Ren Qiang Yuan

Abstract: Hanfu Gang is a project aimed at educated, young fashion lovers (primarily 16 to 26 years old) who are interested in Hanfu, the traditional clothing of ethnic Han Chinese people who ruled China for most of its history. People wore the style every day until it was slowly replaced by a modern, Western clothing style after the end of the Ming dynasty—as the Qing dynasty only allowed females to wear Hanfu—and it was replaced by the modernization that came with the establishment of the Republic of China. For a long time, people saw it only as a costume for Chinese Opera and period drama until the early 2000s, when the younger generation started to revive this traditional clothing. Hanfu has been through thousands of years of evolution. In the beginning, only Hanfu enthusiasts wore it for important holidays and only a few were seen wearing it in public. My target audience is curious because they have seen this clothing style on the internet, or because they are fashion enthusiasts, or because they are afraid of experimenting with their alter­native fashion. After many years of promoting Hanfu as an important part of the ethnic culture, more and more people have started wearing it, and some daily.

My thesis project is entirely illustration-based and includes five elements: a timeline, an infographic, a magazine, a branding guide, and two different sticker sheets as collateral items.