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Hanfu chinese makeup.

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宋朝 - 大袖衫 + 霞帔 （2/3） Song Dynasty - Wide-sleeve Robe + "Xiapei" （2/3）

The second common style of wide-sleeve robes was called:

2) Trailing back (拖尾/tuowei) As the name suggest, this style of robe was asymmetrical with the front shorter than the back.

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Baby Qin coming along 😁

Ling'guan (top left)

Zhongni (top right)

Fuxi (bottom right)

Jiaoye (bottom right)

Which style do you like? 😀❤️

My stencils finally got the ok from the teacher, and my classmate helped me get the wood pieces cut out (we use the mechanic saw to cut out the main shapes, and those things scare me. I imagine flying saw blades and cut off limbs, so my classmate takes care of those 😅).

Today will be carving out the insides, and then shaving down the top 👍✨

My rejected Ling'guan stencil (right) and the final version (left). My teacher said the butt of my first attempt was too pointy 😂

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Cut porcelain carving 剪瓷雕 is prevalent in the Hokkien architecture of Fujian and Taiwan, and to a lesser extent Vietnamese architecture.

Traditionally, Hokkien porcelain artists would gather small colored porcelain artifacts (such as bowls and other utensils), cut and/or grind them into smaller fragments, and then paste these fragments onto sculptures attached to buildings for the purpose of decoration. The topic of these sculptures may vary - ranging from plants and animals to figures from Chinese mythology or Hokkien folktales

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So, the Guqin workshop I'm staying at is in rural Yangzhou and sometimes we get unexpected visitors. Like these two last night. Mr. Centi was on my dorm door, and when I was taking him outside I found Ms. Toad chilling.

One classmate's response was wild screaming and the other was to make alcohol using Mr. Centi and cook Ms. Toad. The nerve 😰😱

They have been safely invited outside back into the fields where it's safer for them ❤️

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14 -- beetle

cute photo from Pinterest as a reference

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Making Guqin - steps 6

Once the inside of the Guqin is carved out, and the outer surface has been shaved down, some Guqin makers will include a step using fire to singe the inside of the Qin.

This is called 火斫: 火/huo = fire 斫/zhuo = split/strike/hack wood (斫/zhuo is the term used specifically for making Guqin)

This step serves 3 purposes: 1) Singe off any small wooden slivers that are still attached to the inside of the Qin. Too many of these will affect the sound of the Qin as it interferes with the vibration of the sound. 2) Remove moisture to prevent the wood from cracking or changing shape later on. 3) Make the Qin look older (做旧).

There are 2 methods to doing this step: 1) Using a blow torch, and then sandpapering off the singed layer. 2) Using a flammable liquid.

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Baby Guqin progress 😘💖

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Making Guqin - part 0 (preparing lumber)

My Guqin teacher usually buys pre-cut wood but a few days ago he took us to see how they cut everything.

Nowadays, most handmade Guqin are made using wood from old buildings that have been taken down or are being renovated. The wood needs to be fully dried to prevent shape changes (even with old wood it will still sometimes change shape but not to the degree of new wood), so these lumber pieces from old buildings that have been shade-dried (not set out under direct sunlight which can cause cracks) are perfect. China has a lot of older buildings that are hundreds of years old.

(Two pieces of wood from a temple that was being renovated)

My teacher and us along with 3 other Guqin makers loaded up a rental truck with the lumber and headed to the lumber workshop (video start).

Before sawing, all the pieces need to be checked over for any metal nails and removed. The lumber seller was supposed to have removed them, but we still found a lot so it took several hours with hammers and pliers to get it all done.

Then the lumber is loaded onto the sawing machine and secured. Each piece can be cut into about 2-4 pieces depending on its thickness. My teacher says you never know exactly what the wood is like inside until you actually cut it open, so buying lumber is a bit like a guessing game. Some you open it and there's worm holes all over (not a big deal), or knots, some can be completely hollowed out inside, others don't look great on the outside but when you open it it's beautiful.

(Worm holes left, knots right)

Knots in the wood make it difficult to carve or shave, so we need to cut them out then fill the hole up using lacquer mixed with a special paste. It's more time-consuming than if the wood is completely without them.

