqun did not get much attention among hanfu consumers until 2022. In 2022, some Chinese netizens criticised Dior that one of the Dior’s new skirts copied the design of mamianqun, and soon the controversy became a hot spot about nationalism, fashion colonialism, and cultural appropriation. Through the event, mamianqun was exposed to not only hanfu consumers but also consumers who never knew hanfu. In the peak time of the event, some enthusiasts intentionally wore mamianqun for showing an attitude of anti-fashion-colonialism. However, based on the observation and interviews during the fieldwork, many consumers explained that they liked mamianqun due to a contrary reason: mamianqun is not very recognisable, so they can easily adopt mamianqun into their ordinary clothing choices without expressing any specific political proposal. Many consumers of hanfu agreed that although they also wore other hanfu in their daily life, mamianqun is indeed more manageable to wear in whatever school, workplace, or leisure time than other hanfu. Some consumers of hanfu even therefore bought and wore only mamianqun. Gao was one of consumers who did not buy and wear any type of hanfu except for mamianqun. Gao was a forty-three-year-old teacher at a middle school. I met her through an interviewee’s introduction, and we had an online interview about her wearing experience of hanfu as well as her attitudes to hanfu culture. She said that she was attracted by mamianqun at the first glance even though she never intended to try any hanfu earlier. Gao bought only some mamianqun and showed no interest in other hanfu. She did not participate any hanfu theme festivals. She did not join in any hanfu culture community. Gao appreciated the cultural backgrounds and aesthetic value of hanfu, but, as she explained, other hanfu are too gorgeous and cumbersome to wear in daily life. She did not want to engage in any potential commitment of an ideology, an identity, or the belonging of a community. However, hanfu has the capacity of signifying such commitments, especially in a lay person’s eyes. Therefore, Gao intentionally made her hanfu – mamianqun – less recognisable to other people. She wore an ordinary shirt with mamianqun. Such mixed style allowed her to immerse mamianqun into her daily dressing with other clothes, in order to made mamianqun look like a normal long skirt. Hanfu must be recognisable for the most of people if a consumer wants to express nationalism by presenting hanfu. However, mamianqun is popular among hanfu consumers because it is less recognisable than a typical item of hanfu or modified hanfu. Further, many consumers like Gao intentionally weaken the recognisability of mamianqun by wearing mamianqun with other ordinary clothes in a mixed style. Hanfu indeed carries symbolic references to traditional Chinese culture, and so does mamianqun. However, symbolic references are not primary concerns in hanfu consumption in the above cases. Afterall, hanfu is a type of clothes that consumers wear in their daily life. The manageability of hanfu is a stronger concern in consumers’ mind than symbolic references. Conclusion This study examines the Chinese consumers’ wearing experience of hanfu and opinion of hanfu culture, and contributes to the understandings of nationalism in consumption in China from an empirical studies’ perspective. Based on the data from observation and interviews, this article illustrates that Chinese consumers of hanfu appreciate hanfu’s aesthetic value of visual appearance and cultural meanings while nationalism is not a significant motivation. Specifically, first, in social activities with a theme of hanfu culture, hanfu is presented as a part of traditional Chinese cultures while the grand narratives of patriotism, nationalism, and Han ethnicity do not appear as the centre of social activities. Second, enthusiastic hanfu consumers primarily appreciate hanfu’ cultural meanings rather than political implication. In enthusiastic hanfu consumers’ opinion, the hard core of hanfu is that hanfu carries traditional Chinese cultures rather than political implications of nationalism or patriotism. Third, causal consumers pursue an extraordinary experience by wearing hanfu. To causal consumers, hanfu is hardly more than a stylistic type of clothing choices. Beautiful appearance and exotic experience are the core concerns in causal consumers’ mind about hanfu consumption. Political implications are not involved in causal consumers’ intention, and in the case of mamianqun, causal consumers may intentionally weaken hanfu’s recognisability in order to avoid potential political proposals. In short, instead of political motivations, cultural tastes drive consumers’ choices of hanfu consumption. In consumers’ opinion, hanfu is firstly a type of clothes. Beautiful appearance, convenience, and whether hanfu satisfy their tastes are more important than symbolic references in their wearing experience. The limitations of this study and potential future extensive research can address two topics: First, the mechanism between consumers’ tastes and choices of hanfu may be further explored. Consumers’ tastes may be influenced or even determined by various factors. Meanwhile, the cultural references of commodities may also be influenced or formed by various powers. The mechanisms of hanfu consumers’ tastes and hanfu’s cultural references are not fully explored. Second, hanfu cultures involve not only hanfu consumption. Other aspects of hanfu cultures, such as hanfu fandom, governments’ polices of hanfu industry, and potential instrumental usages of hanfu in Han supremacists’ activities, may require alternative interpretation. This study focuses on hanfu consumers. However, other groups of people who also participate in hanfu culture activities may have distinct mechanisms, especially potential cooperation between hanfu fandom, governments, and Han supremacists. Declarations Data availability This research involves anonymised qualitative data. According to the ethical approval as well as participants’ informed consent, anonymised data can be used for academic purposes and accessed to the primary investigator of this research, but data cannot be publicly shared. Therefore, as a part of the requirements of ethnical approval and protection of participants’ privacy, interview transcripts cannot be publicly released. Author contributions This article is solely authored by XXX. XXX is fully responsible for all parts of the research. Ethics declarations Competing interests The publication of this article received financial support from XXX (Project No. XXX). Ethical approval This study involved qualitative data of formal interviews, informal chats, and observation fieldnotes. All involved people were told that the researcher was conducting fieldwork for a research project on hanfu culture, and their anonymised ideas, experiences, and activities might be quoted in a published academic article. This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This project obtained an ethical approval from institute XXX. The ethical reference number is XXX, under the original title XXXXXX. The ethical approval period is from XX-XX-XXXX to XX-XX-XXXX. Informed consent All participants provided informed consent prior to data collection, between July 2022 and December 2023. The information regarding the research objectives, data usage, protection of privacy, and potential quotations or participants’ sayings/opinions/experience/activities in publications were provided to the participants prior to data collection. 