Zhongshan suits make comeback

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President Xi Jinping appeared at Saturday's state banquet hosted by the Dutch royal family in a formal traditional Chinese suit, which experts say displayed the leader's national pride and confidence in Chinese culture.

The eye-catching dark blue suit, slim-cut with a standing collar, is a simplified and redesigned "Zhongshan suit," or "Mao suit" - a typical formal garment for Chinese men.

Zhou Jiali, a diplomatic protocol expert from China Foreign Affairs University, said Xi's attire not only meets international diplomatic norms, but also manifests China's ethnic style.

"President Xi's outfit at the banquet is not strictly a Zhongshan suit, which normally has four pockets. Instead, it is a type of modified Chinese standing-collar outfit," Zhou said in an interview with a Chinese newspaper.

"The entire design goes with Chinese style, but some subtleties are tinged with a modern tailoring spirit. For example, a Western-style pocket square was designed at the left chest," she said.

"Foreigners will interpret the Zhongshan suit as a political symbol because it has typical Chinese connotations," said associate professor He Yang at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.

"It came out during a period when Western culture entered China in 1920. The Mao suit was a fusion of fashion and culture. It had an outline of a Western suit, but it had Chinese elements," said Liu Yuanfeng, dean of BIFT.

The blue and gray suit was the only choice for Chinese men. It dominated local menswear from 1920 to 1980. That was why many people in the Western world thought China was a "gray society," because nearly all the men wore gray Zhongshan suits.

Chairman Mao Zedong popularized it, so the garment became known in the West as the "Mao suit."

After the reform and opening-up in 1978, Chinese people had more choices in clothing, and Western suits became popular.

About the broadcaster:

Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.