We left at 1pm and worked until 6pm before we got back to the Guqin studio. Now my teacher's storage room has enough wood for 2-3 years 🤣

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宋朝 - 掩裙 (单片裙)，旋裙 (两片裙) Song Dynasty - Non-pleated Skirts

掩裙/Yanqun (单片裙/Danpian qun) Cover Skirt/Single Piece Skirt The Cover Skirt (also called Single Piece Skirt) had no pleats or folds. Because of how the fabric draped when wrapped around the waist, it did not close fully at the bottom, so it needed to be worn outside of pants or other skirts. This skirt varied in length, the longer ones landing around the top of the foot, while shorter ones were more like an apron.

旋裙/Xuanqun (两片裙/Liangpian qun) Wrap Skirt/Two Piece Skirt The Wrap Skirt (or Two Piece Skirt) was constructed using two four fabric panels split into 2 pieces. The 2 pieces are overlapped and sewn together along the waist panel, but left open along the vertical side. This design allowed two open slits along the side when worn. Various lengths of this type of skirt has been unearthed, worn overtop of other skirts or pants.

According to records, this design was to allow riding donkeys easier for women. Initially this style was started by prostitutes, but later spread to the wealthier classes:

"妇女不服宽袴与襜, 制旋裙, 必前后开胯, 以便乘驴。其风闻于都下妓女, 而士人家反慕效之, 曾不知耻辱如此。" -- 江休复 （宋）《江邻几杂志》

This is also the first appearance of what will later evolve into the pattern for Mamian Qun (Horse Face Skirt), which was widely worn in the Ming Dynasty.

（Masterlist of all posts)

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(Part 1 of Song Dynasty pleated skirts here)

宋朝 - 褶裙 (褶裥裙)(2/2) Song Dynasty - Pleated skirts （Diequn) (Part 2/2)

3) 拖尾裙 (Tuowei) Trailing back skirt

Pattern similar to the Hundred folds skirt

Back of skirt (pleats) are longer than the front, allowing the skirt to trail behind

Usually worn with large-sleeved outer robes for formal occasions

4) N裥裙 / 合抱槢裙 (N=number of pleats hidden) Enclosed pleats skirt

A few enclosed pleats along the waist

Halfway down the skirt, the pleats are opened to reveal more pleating within

Gives a slightly mermaid-tail appearance to the skirt

5) 仅合围裙 (Jinhe weiqun) Apron-style

Smaller skirt, shorter and less wide

Doesn't completely wrap around the waist, allowing layers underneath to be seen

Worn overtop of other skirts of pants

Pattern can be hundred folds or hundred pleats

(Masterlist of all posts)

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临摹

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✨

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Hanfu in Components: Sleeve Shapes (pt5)

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Review on sleeve structure (接袖/jie1 xiu4/sleeve connection) from part 2, structure conventions:

"Hanfu sleeves, on the other hand, are never connected at the armpit—they are connected halfway down the arm. In other words, the piece of fabric that forms the body extends to also cover the upper arm part of the sleeve. The actual sleeve piece is connected to the body at the bicep/elbow area via a flat seam. (In the case of half- or no- sleeve garments there might just not be a separate sleeve piece.)"

Sleeve pieces are also draped over the shoulder with no shoulder piece. Most sleeve shapes fall very roughly into the categories of小袖/xiao3 xiu4/'Small Sleeve' or 大袖/da4 xiu4/'Large Sleeve' types, though this can vary, and some sleeve shapes can be regarded as kind of a middle size, but there are so many ways to categorize them (size? Popularity? Chronology?), so here they are in no particular order.

I'm not gonna use pictures of clothing on people with this one, mostly because the shape is really hard to discern when the fabric draped and folds as hanfu is wont to do. Instead you get my shitty handwriting and graph paper drawings. Sorry.

直袖 / ZHI2 XIU4 / STRAIGHT SLEEVE

Very basic straight sleeve. It's a rectangle. Usually narrow (30-10cm wide in my experience in the industry), but there are also straight sleeves that are super wide (Famensi pishan, various Song beizi). The main requirement is that the bottom sleeve seam is parallel to the shoulder line. Pretty much timeless.

