On Site-Chinese Costume Culture Exhibition

Hey everyone, this is Yegor here, a member of Fathom. Welcome to our newest episode of OnSight. Today we will be talking about Chinese clothing and have you heard about Ni Chang? So Ni Chang is this refined, really beautiful clothing that is made by clouds and worn by gods. So there's this legend that says that there was this very, very beautiful lady and she wore the Ni Chang clothes, she danced the Ni Chang dance and even the emperor really, really liked her. So today I'm really excited, I'm going to take you to a place where we can find the real Ni Chang. Behind me is the Chinese National Arts and Crafts Museum and we will participate in Chinese Costume Cultural Exhibition which is called Splendid Colors. We'll find all kinds of different costumes inside and maybe some real Ni Chang. Are you ready? Let's go! Wow guys, this is amazing, this is like a Chinese traditional clothing paradise. Got all kinds of clothing here and I really want to show you this really beautiful Han ethnic group straight cut robe which reflects the typical fashion style of the early western Han dynasty and the pattern that you can find on the robe. The robe is made by stitching together various fabrics, a technique that is considered sophisticated even in modern times. Both the embroidery design and the fabric combination reflect the ancient people's pursuit of excellence in clothing more than 2,000 years ago. This is a traditional piece of clothing that Mongolian people would wear in Yuan dynasty here in China, it's called Google crown and the higher status of the person wearing this crown, the taller the crown gets, up to 45 inches. And you would be wondering like you can just put such precious relics right here? This is not as simple as it looks, it's got a special temperature and humidity sensors to make sure that you know the environment is just perfect and also for example these lines were adjusted so it's not damaging the fabric of this really really precious relic. This is the restoration area and all of these dresses were restored based on the images of the for example sculptures or ancient murals etc. And for example like this dress over here was actually based on the images coming from the Dunhuang grottoes and you can see there are different elements embroidered on the dress, these beautiful like blades of grass and the flowers kind of representing the flourishing, being full of life, that kind of eternal. It's very exquisite and what I like the most are these phoenixes, there's like a group of phoenixes flying through the clouds, very beautiful. And for example this dress probably was worn by nobles or royal family. So back in the day especially in Ming dynasty, wedding was one of the most like the most important events in Chinese people's lives but the founding emperors of Ming dynasty advocated a custom that anybody who gets married regardless if you're rich or poor or your background you have to wear the festive wedding dress like this. I believe that the costume or clothing is like a history, we learn about it, we learn about the culture and the traditions, the customs, the way of life of people that wore it. And what's really cool about these traditional Chinese clothing that it's not only a part of history but a part of our future. Thank you guys so much for being with us for this episode of OnSite, I'll see you on our next adventure. See you there!