Hui Clothes

The Hui clothes has distinctive ethnic characteristics. In the Hui communities, the traditional clothes of Central Asia is still maintained. The most significant features of the Hui clothes are as follows: men often wear a small white hat, while women often wear scarves of various colors and with various patterns. Besides, men usually wear a long beard.

In the Tang and Song dynasties, a number of merchants from Persia and Central Asia were usually called “Fan Visitors”. The Hu clothes, consisting of an embroidered hat, a gown with turn-down collar and narrow sleeves, stripped trousers with narrow bottoms and pierced soft shoes, was popular in the Tang dynasty. The reason of Hu Fu’s popularity is that the economic and cultural exchanges between mainland China and the ancient Persia from the early Tang dynasty to its most prosperous period and the thriving of the Hu dancing. In that period, there lived a large number of Hu people mainly consisting of the ancient Persian, Uighur and Sogdian. The music, dancing and closing introduced by the Hu people had a great impact on the society.

In the Song dynasty, the Hui clothes began to develop in two directions: one is casual clothes; the other is the religious or ceremonial clothes. In that period, most Jewish Hui people used to wear blue caps. Therefore they were also called blue-cap Hui people. Generally speaking, it is common for men to wear “Daisidaer” and caps of various styles and patterns; while women’s clothes were decorated with patterns of distinctive ethnic features.

In the Yuan dynasty, some skillful craftsmen of the Hui people engaged in the textile industry combined cutwork, mixed weaving of woolen and cloth, various patterns of Hui features with Chinese traditions, which significantly diversified the clothing culture and promoted the development of China’s textile and clothing apparel industries.

In the Ming dynasty, the Hui clothes began to be limited. The styles were limited by the ruling class so that the development of the clothing customs was hampered and only a small portion of the tradition was carried on. Influenced by the local culture or the occupations, the Hui clothes lost part of its unique characteristics.

In the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China, the Kuomintang (KMT) called all the Muslims who did not eat pork and those Han group, Tibetans, Tujia group and Mongolians who believed in Islam the Hui people. However, the Hui clothes were not modified according to the Han clothes because of the ruling class’s banning. Instead some dresses and accessories with distinctive Muslim and Hui features were kept.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the ethnic minorities were granted the right to master their own lives. The Chinese Communist Party and the government respect the cultural traditions of ethnic minorities, and the Hui apparel culture begins to prosper. With the insistence and endeavor of people with breadth of vision, the Hui culture and their clothes flourished. This has also enriched the national culture of China.