窄袖 / ZHAI3 XIU4 / NARROW SLEEVE

Synonymous with 箭袖 / jian4 xiu4 / 'Arrow Sleeve.' Very similar to a straight sleeve, but the sleeve cuff is slightly narrower than the root, so the line made by the sleeve seam is slightly tilted rather than straight across. The cuff is usually between 20-10cm wide, and the root is usually under 30cm. If the cuff is more than twice the width of the root I would be more inclined to call it a feijixiu (see below), but there's some overlap between these categories. Also pretty much timeless, usually used for inner layers or dailywear.

More specific names may describe variations of narrow sleeves like 羊腿袖/yang2 tui3 xiu4/sheep's leg sleeve from the Song dynasty, a super-narrow form-fitted narrow sleeve.

飛機袖 / FEI1 JI1 XIU4 / AIRPLANE SLEEVE

Can be considered a type of 窄袖, with a straight but diagonal sleeve hem. The cuff is typically about half the width of the root; the root is usually at least 25cm wide in my experience. 'Airplane sleeve' is a modern colloquialism that became popular because the sleeve's shape looks like an airplane wing.

This is very specific to Song Dynasty women's wear (and Yuan Dynasty women's wear, if you consider Yuan Dynasty hanfu). The artifact directly supporting this sleeve shape is the Huangshengmu zhaixiu duanshan.

垂胡袖 / CHUI2 HU2 XIU4 / DROOPING SLEEVE

Mid-width sleeve usually characteristic of the earlier dynasties, from the earliest times up to the Wei/Jin dynasties. Characterized by a fairly wide sleeve root and a narrower sleeve cuff, with a curved belly-like shape. The midpoint of the sleeve may or may not briefly widen beyond the width of the root before narrowing back down at the cuff, giving it a 'drooping' appearance.

廣袖 / GUANG3 XIU4 / VAST SLEEVE

Catch-all term for extremely wide-cuffed sleeves, commonly known as 大袖/da4 xiu4/large sleeve. Usually has a root of at least 30cm and a sleeve opening of 60-120cm. Present throughout most dynasties in different forms, most often as formal outerwear (大袖衫）in the Tang, Song, and Ming Dynasties. The shape connecting the

Most guangxiu from the Ming Dynasty are 廣袖收祛/guang3 xiu4 shou1 qv1/closed vast sleeves, meaning that the front of the sleeve is closed, sewn up to a small opening for the wrist to come through.

窄臂大袖 / ZHAI3 BI4 DA4 XIU4 / NARROW-ARM LARGE SLEEVE

Mostly specific to the Northern & Southern Dynasties, though I've seen a couple Tang figurines with similar silhouettes. Has a fitted sleeve root typically under 30cm, sometimes as narrow as 15-20cm, that opens up after the elbow to a wide 60-120cm sleeve opening.

琵琶袖 / PI2 PA2 XIU4 / PIPA SLEEVE

Mostly specific to the Ming Dynasty, an iconic sleeve shape named for its resemblance to the shape of a Pipa instrument, a plucked string instrument sort of like a lute. The sleeve root is normally between 30-45cm, opening up slightly to a maximum width of between 35-65cm, and then curving smoothly back up to a sleeve cuff normally between 10-25cm. Can vary wildly in size—there are 'small' pipa sleeves and 'large' pipa sleeves, with the large ones normally being part of formal outerwear.

弓袋袖 / GONG1 DAI4 XIU4 / QUIVER SLEEVE

Also mostly specific to the Ming Dynasty, can be considered a Pipa sleeve that doesn't widen far beyond the sleeve root, instead curving back up gently towards the sleeve cuff. Sometimes there's a pleat made at the root of the sleeve to help with movement. Often seen as a more convenient alternative to the Pipa sleeve. The quiver here is referring to the bag you put arrows in (not the movement 'quivering') because the shape looks similar.