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(1996) The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society , trans. D. Smith, Sage, London. Mayer, M., & Pawlik, K. (2023). Politics of Memory, Heritage, and Diversity in Modern China. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs , 52 (2), 139-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/18681026231204890 (Original work published 2023) Miller, D. (2010). Stuff . Cambridge: Polity Press. Muggleton, D. (2000). Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style . Oxford: Berg. Timmermans, S., & Tavory, I. (2012). Theory construction in qualitative research: From grounded theory to abductive analysis. Sociological theory, 30 (3), 167-186. Wang, X., Colbert, F., & Legoux, R. (2020). From Niche Interest to Fashion Trend: Hanfu Clothing as a Rising Industry in China. International Journal of Arts Management, 23 (1), 79-89. Warde, A. (2014). After taste: Culture, consumption and theories of practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 14 (3), 279-303. doi:10.1177/1469540514547828 Warde, A. (2017). Consumption : a sociological analysis . London: Palgrave Macmillan. Woodward, S. (2016). Object interviews, material imaginings and ‘unsettling’methods: Interdisciplinary approaches to understanding materials and material culture. Qualitative Research, 16 (4), 359-374. Yinger, J. M. (1960). Contraculture and subculture. American sociological review , 625-635. Zhang, Q., Wang, CJ. (2024). Chinese online nationalism as imaginary engagement: an automated sentiment analysis of Tencent news comments on the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 484. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02983-w Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. The publication of this article received financial support from Research Grants for Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Shaanxi Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Centre, Shaanxi Province, China (Project No. 2024QN08). 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The publication of this article received financial support from Research Grants for Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Shaanxi Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Centre, Shaanxi Province, China (Project No. 2024QN08).","formattedTitle":"The myth of nationalism: Chinese consumers’ activities and cultural interpretation in hanfu consumption","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eHanfu is originated from the ancient Han ethnicity\u0026rsquo;s clothes. Most of hanfu in contemporary China are re-designed by modern clothes designers. In some cases, designers elaborate on making their designs loyal to the exact forms of ancient Chinese clothes, in order to emphasise the connection between modern hanfu and Chinese traditional cultures. Such connection provides hanfu a potential of being not only a fashionable type of clothes, but also a symbol of Han ethnicity (Leibold, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). Further, research on hanfu culture suggest that hanfu culture involves a commitment to a political proposal of nationalism (Davis, Xiao, Wei, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e). However, hanfu culture and hanfu culture community is not a homogeneous group of people who share a clear cultural consensus, and hanfu culture is becoming a popular type of fashion consumption (Wang, Colbert, Legoux, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Nationalism\u0026rsquo;s role in hanfu consumption is problematic, since fashion consumption is highly fluid and personal (Bennett, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Kawamura, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e). This is not to claim that fashion consumption or hanfu consumption does not have political implications, or political influences does not exist in fashion consumption or hanfu consumption. Instead, this study intends to explore nationalism in Chinese consumers\u0026rsquo; consumption activities by investigating an empirical question: whether nationalism is a potential important role in hanfu consumption.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor examining consumers\u0026rsquo; motivations and experience, an intensive engagement of individualised empirical data is applied. An ethnographic fieldwork of participant observation, nonparticipant observation, interviews, and informal discussion is conducted in two cities in Mainland China for eighteen months. In this article, I will present the details of the cases from fieldwork, in order to offer a thick data and corresponding analysis about consumers\u0026rsquo; experience and understandings of hanfu culture as well as hanfu consumption. For clarity, consumption in this article follows a common definition in consumption study academia: Consumption includes acquisition, appropriation, and appreciation (Warde, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Based on such understanding of consumption, the details of the cases of hanfu consumption will demonstrate how consumers encounter hanfu culture, how consumers wear hanfu in their daily life, and what consumers appreciate from wearing hanfu. Through presenting these details, I intend to present a solid evidence-based cultural interpretation of hanfu culture, and illustrate that nationalism is not an outstanding influential factor in these cases of hanfu consumption.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the following sections, I will firstly offer a literature review of recent research on nationalism in hanfu culture, along with critiques of overemphasising symbolic references and political implications in consumption studies and culture studies. Second, I will introduce the methods. Then, I will present the cases and analysis of the following four phenomenon: (1), Hanfu carries traditional Chinese cultures, and the cultural references rather than political implications are the primary feature of hanfu. (2), Enthusiastic consumers of hanfu mainly appreciate hanfu\u0026rsquo;s cultural references of traditional Chinese cultures, and they are open to modified hanfu because they also appreciate the beautiful appearance of modified hanfu. (3), Causal consumers of hanfu mainly appreciate the beautiful appearance of hanfu and extraordinary experience of wearing hanfu, while the cultural references of hanfu are not their primary concerns. (4), In the case of mamianqun (a subtype of hanfu), consumers intentionally weaken the recognisability of hanfu, while hanfu has a potential strong political implication.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Literature review","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe mainstream research on hanfu explore the mechanism and influence of hanfu’s symbolic reference to nationalism. The role of materialised symbols in the formation and influence of nationalism and national identity is well investigated (Anderson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1991\u003c/span\u003e[1983], 2020[2008]). In Mainland China, cultural heritages of various traditional Chinese cultures are frequently exploited as materialised symbols of nationalism (Blumenfield \u0026amp; Silverman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Zhang \u0026amp; Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Materialised symbols appear in not only governments’ promotion activities, but also in popular cultures (Li, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Hanfu is one of influential materialised symbols originated from cultural heritages, and wearing hanfu is widely interpreted as a cultural practice of expressing ethnic identity, patriotism, and political position of supporting Chinese government (Carrico, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Based on such interpretation, recent research define the core issue of hanfu dressing practices as the interaction between individuals’ cultural expression, state’s ideological agenda, and cultural/political influence in the field of popular cultures. However, this research path overemphasises the symbolic aspect of hanfu, and to an extent, underestimates the mundane aspect of hanfu consumption in consumers’ everyday life.