Sorry for the delay in this article! Life got pretty hectic for a while. You may have noticed that unlike the other articles in this mini-series, I didn’t use the Chinese term for ‘hairpin’ in the title. That’s because there’s no singular catch-all term for hairpin among all the Chinese languages and dialects; instead, hairpins are differentiated by their shape. Today, I’ll introduce the three main types of hairpins in hanfu, as well as some special ones worn throughout histo

Welcome back to my mini-series on the types of hanfu headwear! Today I’ll be talking about the mao (帽), or hats. Just like mao is the word commonly used to refer to hats in the modern day, mao in Ancient China tend to resemble today’s hats with their brims. Below are some common types of mao throughout history: Damao (大帽) Like its name, which literally means ‘big hat’, the damao is a wide-brimmed hat with a high crown (the part that covers the head). It’s derived from the bol

Next up on our crash course in headwear is the jin (巾)! An Introduction to the Jin Unlike the guan, which I talked about in my previous post on hanfu headwear, the jin is usually just a cloth that one can wrap around the head. It could be worn by men and women of all social classes, while the guan was restricted to the scholarly elite and formal rituals, except on special occasions. Finally, the jin is typically associated with commoners, laborers, and even military personnel

In my introductory series, Hanfu Through the Ages, I briefly mentioned the types of headwear found in hanfu. Today, I'll be talking more about them, from the fancy crowns worn by emperors to simple head coverings worn by commoners. Categories of Headwear Traditional Han Chinese headwear can be classified into several broad categories: guan (冠), or caps; jin (巾), or cloth head coverings; mao (帽), or hats; and hairpins, which were worn by both men and women and came in a variet