半袖 / BAN4 XIU4 / HALF SLEEVE

The name 'half-sleeve' is actually fairly misleading, because most 'half-sleeve' garments are either closer to 1/3 sleeve or 3/4 sleeves. The important thing to remember is that short sleeve garments are almost always outerwear—with some exceptions (Tang mens banbi for example) they're usually meant to be worn over a long-sleeved inner layer. Ming Dynasty half-sleeves tend to be closer to 3/4 sleeves, some reaching almost to the wrist, but because long-sleeved Ming Dynasty garments often extend past the fingertips by a significant amount, you still get a decent amount of layering.

Half-sleeves may or may not have a 接袖/jie1 xiu4/sleeve connection piece; the sleeve may just extend out from the main body piece if the fabric width allows for it. They may be curved or linear, slightly flared (as with garments worn over pipa sleeves for example) or straight across.

無袖 / WU4 XIU4 / SLEEVELESS

Why stop at reducing sleeve length—get rid of them completely! Almost every dynasty has their own vest-like garment, whether it's the Ming Dynasty's 比甲/bi2 jia3, the Song Dynasty's 背心/bei4 xin1, or the Tang Dynasty's 唐褙子/tang2 bei4 zi0. Some may have a very small sleeve connection piece to extend the shoulder line outwards. Having a curved arm opening with a narrow shoulder width is very uncommon before the Qing Dynasty but not completely unheard of.

Note: Sleeve Construction

Just so you can see how these pieces actually look in the context of hanfu construction: this is fairly similar to how modern sleeves are made. The sleeve piece is just a mirrored double of how the sleeve looks from the front, you cut the whole thing out, drape it over the shoulder and then sew the bottom together.

Ok I procrastinated on this post for weeks but it is finally done!!! There are definitely some sleeve shapes that I didn't list out here, but most other shapes can be described as variations on the most common ones. Shoot me an ask if there's a sleeve shape that you really want to know about and I'll add it, or if you're having trouble identifying one :)

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Finally finished this art study (or at least I'm gonna call it done)

original found here on tumblr. ———————— 📸Photo：朱山尽_ 💄 Makeup：@南夕叙 ​​​ 🔗Weibo：https://weibo.com/6906018733/Nb2eJyNoq ————————

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[EVENT RECAP] Spring, Skirts & Serpents: An Exploration in Hanfu

HELLO I am not dead! I see that some of my informational guide posts have been garnering attention recently; I will return to continuing that series soon, I have just been very busy x-x

I wanted to recap on this event that ate up my entire spring break (I posted about it a bit ago but I'm taking that post down so it doesn't get confusing). The event description is as follows:

"We will be presenting at “Spring, Skirts & Serpents: an Exploration in Hanfu” at Fremont Main Library (2400 Stevenson Blvd, Fremont, CA) on 3/29 from 1pm-2:30pm! We’ll be showcasing some of our Year of the Dragon + Year of the Snake designs runway style, followed by an interview-style talk (with me it's me I'm getting interviewed).

The event is in English and is free and open to the public, but space may be limited on the day of, so we’ve made sure you can preregister as VIPs and guarantee yourself a seat!"

As indicated, the event was held at Fremont Main Library in Fremont, CA. In addition to sharing some photos & videos, I want share the inner workings of making this event happen as well as reflect on some highlights/improvements that could be made.

Purpose

Several months ago I was approached by my past Chinese teacher Tung Laoshi (ya boi went to Chinese school for many years like a good little child, but transferred to private tutoring after elementary school) with an invitation to run a showcase event. For context, with the high concentration of Chinese-speaking families in the bay area, there's a fairly extensive network of Chinese teachers here—the circle closest to me is primarily Taiwanese (so we learn traditional characters instead of simplified). Tung Laoshi is a teacher in the Palo Alto area where I grew up. Wu laoshi was the other primary event coordinator, another Taiwanese Chinese teacher from Fremont, where the event was held, bringing in the support of the Wang & Wu Foundation.

