China: aesthetics and fashion evolution
The history of fashion and beauty in China has its roots in a very distant era, linked to double up to political changes and dominant thought.
With this article I do not pretend to explain in detail all the meticulous changes that have taken place over time (with the aggravating circumstance of boring the reader), but rather to carry out an excursus of stages and important moments that have marked the image, perception and reality of Chinese women (and men).
Prehistory
The world of Chinese beauty has always been closely connected with science and the interaction of different disciplines: botanical chemistry, medical sciences (dermatology and aesthetics) and psychology. From the beginning, it is conceived as a holistic system linked to Taoism, a single and complex entity where the body, psyche and soul are connected and must be treated together through the assumption and application of preparations or the carrying out disciplines aimed at stimulating points on the body (acupuncture and Tui Na).
Since ancient times, the Chinese people have made cosmetic products, albeit primitive, to protect the skin from sunburn and dehydration, using plant products (flowers, berries, roots), animals (fabrics) and minerals (lead and derivatives).
The search for external beauty was linked to the sacredness of the human body, which had to be maintained as it was inherited from the ancestors according to the principle of Confucianism (as well as in Korea during the Joseon period, I talked about it here).
When we talk about antiquity we refer to the first finds of animal teeth and pearls used for ornamental purposes (many were colored with red pigments) dating back to the Paleolithic, in the caves of Zhoukoudian (50 km from Beijing).
Zhou dynasty (XII - III century BC)
During this period the foundations of feudalism were laid.
At court, regulations were established to protect the clothing of the various social classes. As for women, the fashion of the time involved the partial or complete shaving of eyebrows repainted in blue and / or black, the use of a substance similar to wax to polish the hair and, above all, the use of nail polish ( the colors used indicated the class they belong to); China was the first country to use nail polish, made with a blend of egg whites, gelatin, beeswax, gum arabic and vegetable dye.
Specific hygiene practices were also established, such as washing hands at least five times a day, taking a hot bath every five days, and washing one's hair every three.
Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD)
With Han dynasty (the name was given by the Chinese ethnic population to distinguish itself from all the other minorities in China) Confucianism became the official state philosophy and commercial exchanges with the Roman Empire became more and more stable thanks to long trafficking the Silk Road.
During this period the theories of the philosopher Dong Zhongshu are codified between cosmology, human relations and abstract theories of yang (dominant element, man) and ying (submissive element, woman).
Many girls, at that time, were taken to the harem at the age of ten to be educated in good manners. The marriage was then arranged and only the woman was not allowed a second marriage in case of divorce.
Own of the Han is the famous traditional hanfu dress, used for almost 4000 years.
During this period a real daily routine for body care took shape. Women fashioned their lashes to take on a sad expression and wore teardrop lipstick.
Tang Dynasty (618 - 907)
With the golden age of the great and prestigious Tang dynasty, Chinese art is filled with images and colors with incomparable realism and rigor. The court itself attracts and receives numerous poets, sculptors and artists who celebrate the kingdom with precious and rare beauty paintings, as well as landscapes and animals (especially horses) are portrayed.
The clothing of the nobles of the time was characterized by flowing silk dresses. Horseback riding aristocrats wore buckskin boots, while finely embroidered women dancers. The less affluent social classes wore hemp clothes stopped with a sash and sandals.
Both men and women wore their hair very long; men gathered them in a bun, while women styled them with decorative clips and pins. Furthermore, women used to shave their eyebrows and then redraw them at will.
Jade was a favorite among jewels, a symbol of purity, wisdom and immortality. Instead of perfume, aromatic bags were used to pat the skin.
From the Song Era to the Qing Empire (907 - 1911)
During the Song dynasty, the use of face powder, blush based on rice flour and red pigments but, above all, the controversial and controversial practice of the golden lotus (or "foot wrapping") is traced back.
According to legend, this practice was born around 900 BC. C., when an imperial concubine wrapped her feet with silk strips to dance the Moon Dance on the Lotus flower and curry favor with the emperor.
Foot bandaging initially spread among the wealthiest classes, becoming synonymous with social status: a woman with bandaged feet could certainly not work and was therefore totally dependent on her husband.
Encouraged later by Confucianism, this practice spread to other social classes. Many girls were forced to this practice already at the age of 2, while in the peasant classes or the poorest they expected to turn fifteen, so that the girls could work until marriage and the bones were still malleable. This was obviously an extremely painful practice and often caused gangrene, septicemia and infections. The feet, kept at a maximum length of 12 cm, were then locked up in finely decorated shoes.
A woman with a small foot was not only considered charming, but also respectful, devoted, courageous and docile.
However, these were years of great political and territorial fragmentation. Despite this, the diffusion of woodcut allows different social classes to learn knowledge from scientific treatises. The aristocratic class, especially the noblewomen, were the object of curiosity and study by numerous artists who portray them in real life scenes, as evidenced by the paintings by Su Hanchen.
The Qing (1644 - 1911) were the promoters of an enlightened government, as well as the last great Chinese dynasty that reigned over the largest empire of its time.
During this period the woman was depicted far from the daily chores, since she had to reflect the ideal of virtuosity, threadlike and of a slender and frail nature.
From 1912 to the end of the 1950s
The Republic of China was established in 1912 following the success of the Chinese Revolution: which began on 10 October 1911 with the Wuchang Uprising, ended with the abdication of Emperor Pu Yi on 12 February 1912 and the rise to the presidency of the new republic by Sun Yat-sen - considered the father of modern China and among the first to consider the hypothesis of democracy.
In 1915 the Japanese empire presented to the new and weak Chinese government "21 requests", with which it effectively imposed the vassalage of China on Japan: on May 4, 1919, the Movement of New Culture or May 4 Movement began, a student mobilization anti-imperialist culture. The students went into revolt against the Treaty of Versailles (one of the treaties that ended the First World War) which established the cession of German possessions in China to Japan.
In a short time, a new nationalist spirit spread throughout the country, which expressed itself with the abandonment of Confucianism and the adoption of Western models, especially among the youngest. Shanghai was the center of the important opening to the West, especially by young people and women: the new woman or new girl (who in the meantime was depopulated in Korea as a consequence of Japanese domination) was the protagonist of cafes, music, cinema and western-style dance halls. She sported a short hairstyle called The flapper, she wore a type of qipao (original name, cheongsam) very sensual and adherent (which became extremely popular in the West even in mass culture, think of Shampoo from manga and anime Ranma 1/2, Anna Williams in the video game Tekken and Chun Li in Street Fighter), bold makeup and high heels. The modern and fatal image of the Shanghai woman was used for advertising - actually based on a reinterpretation of Western canons.
In 1921 the Communist Party of China was founded in Shanghai, which imposed the redistribution of land, equal rights between men and women, the repression of usury, banditry and moral corruption. Thanks to the charismatic figure of Mao Tse-tung in 1931 the Soviet Republic of China was finally founded: the constitutional draft gave power to workers, peasants, soldiers of the Red Army or anyone belonging to the poorer social classes.
Following the continuous military pressure in Manchuria and Shanghai, then, Mao's soldiers decided to undertake the famous Long March (1934-1935), or 10,000 km traveled by about 20,000 communists from the province of Jianxi to Shanxi against the army anti-communist and nationalist of Chiang Kai-Shek (the one who in 1927 forced the communist forces to clandestinity, thus triggering the civil war).
With the end of the Second World War, China re-entered among the victorious powers (in '41 it had in fact sided against Germany, Japan and the Kingdom of Italy), thus obtaining a seat on the UN Security Council. Following the arrest of Chang Kai-Shek's army, the People's Republic of China was founded on 1 October 1949 by the Communist Party, which laid the foundations for the establishment of a socialist political system.
To defend his borders from the US, Mao sent his troops to North Korea in 1950. He won but had huge losses, making China even more dependent on the Soviet Union than ever.
The first years of the People's Republic of China were characterized by five-year plans, implemented without taking into account the real conditions of the country. Mao's speech of 1956, clearly socialist, for the launch of the Hundred Flowers campaign, that is the liberalization of cultural life, went down in history: he encouraged intellectuals to express their opinions on the work of the party, then assigning them to done to dismissal from their posts or even to forced labor (about half a million people ended up there). It was a choice that generated panic and terror the entire country.
Among the policies chosen and which most influenced society at the time and in the years to come, there was a more complete literacy and marriage reforms: presumed greater freedom for women with the possibility of asking for divorce (Mao came to hypothesize the abolition of marriage), the use of contraceptives and the practice of abortion. Maoism dealt extensively with the role of women, through controversial aspects of the culture of the time such as foot binding and concubinage.
In 1931 the provisional regulation of matrimonial relations was promulgated which provided for the prohibition of arranged marriages, the prohibition of the practice of adopting a child bride, polygamy and the sale of women as future wives.
Through the proclaimed gender equality, women in China found employment by the thousands in factories and their weight was so substantial that they created a women's section in the Party. The reality, as it is easy to imagine, was much less rosy and equal than what Mao proclaimed: the women in fact, after having worked hard in the factory, sewed the uniforms and prepared food for the soldiers. The idea of the woman confined to the domestic sphere derived from Confucianism, which saw the family as the microcosm of society: according to this philosophy of thought, the woman had to be chaste, quiet, modest and subordinate to her husband.
1955 saw the publication of the magazine New Chinese Women, which presented the case of Guo Shulan, a woman who worked as a welder and for this example to be emulated. She her she was not the only one of her, the most famous was certainly Liang Jun, the first Chinese tractor driver, a true symbol of socialist modernization (her images were printed on posters and school books). In 1958, a photograph of her driving a tractor was chosen to be printed on the one yuan note.
La donna socialista cinese doveva essere forte, coraggiosa, determinata e pronta al sacrificio, proprio come Zhao Yiman, che combattendo contro i giapponesi diventò una vera e propria martire della Rivoluzione - dalla sua storia nel fu tratto un film nel 1951.
Tutto ciò che caratterizzava la moderna e sensuale donna di Shanghai fu smantellato con il maoismo poiché rappresentava la vita agiata e il consumismo dell'Occidente: tutto ciò che era di matrice borghese venne rigettato in virtù dell'androginia e dell'ascetismo. La rinuncia delle pratiche estetiche era interpretata come un gesto di grande dignità e pragmatismo. La donna doveva essere assolutamente asessuata.
Anni '60 e '70
All'inizio degli anni '60 il Partito decise di passare da un sistema basato sull'agricoltura all'industria moderna, teoria sintetizzata del Grande Balzo in Avanti che ebbe come esito una terribile carestia che causò morti stimate tra le 15 e le 12 milioni di persone - per molti storici questo evento è registrato come il più grande sterminio della storia.
Le persone a quel tempo, per sopravvivere, facevano la coda con la propria scodella per la zuppa presso le mense delle comuni. Le donne, da forti e irreprensibili, tornarono ad assurgere il ruolo tradizionale di "angelo del focolare", lavorando nei campi e badando alla famiglia. A causa delle numerosi morti e della malnutrizione dilagante vi fu un significativo calo delle nascite e una minore capacità di concepimento.
A seguito del totale fallimento di questa scelta economica, Mao tentò di riprendere il comando effettivo del Partito e dello Stato lanciando la Rivoluzione Culturale (il cui numero di morti causati varia da centinaia di migliaia a 20 milioni): l'"agosto rosso" (1966) fu il nome coniato per indicare proprio i massacri più efferati che ebbero luogo a Pechino e poi in tutto il Paese (sono ancora di fatto in discussione persino presunti atti di cannibalismo su larga scala sponsorizzati dalla milizia a livello locale, di fatto ad oggi non esisterebbero prove che queste direttive partissero dal Partito nazionale o che Mao le avesse approvate). Tale violenza inaudita fu alimentata da una circolare approvata dal Partito in cui si affermava che la rivoluzione era minacciata dall'interno: questo portò allo scatenamento brutale delle forze più giovani e radicali che colpirono con asprezza gli insegnanti, accusati di essere anti-rivoluzionari. L'intolleranza di Mao verso il dissenso raggiunse il massimo: egli classificò gli intellettuali all'ultimo posto della scala sociale, permettendo che venissero picchiati, umiliati e uccisi dai loro stessi studenti.
Nel 1976 Mao morì e Hua Guofeng divenne il primo ministro.
Questo ventennio fu infine segnato dall'intenso e continuo controllo delle nascite: nel 1979 fu infatti ratificata la famosa politica del figlio unico.
Anni '80
I primi anni '80 videro l'ascesa al potere di Deng Xiaoping, l'avvio di riforme economiche che portarono a una limitata proprietà agricola e all'istituzione di "zone economiche speciali", aperte agli investimenti stranieri. Nel 1986 fu proposto il Movimento del Doppio Cento, che proponeva una maggiore separazione tra le funzioni del Partito e quelle dello Stato. Nonostante la stampa ufficiale riferiva di pochi gruppi contro-rivoluzionari, gli studenti iniziarono a invocare sempre più a gran voce la democrazia attraverso manifestazioni e scioperi della fame che culminarono il 16 e 17 maggio del 1989 a piazza Tienanmen a Pechino, dove l'esercito sparò sulla folla di manifestanti.