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccording to the frame of interpreting hanfu culture as a nationalism, symbolic reference is the primary interest in the consumption of hanfu. Leibold (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e) provides a systematic description and analysis of the interaction between individuals’ cultural expression and state’s ideological agenda. Drawing on the internet discussion about some social hot spot problems, Leibold (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e) explores Chinese youth’s articulation of Han ethnicity, and suggests that hanfu (along with other material culture such as traditional music, calligraphy, and Confucianism) is used as one of flags to promote traditional cultures of Han ethnicity, in order to strengthen the self-identity of Han ethnicity. Such frame of understanding hanfu culture as a practice of nationalism has echoes. Davis, Xiao and Wei (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e) interpret hanfu as a “soft nationalism” emerged from online participatory practice. They (Davis, Xiao, Wei, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e) suggest that hanfu culture is “a quietly spoken yet assertive nationalism”, which accommodates the grand narrative of Han nationalism and patriotism into people’s everyday lives by wearing and presenting hanfu (an iconic visual representation). Likewise, Fan and Ip (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) examine hanfu dressing practices of Chinese migrant youth in the United Kingdom, and they suggest that hanfu is a carrier of an imagined community (ancient China, which is a symbolised home) for Chinese migrant youth. Law and Qin (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) argue that hanfu practices in Mainland China tend to present hanfu as a visual representation of an imagined lost elegant past of ancient China. In Law and Qin’s work (2023), they found that hanfu enthusiasts interpret their hanfu dressing practices as a reattainment of the elegant lifestyles. Mayer and Pawlik’s research (2023) on hanfu’s presentation on mass media and social media also suggest that hanfu is connected to an imagined elegant past of ancient China.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe frame of interpreting hanfu as a nationalism illuminates the complex of Chinese youth’s bottom-up nationalism. However, the role of symbolic references of clothes in clothes consumption is problematic. Interpreting clothes consumption through symbolic references is a long-standing approach and produces fruitful outcomes (Baudrillard, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e[1972], \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1996\u003c/span\u003e[1968], \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e [1970]; Bauman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Douglas \u0026amp; Isherwood, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1979\u003c/span\u003e; Featherstone, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e; Giddens, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1991\u003c/span\u003e), but critiques on overemphasising symbolic references of clothes are also wide and insightful (Appadurai, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1986\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e; Arnould \u0026amp; Thompson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Miller, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e; Warde, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). For example, Van der Laan and Velthuis (2016) found that consumers manage daily clothing choices according to social norms, dressing codes and their personal tastes. In this case, clothing practices involve little motives of exploiting the symbolic references of clothes. Another example is Miller and Woodward’s research (2012) of jeans. Miller and Woodward (2012) argue that jeans have little symbolic references due to its ubiquitous existence in everyday life, and thus consumers wear jeans as a default suit for their daily clothing choices. The research of jeans shows that clothes are not always capable of carrying clear symbolic references.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn influential theoretical tradition in the field of cultural studies support interpreting cultural consumption as an expression of political proposal (Hall \u0026amp; Jefferson, 2006[1976]; Hebdige, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e[1979]; Yinger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1960\u003c/span\u003e), but recent research tend to argue for a portrait of consumers who are less sensitive to political agenda or symbolic references of commodities (Author, XXXX; Hodkinson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Muggleton, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2000\u003c/span\u003e). Based on Maffesoli’s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1996\u003c/span\u003e) theory of neo-tribes, Bennett (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e) argues that consumers may participate in a social gathering with other fandom peers, but such participation does not have a commitment to an ideological agenda or an identity of being a member of a subcultural community. Bennett (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e) claims a tendency in contemporary societies that consumers tend to express their tastes by consuming commodities in stylistic ways of purchasing, appropriation, and appreciation of iconic commodities.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInspired by these recent critiques on overemphasising commodities’ symbolic references and political implications in consumption activities, this article engages hanfu consumption from a perspective of investigating consumers’ wearing experience rather than constructing a potential narrative of nationalism. Specifically, consumers’ feelings, motives, and habits of wearing hanfu are the primary concerns in delineating and analysing hanfu consumption. From an empirical study aspect, I intend to contribute to the understandings of Chinese consumers as well as Chinese nationalism in hanfu consumption: Consumers’ consumption of hanfu involves significant concerns of personal tastes, daily clothing convenience, and pursuits of extraordinary experience, while nationalism is minor in many cases.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"},{"header":"Methods","content":"\u003cp\u003eI conducted an eighteen months ethnographic fieldwork and twenty interviews. My fieldwork was conducted mainly in Chengdu, China. I chose Chengdu as the main research field because it is a city famous for being youth culture (and hanfu culture in particular) friendly. Chengdu’s being youth culture friendly is not just a general description that can be used to describe any economically energetic city with a high ratio of youth population. Chengdu’s government implemented a tourism and creative industries oriented policy around twenty years ago. One of the major accomplishments of this policy is that Chengdu successfully makes itself a synonym of youth culture in mass media and social media. An interesting thing happened in the interviews outside Chengdu can somehow indicate this accomplishment: Every time I mentioned that I conducted fieldwork in Chengdu, the interviewees would comment that Chengdu is a good place to explore youth cultures.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBesides the fieldwork in Chengdu, I also collected data from other cities as complementary sources. I conducted some short-term visits in Xi’an, which is also a city famous for being hanfu culture friendly. I recruited some interviewees from other cities. The data from other cities are expected to strengthen the analysis as a triangulation proof. The data from Chengdu and other cities allow me to have diversified participants’ data, which helps a qualitative research to go beyond an interpretation of specific micro-level cases, and reach a potentially generalisable theorisation of a type of social phenomenon (Burawoy, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring the fieldwork, I conducted many participant/non-participant observations and interviews in turn. Once I finished some interviews, I usually found some new ideas and interesting phenomena. Then, I would go back to the fieldwork, and once I found enough new problematics, I started another round of interviews. Such observation-interview-observation model allowed me to identify and address potential theoretically important issues from fieldwork, so to theorise consumers’ practices from a perspective of abductive analysis (Timmermans \u0026amp; Tavory, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). Such combination also allowed me to keep a balance between field-driven (delineate the details of research object) and theory-driven (obtain sufficient data for addressing theoretical issues) (Lichterman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI participated in many hanfu-themed social activities. Some of them were hosted by local governments and commercial organisations. Some of them were hosted by a local hanfu community, hereafter anonymised as Hanfu Culture Community and abbreviated as HCC. HCC is an NGO though it did not have a permanent physical office places and basically all works were managed online. Here are some examples of the hanfu-themed social activities: trips of visiting Buddhist grottoes, long-spout kettle tea art sessions, kunqu opera shows, hanfu photography, and hanfu theme carnivals. I visited some tourism old towns themed with Chinese traditional cultures. The most of “old towns” are newly constructed with a theme of ancient China for tourism in recent years. In other words, old towns are theme parks. Hanfu, as a part of Chinese culture, appeared in many old towns.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe interviews intensively covered some key topics, such as consumers’ motives, habits, and opinions on hanfu cultures and nationalism. I conducted twenty formal interviews and some informal chatting in person or online. The interviewees have diversified age groups, occupations, and residential places. All usage of the contents from formal interviews and informal chatting obtained written or verbal consent. An interview usually lasted for around 1 hour. The topics of the interviews were slightly different due to the research progress, while the majority of the interviews’ topics were shared.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe interviewees are diversified. Hanfu cultures are widely recognised as a type of youth cultures or subcultures (Wang, Colbert, Legoux, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). However, I found that many participants reached middle age and some of them were even retired elders. So, I recruited participants across age groups. The participants’ occupations were also diversified. I interviewed undergraduate and postgraduate students, designers in creative industry, salesperson, product manager, instructor in a museum, government employee, and an owner of a small company. Some of them are quite different from the general public’s imagination of hanfu consumers (teenage students). For example, a participant was working in Chinese government which usually requires the employees a highly conservative and formal clothing style.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA problem in interview was that interviewees occasionally could not precisely describe their perception of the clothes’ cultural meanings, and they usually used some vague wordings to express their feelings such as “sense”, “ethos”, or “match”. For stimulating the interviewees’ thought in order to obtain more specific and clear description, I showed many pictures of the clothes during online interviews. This strategy of object interview successfully strengthened the clearness of interview data (Woodward, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA positionality problem and meanwhile an ethical concern is that most of consumers and interview participants are women. I, as the researcher and the investigator of the data, am a man, which naturally set a barrier (even a risk) and potential bias in terms of analytical perspectives. For overcoming this problem, I applied three principles during the fieldwork and interviews: (1) Always disclosed my identity of a researcher; (2) Always conducted research in public spaces; (3) Intentionally included male interviewees for balancing and comparing opinions from female and male consumers. All names mentioned in this article are pseudonyms.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHanfu carries traditional Chinese culture\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eHanfu is widely recognised as a part of traditional Chinese cultures. Nowadays, hanfu becomes a materialised symbol of traditional Chinese culture because of hanfu’s distinguishing stylistic visual appearance. Hanfu appears in many government-organised and non-government-organised social activities that have a theme of traditional Chinese cultures. In the following paragraphs, I will offer three cases of hanfu in social activities, in order to illustrate how hanfu is presented as a symbol of traditional Chinese culture.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first case is a government-organised hanfu culture theme festival in Chengdu. The festival included a hanfu catwalk show, performance of traditional Chinese music, and temporary retailing shops that sold artefacts featured with traditional Chinese culture. In advance of the festival, the retailing shops’ owners bided for the temporary shop places. Most of temporary small stores were in open air (most of them only had one or two tables). The commodities were various Chinese traditional products such as tea, archaised handicrafts, and local traditional snacks. A nearby theatre participated in the festival, and provided performances of dramas that adopted from Chinese ancient stories and operas. Besides professional performances, the festival also included some informal performances. A small parade team (three or four performers in different timeslots) moved around the festival area. The parade team wore hanfu and acted different roles, for example peddlers. They occasionally interacted with travellers according to their roles. For example, a male performer whose role was a peddler carried a shoulder pole with two baskets and yelled “come and find good stuffs!”. In addition to the parade team, some performers stayed in several reserved places and invited traveller to take group selfies. These performers also wore hanfu and acted roles. The performers were hired by local government or third-party service providers. Some of performers were professional performers while the others were part-time amateur performers.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second case is a non-government organised commercial activity, which is a long spout tea pot lesson. This was a three-hour session of teaching the participants the skills of using a long spout tea pot. The session was regularly organised by HCC. The participants were encouraged to wear hanfu during the session as the instructor did. The instructor demonstrated the history of tea and long spout tea pot, the skills of using the long spout tea pot, and the art of appreciating tea. The session was provided in a courtyard in Wenshufang, which is a commercial avenue developed from a bazaar next to Temple Wenshu. Temple Wenshu is an active religious place of Buddhism as well as a famous tourist spot due to its remaining buildings of ancient Chinese architectural styles. The most parts of the courtyard were occupied by a company that provided service of hosting traditional Chinese wedding ceremony. The owner of this company was an acquaintance of the instructor. Hanfu appeared almost everywhere in the courtyard.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe third case is a kunqu opera public lecture. Kunqu is a subtype of traditional Chinese operas. This lecture was advertised by HCC, and hosted by a commercial cultural product company. A local community in Chengdu paid the company for the services of offering lectures and organising other cultural activities or social gatherings for the residents in the community. Along with opera costumes, hanfu was mentioned a few times as an example of traditional Chinese cultures. A few of audiences attended the lecture in hanfu.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the above cases, hanfu is more likely to be recognised as an iconic item of traditional Chinese culture than a flag of nationalism, even in the activities that were organised by governments. The organisers of the activities intentionally built an ethos of immersing in traditional Chinese culture by presenting hanfu in the activities. In the first case, performers instrumentally wore hanfu for presenting a Disneyland-park-like visual appearance of ancient Chinese sightseeing. Likewise, hanfu was one of traditional Chinese cultural elements in the second and third cases. In these three cases, the primary reason of hanfu’s presence is hanfu’s cultural reference to traditional Chinese cultures, rather than hanfu’s potential political reference to nationalism. For clarity, I do not intend to claim that nationalism is totally absent in these social activities. In the opening ceremony of the hanfu culture festival, officials of local government presented and gave a speech about the connection between traditional Chinese culture and patriotism. Some political slogans of nationalism occasionally appeared in the festival field. However, as I aim to argue, these nationalist references are not the primary reason of presenting hanfu in the social activities. The traditional Chinese culture that are carried by hanfu is the primary reason of involving hanfu in the social activities.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eModified hanfu: culture, convenience, and beautiful appearance\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eInterestingly, during the fieldwork, I did not find that many consumers were committed to nationalism. Instead, many consumers showed their worries about the influence of nationalism. For example, one of the interviewees, Zhao was once interested in hanfu due to hanfu’s aesthetic value, but eventually gave up. She explained that she was scared by the nationalists’ comments on social media, especially the hatred speech that wearing wrongly-designed hanfu is a betrayal of history and nation. The so-called “wrongly-designed hanfu” refers to modified hanfu. A person who is not familiar with hanfu culture can hardly distinguish modified hanfu from hanfu, while modified hanfu and hanfu are qualitatively different in the eyes of enthusiastic consumers of hanfu. A hanfu is a hanfu only if its design followed the design aesthetics of ancient Chinese clothes. Modified hanfu, in contrast, is designed according to designers’ or contemporary popular tastes. Modified hanfu adopts some iconic elements of hanfu such as long loose sleeves, archaised embroideries, and stylistic collar. Modified hanfu’s design changes some hanfu’s traditional features for fitting modern urban life. For example, a hanfu skirt is usually very long (it reaches the ground), while a modified hanfu skirt is probably a short skirt (it may not reach the wearer’s knees). Zhao’s worry about modified hanfu is reasonable, since negative comments on modified hanfu indeed exist among consumers of hanfu. However, consumers’ negative comments are provoked by modified hanfu’s failure of fulfilling consumers’ desires of appreciating the cultural meanings. In other words, consumers may have a positive attitude to modified hanfu if modified hanfu can present traditional Chinese cultures well. This attitude can be illustrated by two cases, Feng and Shen.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI met Feng in the long spout tea pot lesson. At the age of thirty-one, she was a white collar in an education company in Chengdu. She was interested in and enthusiastic to promote Chinese traditional cultures, and she attended regularly in social gatherings featured with Chinese traditional cultures. However, the major reason that she was attracted by hanfu was hanfu’s beautiful appearance rather that the cultures carried by hanfu. She had been a consumer of hanfu for four years. The first time she was exposed to hanfu culture was in 2013, when she was an undergraduate. She met some hanfu enthusiasts (also peer students in the university where she was studying) who were wearing hanfu and advocating for hanfu culture. However, she was not attracted because she thought those hanfu were not beautiful and did not fit the needs of everyday life. The turning point was in 2019. She travelled with her friends in a suburban park and met a photographer’s studio that provided clothing rental of hanfu. She enjoyed the beautiful appearance of those hanfu, and rented a suit of hanfu with her friends. They took photos in many places in the park, then they met other travellers who also wore hanfu, and had a friendly chat. This experience inspired Feng to further explore hanfu culture.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeautiful appearance was Feng’s primary concern in consuming hanfu, while she also appreciated the traditional cultural meanings that were carried by hanfu. Feng enjoyed modified hanfu and agreed that modified hanfu indeed helped hanfu being increasingly popular. Feng did not agree that buying and wearing modified hanfu is a betrayal of traditional Chinese culture. Feng bought and wore some modified hanfu in her daily life. She appreciated the cultural meanings of hanfu, while she also appreciated the utilitarian designs of modified hanfu. For example, some modified hanfu change the long wide sleeves/skirts of hanfu to short tight sleeves/skirts for convenient daily clothing. Despite of her recognition of modified hanfu’s achievements, Feng still maintained a critical opinion about modified hanfu: Modified hanfu is “beautiful but shallow”, while hanfu is “beautiful with and because of historical and cultural value”. As She emphasised in the interview, “the true aesthetic value” of hanfu is hanfu’s combination between Chinese traditional cultures and beautiful appearance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShen was a film producer and a researcher in culture studies at a university. I met him in a three-day trip of visiting Buddhist grottoes. The Trip was organised by HCC. Shen was a senior member of HCC, and Shen was an expert in Buddhist grottoes, so Shen led the trip team as a tour guide. Shen was in his late thirties, and had been an enthusiastic hanfu consumer for over ten years. Shen was enthusiastic to promote hanfu culture. He wore hanfu all days during the trip, and he occasionally gave a brief introduction to the hanfu that he was wearing when he was illustrating the history of Buddhist grottoes. Shen frequently claimed that wearing hanfu in daily life is absolutely a normal thing and encouraged the trip team members to wear hanfu, though the most of the trip team members were simply enjoying Buddhist grottoes with limited interests in hanfu culture or wearing hanfu in daily life.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough Shen had a strong commitment to hanfu culture as well as traditional Chinese cultures, hanfu is hardly more than a part of his cultural omnivore tastes. Shen had expert knowledge of the art history of Buddhist statue, though he did not have any religious belief. He appreciated not only Buddhist statues in China, but also Buddhist statues in significantly different aesthetic styles in other countries that have flourishing Buddhist cultures such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan. Despite the sharp difference between Chinese traditional Buddhist cultures and other countries’ Buddhist cultures, Shen appreciated the aesthetic values of Buddhist statues. The diverse tastes of different countries’ Buddhist statue arts were an extension of Shen’s primary interests in Buddhist statue arts’ aesthetic value. Shen also had a wide range interests in youth cultures, such as cosplay photography, anime, and video games, though he was much elder than a typical consumer of these youth cultural products.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSuch open attitude also applied to Shen’s opinion of modified hanfu. Similar with Feng, Shen appreciated the combination between the beautiful appearance and cultural backgrounds of hanfu while he also recognised modified hanfu’s achievement of promoting hanfu cultures. Shen was hanfu culture enthusiast who was proud of traditional Chinese cultures and passionate to promote hanfu culture. He was open to the flourishing fashion of modified hanfu, but he emphasised that hanfu is a part of traditional Chinese cultures while modified hanfu is a part of modern fashion. Shen held an optimistic opinion of the coexistence of hanfu and modified hanfu. He occasionally told some ironic jokes about how some modified hanfu were misunderstood as authentic historical designs of hanfu, but he managed a balance between appreciating hanfu’s cultural references and modified hanfu’s beautiful appearance and convenience. Afterall, hanfu culture was one of his loosely related diverse hobbies rather than a serious political expression.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eCasual consumers: hanfu is a type of clothes by nature\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFeng and Shen were hanfu culture enthusiasts and they highlighted the traditional Chinese culture that are carried by hanfu. However, nationalism was hardly presented in their concerns of hanfu consumption. In the cases of casual consumers, expressions of nationalism were also rare. Further, casual consumers showed less interests in traditional Chinese culture than hanfu culture enthusiasts. Causal consumers may simply enjoy the beautiful appearance of hanfu.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYang, a government employee, wore hanfu in leisure time. She was at the age of late twenties. Yang’s first attempt of wearing hanfu was encouraged by her friend. Her friend liked various fashionable new things, and hanfu was one of “new arrivals”. Introduced by her friend, Yang tried a few times of wearing hanfu, and became a fan of hanfu. Yang never engaged in any hanfu theme social gatherings or communities. In Yang’s opinion, hanfu was primarily a beautiful item of clothes, and hanfu’s cultural backgrounds were the icing on the cake. Unlike many of hanfu enthusiasts, Yang did not intend to adopt hanfu into her daily life. She rarely tried to wear any type of hanfu in workplace. This was partially due to the clothing code requirements of her workplace, which was a sector of the local government. Although the sector did not require wearing uniforms, hanfu was considered as too casual to be presented in the workplace. Besides the clothing requirements, Yang also had concerns of hanfu’s capacity of being presented in daily life. She complained that many designs of hanfu were beautiful in picture but cumbersome in ordinary life. The balance between appreciating hanfu’s beautiful appearance and handling hanfu’s cumbersome long sleeves/skirt, in Yang’s mind, was to keep hanfu in private leisure time for occasional traveling or taking photos.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn some casual consumers’ opinion, hanfu are a type of cosplay costumes rather than a daily clothing choice. Dong was at the age of early thirties, and was running a small IT company. Besides the decent personal economic achievement, Dong was also a well-educated master’s degree holder, and he was pursuing further education for a Doctorate degree. Dong encountered hanfu culture when he was an undergraduate (more than ten years ago). That was a comic festival. In the mainland China, a comic festival involves not only various cultural products such as comics/anime, video games, and popular TV series, but also performances of cosplay (a role-play performance) acted by professional or amateur actors and actresses. Travellers may also wear costumes and cosplay characters. Dong was a fan of Japanese anime cultures, so Dong occasionally went to some comic festivals for shopping, enjoying performances, and making friends. Hanfu in a comic festival appeared as a type of costumes that can be used instrumentally to cosplay a character in a TV series or video game. In some cases, one might wear a set of hanfu (or modified hanfu) without cosplaying any specific character. Dong was attracted to the exotic experience of wearing hanfu in a comic festival. He explained that he was interested in TV series or video games that have a theme of ancient Chinese fantasy, but it was impossible to bring exact these fantasy stories into ordinary life. Wearing hanfu in a comic festival provided him a chance of role-playing an imagined self who was living an ancient Chinese fantasy story or a romanticised ancient Chinese society. In short, wearing hanfu was a type of temporary extraordinary experience to Dong. Unsurprisingly, Dong kept hanfu in the occasions of comic festivals and never tried to adopt hanfu into his daily life or advocating for any political agenda.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWearing hanfu as a type of costumes is common in tourism industry. In recent years, many “old towns” are constructed and become tourist spots. Old towns are theme parks by nature. They have many archaised buildings in order to offer a wholesale physical surroundings of an ancient Chinese style. Based on the data from the observation in four old towns in Chengdu and Xi’an, hanfu themed photography is a regular service in old town tourisms. Consumers may rent a full set of hanfu from a studio, and take photos while traveling in an old town. Professional photographers in studios also offer indoor and outdoor hanfu themed photography services. An indoor photo may be as simple as a portrait that a person wearing hanfu in front of a plain white background, or as gorgeous as a few people in a well decorated living room with traditional Chinese furniture. If a consumer wants an outdoor photography service, a professional photographer will accompany the consumer in the travel, and take photos once the consumer requests, or the photographer may suggest some iconic landscapes for taking photos. Sometimes, photographers may design a scenario for taking interesting photos. The scenario of a photo may be a lady in hanfu leaning on wooden balustrades and watching koi fishes, or a warrior with ancient Chinese armour holding a sword and taking a break in the middle of a military exercise. Consumers are not ignorant of that the so-called old towns are theme parks rather than authentic historical sites. The point of wearing hanfu and taking photos in an old town is to appreciate an exotic experience, which is sharply different from their daily life.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMamianqun: begin with nationalism and end up with fashion\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eMamianqun is a subtype of hanfu for women. Mamianqun literally means horse-face dress. Mamianqun is usually a long thin skirt with a piece of straight square fabric in the front. This appearance resembles a horse’s face from the visual angle in the front. A typical design of mamianqun exploits dark colours and simplistic tailoring techniques. This makes mamianqun less attention-drawing, exotic, or extraordinary than other typical hanfu. During the fieldwork, I found mamianqun was extremely popular among the consumers. Almost every female consumer of hanfu had at least an item of mamianqun. According to my observation, I could easily find mamianqun on a random street in Mainland China.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMamianqun had potentials of becoming a flag of nationalism, but it eventually appears as a counter-example to the claim that consumers of hanfu tend to express a political position of nationalism. Mamianqun did not get much attention among hanfu consumers until 2022. In 2022, some Chinese netizens criticised Dior that one of the Dior’s new skirts copied the design of mamianqun, and soon the controversy became a hot spot about nationalism, fashion colonialism, and cultural appropriation. Through the event, mamianqun was exposed to not only hanfu consumers but also consumers who never knew hanfu. In the peak time of the event, some enthusiasts intentionally wore mamianqun for showing an attitude of anti-fashion-colonialism. However, based on the observation and interviews during the fieldwork, many consumers explained that they liked mamianqun due to a contrary reason: mamianqun is not very recognisable, so they can easily adopt mamianqun into their ordinary clothing choices without expressing any specific political proposal.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany consumers of hanfu agreed that although they also wore other hanfu in their daily life, mamianqun is indeed more manageable to wear in whatever school, workplace, or leisure time than other hanfu. Some consumers of hanfu even therefore bought and wore only mamianqun. Gao was one of consumers who did not buy and wear any type of hanfu except for mamianqun. Gao was a forty-three-year-old teacher at a middle school. I met her through an interviewee’s introduction, and we had an online interview about her wearing experience of hanfu as well as her attitudes to hanfu culture. She said that she was attracted by mamianqun at the first glance even though she never intended to try any hanfu earlier. Gao bought only some mamianqun and showed no interest in other hanfu. She did not participate any hanfu theme festivals. She did not join in any hanfu culture community. Gao appreciated the cultural backgrounds and aesthetic value of hanfu, but, as she explained, other hanfu are too gorgeous and cumbersome to wear in daily life. She did not want to engage in any potential commitment of an ideology, an identity, or the belonging of a community. However, hanfu has the capacity of signifying such commitments, especially in a lay person’s eyes. Therefore, Gao intentionally made her hanfu – mamianqun – less recognisable to other people. She wore an ordinary shirt with mamianqun. Such mixed style allowed her to immerse mamianqun into her daily dressing with other clothes, in order to made mamianqun look like a normal long skirt.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHanfu must be recognisable for the most of people if a consumer wants to express nationalism by presenting hanfu. However, mamianqun is popular among hanfu consumers because it is less recognisable than a typical item of hanfu or modified hanfu. Further, many consumers like Gao intentionally weaken the recognisability of mamianqun by wearing mamianqun with other ordinary clothes in a mixed style. Hanfu indeed carries symbolic references to traditional Chinese culture, and so does mamianqun. However, symbolic references are not primary concerns in hanfu consumption in the above cases. Afterall, hanfu is a type of clothes that consumers wear in their daily life. The manageability of hanfu is a stronger concern in consumers’ mind than symbolic references.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study examines the Chinese consumers\u0026rsquo; wearing experience of hanfu and opinion of hanfu culture, and contributes to the understandings of nationalism in consumption in China from an empirical studies\u0026rsquo; perspective. Based on the data from observation and interviews, this article illustrates that Chinese consumers of hanfu appreciate hanfu\u0026rsquo;s aesthetic value of visual appearance and cultural meanings while nationalism is not a significant motivation. Specifically, first, in social activities with a theme of hanfu culture, hanfu is presented as a part of traditional Chinese cultures while the grand narratives of patriotism, nationalism, and Han ethnicity do not appear as the centre of social activities. Second, enthusiastic hanfu consumers primarily appreciate hanfu\u0026rsquo; cultural meanings rather than political implication. In enthusiastic hanfu consumers\u0026rsquo; opinion, the hard core of hanfu is that hanfu carries traditional Chinese cultures rather than political implications of nationalism or patriotism. Third, causal consumers pursue an extraordinary experience by wearing hanfu. To causal consumers, hanfu is hardly more than a stylistic type of clothing choices. Beautiful appearance and exotic experience are the core concerns in causal consumers\u0026rsquo; mind about hanfu consumption. Political implications are not involved in causal consumers\u0026rsquo; intention, and in the case of mamianqun, causal consumers may intentionally weaken hanfu\u0026rsquo;s recognisability in order to avoid potential political proposals. In short, instead of political motivations, cultural tastes drive consumers\u0026rsquo; choices of hanfu consumption. In consumers\u0026rsquo; opinion, hanfu is firstly a type of clothes. Beautiful appearance, convenience, and whether hanfu satisfy their tastes are more important than symbolic references in their wearing experience.