Basically, the people organizing this event (other than me) were mostly coming from a Chinese education perspective. It's gotten harder and harder for these teachers to pique interest in Chinese language & culture from American-born kids. I'm not an exception to this, I hated going to Chinese school as much as any other kid, but due to a combination of factors including switching to private tutoring, higher-than-average immersion in Taiwan, and getting bribed with sweets, I ended up with a better handle on the language than a lot of other ABCs and ABTs (and running Cloud9 Hanfu DEFINITELY improved my language skills via immersion). From what I could gather, one of the questions at the core of their reasoning for holding this event was, why are you so interested in Chinese culture? How can I make my students/kids interested in it too? How do I get them to enjoy it enough to seek it out themselves, like you did, rather than needing to force them into begrudgingly learning it?

Honestly, I don't have a direct answer to that question. My appreciation for culture is multifaceted, driven by a combination of factors that aren't necessarily controllable. I can only hope that by sharing my work with everyone I can help inspire someone—if not the kids learning Chinese, then the teachers teaching it, to keep doing what they're doing.

On my side of things, this was an opportunity to share my work in person. I rarely hold events myself—Yulan deals with most of that, and has experience with several shows under her belt—but I have to say that, sort of like the Feynman technique, looking at my work through the lens of presentation to other people helped me get a lot of my thoughts in order and develop the concepts I wanted to express into intentional points.

I'm typically very very uncomfortable with public speaking, and will take any possible opportunity to move out of the spotlight, but I suppose I won't get better at it if I don't practice, and there will be times when it's necessary. After all, understanding the artist is crucial to understanding the art, so if I want to share my work then I will, to some extent, have to share about myself. It wasn't perfect, but it was an experience that I'm glad I went through :)

Prepwork

Preparations for the event were mostly concentrated into t minus 2 months or so. I was still in the depths of midterm hell for most of these two months and our MC Sandra was in Taiwan/Japan so we had to rely on Zoom for most of our meetings. Over this period we worked together to decide on an overall agenda, what sets we wanted to show, and the content of what we wanted to focus on for the interview.

Originally the event was supposed to be focused on the Year of the Snake collection alone, but our contact from Fremont Main Library felt that focusing on snakes only would drive away audiences that didn't like snakes, so we compromised on showing 4 sets from the Year of the Dragon collection and 5 sets from the Snake collection. The styling was mostly up to me, so during this time I put together the components of each of the 9 looks: the set, shoes, accessories, hair, makeup (kinda), etc. and made the necessary purchases.

Our 9 models ranged in age all the way from 7th grade to 31 years old. They were recruited from various places, some being students of the teachers, some being server members of Cloud9's discord. None of them had experience modeling, and very few of them had experience performing in any regard, but I think that choosing fresh faces to participate is a good thing: it gives new people a chance to experience hanfu, not limiting it to a small circle of people who are already invested in it.

We had one rehearsal a week before the event and another rehearsal on the morning on the 29th, so in total the models had maybe 5-6 hours of practice time to learn how to move around in clothes they'd never worn before, posing, coordinating with the MC etc.

The morning of was—not unexpectedly—a giant chaotic mess, but still fun nonetheless! I had to do nine people's hair in roughly 2 hours and barely finished before the event started. At the end of the day all nine models exceeded my expectations and presented beautifully :)

The interview portion was as terrifying as I expected but mostly went smoothly. I think I looked awkward as hell, but I at least didn't look like I wanted to dissolve into the floor, which is how I felt, so I'll count it as a success. For some reason the interview was cut really short, so there was a lot of content that we didn't really get to discuss, but I'm glad we got some of it out there: explaining the inspiration behind some of the sets in the snake collection, describing my experience & interest in hanfu, taking some questions and answers, etc etc.

Runway Lineup

KUKRI / 赤松子

Year of the Snake, Warring States Period, based on the Kukri snake, modeled by Natalie Chung. Natalie is in eighth grade and does competitive dance, and presented some of my favorite poses during the show. Her control of the giant sleeves was phenomenal, especially considering she had so little time to get used to them.

HUNDRED-PACER / 百步蛇

Year of the Snake, Han Dynasty, based on the hundred-pacer snake/Chinese moccasin, modeled by Edith Huang (ig: @ediithhuang). Edith is in eighth grade and has the tiniest waist I have ever set eyes on. I keep saying that it's like this set was made for her.