Nel 1981 fu creata la "Commissione di stato per la Pianificazione Familiare", dando maggiore flessibilità sulla possibilità di avere un secondo figlio.
Gli anni '80 furono anche la decade in cui venne attivato un processo di "borghesizzazione": Deng Xiaoping, volendo integrare l'economia cinese con quelle principali mondiali, innescò una gerarchia sociale dove la vita ricca borghese era il nuovo ideale di riferimento.
Dopo anni di maoismo venne a riaffermarsi il desiderio del lusso, di uno stile di vita abbiente e, soprattutto, del valore della femminilità con il fine ultimo del consumismo: vennero aperti negozi specializzati in cosmetica, centri commerciali e, allo stesso tempo, furono istituiti concorsi di bellezza. Per la prima volta dopo anni si ricerca una individualità, un ruolo specifico e uno stile di vita attraverso brand stranieri, sinonimo di status sociale e qualità. Nei primissimi anni '80 questo desiderio di affermazione fu così grande che chi poteva acquistare capi di abbigliamento straniero li portava senza togliere l'etichetta, in modo che tutti potessero vederla.
In questi anni che si smise definitivamente di indossare la giacca maoista, sostituendola con camicette dai colori sgargianti e minigonne.
Anni '90
Attraverso la nuova formula economica socialista di mercato la Cina ebbe un'enorme crescita: fu lo scenario di un epocale cambiamento, a seguito del collasso del sistema sovietico col crollo del muro di Berlino.
Le maggiori decisioni politiche del 14° congresso del Partito furono un compromesso tra riformisti e conservatori: il nuovo regime di crescita economica si basò su un particolare "sistema capitalista" che funziona ancora oggi in Cina. Fu così accantonato il sistema di pianificazione di tipo sovietico, ci si aprì maggiormente alla privatizzazione di piccole e medie imprese ponendo di fatto fine al socialismo economico. Fu inoltre smantellato il sistema che garantiva l'impiego a vita dei lavoratori nelle città, fu revocato il divieto a non assumere persone provenienti da zone rurali, i salari furono ridefiniti in base alla produttività del lavoro e, infine, nel 1988 si ebbe il boom del settore immobiliare con la privatizzazione dell'edilizia abitativa urbana.
Emblema di questo nuovo corso, soprattutto per i più giovani, fu l'apertura nel 1992 a Pechino del primo McDonald's del Paese.
Negli anni '90 il mondo della moda in Cina ebbe a una vera e propria strutturazione. Aumenta l'interesse in questo settore, così come cresce il numero dei designer: Guo Pei (ha fondato Rose Studio, uno dei brand più in voga, oltre ad essere membro della Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture) e William Tang (famoso per avere realizzato le uniforme per la Dragon Air).
Nel 1997 a Pechino ha inoltre avuto luogo la prima China Fashion Week.
I cinesi più facoltosi ebbero la possibilità di viaggiare in Europa per compare beni di lusso: proprio loro, tornando in patria, introdussero in Cina beni di alta moda di Gucci, Ermenegildo Zegna e Louis Vuitton. Nel tentativo di imitare questi oggetti (e queste persone) nasce la contraffazione che viene poi venduta in tutto il mondo; a partire da questo fatto i designer del nuovo millennio si muoveranno verso una propria individuale creatività.
A ciò si unì il successo della cantante di Faye Wong, vera e propria icona di stile oltre che a grande innovatrice musicale e regina indiscussa del pop - in Occidente è conosciuta per il brano Eyes on me del videogioco Final Fantasy VIII.
Il nuovo millennio
Negli anni 2000 la Repubblica Popolare Cinese è diventato il Paese più popoloso al mondo, la prima potenza economica per prodotto interno lordo e, secondo molti, la nuova super-potenza militare emergente.
La cultura cinese è fortemente influenzata dal confucianesimo e dal maoismo e, come nazione, la Cina è leader mondiale nella scienza e nella tecnologia: dall'invenzione della carta, della bussola, della polvere da sparo, fino all'uso dei numeri negativi e alla fondazione di aziende leader come Lenovo e Huawei, senza poi contare l'immensa e impareggiabile tradizione gastronomica.
Nel nuovo millennio le logiche capitaliste presero forma in un imponente mercato interno e permisero un gigantesco numero di esportazioni negli USA e in Europa grazie ai prezzi stracciati dei prodotti cinesi: il tutto fu appoggiato su un modello di approvvigionamento energetico dipendente dal carbone che causò quella che probabilmente è stata la più importante crisi ambientale della storia.
