Clothing (服装) is an important part of any culture. Chinese culture has a history of more than 5,000 years old, so the traditional Chinese clothing also has a long history.

Hanfu

Hanfu is the traditional clothing of the Han people. It first appeared (出现) in China more than 3,000 years ago. But it disappeared (消失) with the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (朝代). Now more and more young people start to enjoy wearing it.

Zhongshan suit

Zhongshan suit is the traditional Chinese clothing named after Sun Yat-sen. It is also known as Mao suit overseas (在海外) because Chairman Mao liked to wear it. It first appeared in the 1920s.

Tangzhuang

Tangzhuang is a kind of Chinese jacket rather than the clothing of the Tang Dynasty. It got the name from the overseas Chinese. The Tang Dynasty was famous in the world, so the overseas Chinese were called “Tang people”, and their clothes were called “Tangzhuang”.

Cheongsam (qipao)

The cheongsam (qipao) is a traditional Chinese dress. It first appeared in China in the 1920s. Cheongsam is made of silk, and Chinese women like to wear it.

In ancient times, copper coins meant wealth. Linking（连接） the copper coins （铜钱） one by one had the good meaning of collecting wealth. With coins, people can knit （编织） them into different shapes, from armor worn by the soldiers to protect their bodies from enemies and swords（剑）, to animals and plants. As a traditional skill in China, copper coin knitting was listed as an intangible cultural heritage （非物质文化遗产）in 2018.

Every day at 9 am, Zhang Canjin, 58, comes to the Drum Tower Street in Ningbo and walks into a small house of less than 10 square meters. Sitting at this desk, the inheritor （继承人）of copper coin knitting（铜钱编织） starts his day.

“Knitting the coins into different shapes doesn’t sound difficult, but the key is to be creative and think big,” Zhang said.

So since he started his own copper coin knitting store in 2014, he has tried very hard to think big. Zhang added, “As I keep on making different works, I have more creative ideas in my mind,” Zhang said.

To try something challenging, Zhang spent two months making armor with more than 8,000 coins in 2017. It got great public attention and even got Zhang a national patent for design（设计专利）. This also gave him more confidence. Now he tries to continue getting more creative ideas and hopes the art forms will reach more people.

“I think we Chinese people should pass on our own treasure and tradition,” Zhang said. The house of Zhang stands there in the middle of the crowded Drum Tower Street, and inside Zhang is knitting his love for heritage into a beautiful dream.

You must have read or heard of the sad love story between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. But can you imagine the two singing opera in English instead of speaking poetic (诗意的) Chinese?

Jia and Lin are two characters from the classic Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions (《红楼梦》), written by Cao Xueqin (1715—1763). Some artists made the book into an English-language opera. They first put the opera on the stage in September, 2016 in San Francisco, US. And the next year it came to Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan.

Many of the opera’s creators have backgrounds (背景) in both Chinese and American cultures. Their understanding of both cultures helped them to change a Chinese classic into a foreign-language opera.

The book, which covers the rise and fall of the Jia family, has 120 chapters and hundreds of characters. But opera writer David Henry Hwang cut down the number of characters to just seven. Hwang, a Chinese-American, focused on the love story between Jia and Lin and tried to write a heartbroken tragedy (悲剧) so that everyone would understand it.

The art director Timmy Yip, from Hong Kong, tried to help foreigners understand the characters by using costumes and stage settings (布景). He compared Lin to water and gave her a light green costume. When Lin shows up on stage, there is usually water around her on the stage.

The creators consider it to be a meaningful job to introduce a Chinese classic to western audience (观众). Hwang told China Daily, “I am happy to have made a contribution to the land where my parents were born.”