SPIRIT / 白素貞 + DRAGUN / 翠青兒

Year of the Snake, Northern & Southern Dynasties (specifically Northern Wei), inspired by the Legend of the White Snake, modeled by sisters Emma (ig: @eeeeemma_wang) & Audrey Wang (ig: @audreyolafz). Emma is a third year at UCSB and Audrey is a first year at UC Berkeley. They went up together with a pair of oil-paper umbrellas and executed the umbrella-spinning moves perfectly.

EQUINOX / 天欲暮

Year of the Dragon, Tang Dynasty, modeled by sword gremlin Kevin T. Wong (aka Sword Kevin or Sevin) (@ktw-shu). His aerial & sword flowers were a crowd favorite. During q&a we asked a little boy which set was his favorite and it was, unsurprisingly, this one. I also dared him to dab onstage.

HESPERUS / 升天行

Year of the Dragon, Tang Dynasty, modeled by Anyka Chan (ig: @an.bri.ka). Longtime server member. I don't know exactly what it is, but she carried this set with that kind of energy that just radiates out from her like she's glowing. The Tang beizi was not presented because we lowkey lost is oopsies.

AQUARELLE / 海霞紅

Year of the Dragon, Song Dynasty, modeled by Alicia Ho (ig: @lala38520). Alicia is in 7th grade, our youngest model this show, and I'll admit I was a little concerned, but as soon as the clothes + makeup + hair went up it was like she walked out of a painting. The white crown on her head is called a guan, popular in the Song Dynasty. This one was 3D printed.

MARQUIS / 隨侯珠

Year of the Snake, Ming Dynasty, modeled by Xing Chan (ig: @xingnificant). Xing Chan is a chemistry student at UC Berkeley. He has the most luscious hair ever and I will never stop asking for his haircare routine and then immediately forgetting what he said, causing me to ask about it yet again a month later.

SERAPHINE / 雲化龍

Year of the Dragon, Ming Dynasty, modeled by Lydia Wang (ig: @lydiaa_wang). Lydia is a sophomore in high school. As soon as she picked up the ruyi scepter on the day of rehearsal I knew I'd chosen the right model to close the show—this is a very elaborate set and can be hard to hold up, but she executed flawlessly.

Reflections

The Good Stuff

The models!!!!!! I am so thankful to everyone who volunteered their time to help out at this event but especially to the models, who had to spent hours on hours drilling their poses and had to go on stage one at a time all by themselves. Modeling isn't just as simple as walking across a stage either; the number of things that you have to remember at the same time is WILD: posture, expression, eye contact, focusing on shifting weight, coordinating timing with the MC, all while remembering the choreography that you're supposed to be doing. Everyone worked so hard and I'm so so grateful for their efforts, the results turned out beautifully.

Kept putting down our water bottles, losing track of them, and then needing to get a new water bottle because we couldn't remember which one was ours. I think I went through like five separate bottles.

Another thing was the Chinese teachers that helped out or attended as part of the audience. I haven't been in Chinese school in years, and when I actually was there I certainly didn't notice, but a lot of these women are really very hardworking, passionate teachers who find meaning in what they're doing. It was like I could see a ray of light shining in their eyes when I went up there, something to indicate that their efforts would not always be in vain. Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty of hating on Chinese school too, but after hanging out with a lot of the aunties & teachers it's clear that, as immigrants, it really does bring them joy and inspiration to see cultural continuance. It was very heartwarming.

I think what makes it even more personal is that these were specifically Taiwanese teachers. Many of them still struggle with English, but they came anyway because it was worth it to them. And for me these are the voices I grew up around and how I learned the language (many people from China will mock Taiwanese accents, but it feels very familiar and comforting to me). It was significant to them that I—the person being interviewed—was Taiwanese too.

Katy Wu from Wang & Wu Foundation

Overall I think I gained a lot of exp from the event! I still hate public speaking with a seething passion but it did make me think about some of my motivations and ideas more cohesively, since I needed to present my thinking to the public. