“You ask what Hanfu is? Essentially, you are asking what this group of people is doing!”
Hanfu means “Han clothing,” with Han referring to the predominant ethnic group in the People’s Republic of China. In this context, “this group of people” refers to “self-defined Hanfu fans.”
Doing Hanfu is an ethnographic study of their embodied meaning-making practices and how these contribute to the construction of situated identities. The ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in two distinct geographic locations: Beijing, China, and the Netherlands. Besides interviews and field notes, participant observation was carried out across both online and offline spaces. These generate a large body of multimodal data.
Drawing on theories from various fields, including sociolinguistics and fashion studies, this dissertation presents the lived and socio-culturally embedded features of the meaning-making bodily practices of self-defined Hanfu fans and the fluid, multifaceted nature of their identity construction in the larger sociocultural structure, and the people-centered Hanfu material cultural dynamics. Four empirical chapters respectively present different practices, narrative practice, the practice of dressing up in Hanfu, branding practice, and the stylization, and their roles in negotiating and enacting collective and intimate Hanfu identity, various types of Chinese femininity, authentic Hanfu fan membership, and new migratory identities. These identity formations contribute to the diverse meanings attributed to Hanfu material culture.
Doing Hanfu may capture your interest—whether you are simply curious about Hanfu, its fans, or you are a professional engaged in fields such as youth and pop culture, sociolinguistics, gender, migration, or fashion.
