Enjoying the same fame as the classic Chinese women's qipao, the Mao suit has been taken to represent male dress in the country.
The English term Mao suit refers to the clothing of former Chairman Mao Zedong, however, in China it is called zhongshan zhuang.
The style actually originated with Sun Yat-sen, who led the revolution to overthrow the last feudal Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and was respected as "Father of the Nation". He had another name, Sun Zhongshan, so the suit was called by this name.
Since leaders of the People's Republic of China always showed up in the suit in front of the world, the suit was naturally named after Mao Zedong by Westerners.
Sun was not only a leader in casting down the feudal empire and advocating democracy, but also in urging people to break with the old customs.
His clothing design was considered pioneering in China's traditional dressing history.
The ancient men of the Han nationality braided their hair on top of the head and wore gowns with loose sleeves.
When the Manchu took control of the country, men were forced to wear long queues and mandarin jackets over their gowns.
A number of intellectuals who had studied abroad in Japan and Euramerican countries came back to China before the Revolution of 1911 (the Chinese bourgeois democratic revolution led by Sun to overthrow the Qing Dynasty). They took the lead in cutting queues and wearing Western suits.
Sun announced a series of policies in politics, economics and social customs when he took the position of tentative president of the nation after the success of the Revolution of 1911, among which cutting queues and changing clothing style were included.
Men's queues were all cut off within 20 days but Sun felt puzzled about what clothes to promote among male citizens.
He finally decided to create a new style based on the Western suit, which would be comfortable, simple, dignified and carry national features.
The final style absorbed features of both Chinese and Western clothes. The stand-up collar was similar to the Western-style, and the three hidden pockets of Western suits were changed into four outside pockets with flaps. This idea followed Chinese aesthetic tastes, which stressed balance and symmetry. On each of the flaps there was a button to avoid things falling out of the pockets. The suit originally had seven buttons, but this was changed to five buttons for convenience.
The winding trouser legs and pleat on the waist were also specialities of the zhongshan zhuang.
Sun took the lead to wear this suit in public events, which came into fashion soon. He wears the suit in his wedding photo with Soong Ching-ling.
The suit can be made with exquisite cloth or ordinary fabric, so that it can be used for both causal and formal wear. It became popular among the people and got the name zhongshan zhuang.
The style of the suit was also used in military uniforms during the 1980s.
Zhongshan zhuang has become the most characteristic male suit of the Han nationality and images of China's leaders wearing the suit have impressed the world.
The first zhongshan zhuang was made by Wang Yuncai, a tailor who opened the first Western tailor shop on Nanjing Lu, according to Sun's design.
Sun brought a uniform of the Japanese land army to Wang as an example and explained his ideas. He pointed out that the flaps of the pockets should be shaped like an upside-down triangle, as that of penpoint, indicating that the revolution depended on intellectuals.
(Shanghai Star July 5, 2002)
