Traditional Chinese Clothing

By Jack

IntroductionThroughout history the Chinese culture has observed many different traditions involving clothing. In this presentation you will learn about four different categories of traditional Chinese clothing. The following categories that will be reviewed are;Silk : silk comes from silkworms.Tiny Feet: their feet are three inches long!Clothes Colors: poor people can’t wear colors.Cotton Clothes: cotton is a lot better than silk. 

SILKThe Chinese invented silk. Silk is a smooth and shiny fabric. Silk is a popular clothing materiel in china. Silk comes from silkworms. Silkworm is a type of caterpillar. People make silk using the cocoons of silkworms. People have been making silk for more than three thousand years, but soon cotton was more popular than silk and than nobody used silk. This is how to make silk. First your get silk moth. Then wait for then the lay eggs. Then they hatch into silkworms. When silkworms go into their cocoons take out the silk on the cocoons and weave it together.

TINY FEETAbout 1100 ad a fashion started at the emperor’s court for women. The fashion to bind because women thought to be beautiful you have to have tiny feet up to three to four inches long. To get the feet tiny they wrapped bandages around their feet breaking their feet making them small. The girls spend most of there time crying for two to three years. There People with tiny feet can’t walk well. They would crawl and not walk. Can you believe that Chinese people do that? I think people that are Chinese don’t want the do that they just want people to think that they are beautiful. In the earliest versions of Cinderella the prince loved Cinderella because she had the tiniest feet in the kingdom and the sipper would only fit her. 

CLOTHES COLORS In the 500s ad the emperor said that rich people could wear clothes with colors and that poor people couldn’t wear colors they can only wear black and blue clothing. Chinese people use clothes colors to match the seasons. Green=Spring Red=Summer White=fall and Black=winter. Common people wear light clothes. Red on clothing also means life, happiness, and good luck.

COTTON CLOTHES The Mongols told China about cotton. At first People didn’t like cotton specially silk makers, but than Mongols destroyed mulberry trees that you need to make silk. The Mongol emperors like Kublai khan put cotton where trees were. In 1289 ad there was a trainer school that teaches farmers how to grow silk. In 1292 ad the farmers that grow cotton will get lower taxes. After everyone liked cotton. Cotton was warmer, softer, stronger, and cheaper than silk and made smooth clothes for the winter.