Song Gives New Life to Tradition

A sudden flash of inspiration one morning two years ago put Song Yu on a career path far removed from his profession.

By day, Song is a liver transplant surgeon at Renji Hospital in Shanghai.

In his spare time he dons traditional Chinese-style robes to run a hanfu workshop - a small business making traditional clothes and promoting disappearing traditional Chinese manners and ceremonial culture.

Once the traditional dress of the largest Chinese ethnic group, the Han, hanfu has been considered rather archaic over the past few hundreds of years and is no longer worn in daily life.

A group of intellectuals proposed from 2003 to resume hanfu as it is considered representative of traditional Chinese clothing and it was a magazine article in May 2006 that inspired Song.

"It is all because of the sudden flash of an idea that morning," said Song, who is also a graduate of the Fudan-HKU Master of Business Administration program.

"I was thinking of starting a business for quite a long time during my MBA study. The idea of hanfu fits me well as few things can present such a vivid cultural image as traditional clothes," he said.

Two months later, on qixi festival, known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, Song walked through Fudan campus in his first hanfu outfit.

A part-time workshop was then started by Song and two friends in September, and their work has featured at a series of major events - including the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Formula One Race - over the past year.

"Traditional clothes remain crucial in Japanese and South Korean traditions, but not here," said Song, adding that he is trying to revive traditional clothing by incorporating it into daily wear. (Shanghai Daily By Dong Hui and Yan Zhen)