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe limitations of this study and potential future extensive research can address two topics: First, the mechanism between consumers\u0026rsquo; tastes and choices of hanfu may be further explored. Consumers\u0026rsquo; tastes may be influenced or even determined by various factors. Meanwhile, the cultural references of commodities may also be influenced or formed by various powers. The mechanisms of hanfu consumers\u0026rsquo; tastes and hanfu\u0026rsquo;s cultural references are not fully explored. Second, hanfu cultures involve not only hanfu consumption. Other aspects of hanfu cultures, such as hanfu fandom, governments\u0026rsquo; polices of hanfu industry, and potential instrumental usages of hanfu in Han supremacists\u0026rsquo; activities, may require alternative interpretation. This study focuses on hanfu consumers. However, other groups of people who also participate in hanfu culture activities may have distinct mechanisms, especially potential cooperation between hanfu fandom, governments, and Han supremacists.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData availability\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research involves anonymised qualitative data. According to the ethical approval as well as participants\u0026rsquo; informed consent, anonymised data can be used for academic purposes and accessed to the primary investigator of this research, but data cannot be publicly shared. Therefore, as a part of the requirements of ethnical approval and protection of participants\u0026rsquo; privacy, interview transcripts cannot be publicly released.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor contributions\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis article is solely authored by XXX. XXX is fully responsible for all parts of the research.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics declarations\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe publication of this article received financial support from XXX (Project No. XXX).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthical approval\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis study involved qualitative data of formal interviews, informal chats, and observation fieldnotes. All involved people were told that the researcher was conducting fieldwork for a research project on hanfu culture, and their anonymised ideas, experiences, and activities might be quoted in a published academic article. This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This project obtained an ethical approval from institute XXX. The ethical reference number is XXX, under the original title XXXXXX. The ethical approval period is from XX-XX-XXXX to XX-XX-XXXX.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInformed consent\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll participants provided informed consent prior to data collection, between July 2022 and December 2023. The information regarding the research objectives, data usage, protection of privacy, and potential quotations or participants\u0026rsquo; sayings/opinions/experience/activities in publications were provided to the participants prior to data collection. All data are anonymised. 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From Niche Interest to Fashion Trend: Hanfu Clothing as a Rising Industry in China. \u003cem\u003eInternational Journal of Arts Management, 23\u003c/em\u003e(1), 79-89.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eWarde, A. (2014). After taste: Culture, consumption and theories of practice. \u003cem\u003eJournal of Consumer Culture, 14\u003c/em\u003e(3), 279-303. doi:10.1177/1469540514547828\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eWarde, A. (2017). \u003cem\u003eConsumption : a sociological analysis\u003c/em\u003e. London: Palgrave Macmillan.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eWoodward, S. (2016). Object interviews, material imaginings and \u0026lsquo;unsettling\u0026rsquo;methods: Interdisciplinary approaches to understanding materials and material culture. \u003cem\u003eQualitative Research, 16\u003c/em\u003e(4), 359-374.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eYinger, J. M. (1960). Contraculture and subculture. \u003cem\u003eAmerican sociological review\u003c/em\u003e, 625-635.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eZhang, Q., Wang, CJ. (2024). Chinese online nationalism as imaginary engagement: an automated sentiment analysis of Tencent news comments on the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. \u003cem\u003eHumanit Soc Sci Commun\u003c/em\u003e 11, 484. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02983-w\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7785301/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7785301/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eRecently, hanfu culture is increasingly popular and influential in China. Some research tend interpret hanfu culture as a symbol of nationalism, or emphasise the influence of nationalism in hanfu culture. However, hanfu culture involves a significant part of consumption activities, while the influence of symbolic references or political implications of clothes in consumption is problematic. Darwing on an eighteen-month ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that hanfu consumption is driven more by tastes rather than a political agenda of nationalism. Specifically, by intensively engaging the cases of hanfu culture related social events and hanfu consumers\u0026rsquo; experiences, this article illustrates that: First, hanfu is interpreted as a part of traditional Chinese cultures in consumers\u0026rsquo; opinion; Second, such traditional Chinese culture rather than nationalism is the primary concern in enthusiastic consumers\u0026rsquo; mind; Third, casual consumers appreciate the beautiful appearance and extraordinary experience in hanfu consumption, while traditional Chinese cultures are not their primary concerns; Fourth, casual consumers may intentionally keep away from potential political implications. This research advances the theoretical interpretation of political influence in consumption activities by highlighting individuals\u0026rsquo; agency. Additionally, it supplements the empirical understandings of hanfu consumption in China, and illuminates a potential direction of exploring contemporary Chines cultural phenomena.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The myth of nationalism: Chinese consumers’ activities and cultural interpretation in hanfu consumption","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-22 14:46:50","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7785301/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"fbf45b82-d032-47b9-b7c9-0c1cbe561460","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 22nd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":58072573,"name":"Social science/Anthropology"},{"id":58072574,"name":"Humanities/Cultural and media studies"},{"id":58072575,"name":"Social science/Cultural and media studies"},{"id":58072576,"name":"Humanities/History"},{"id":58072577,"name":"Social science/History"},{"id":58072578,"name":"Social science/Sociology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-21T17:08:48+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-22 14:46:50","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7785301","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7785301","identity":"rs-7785301","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}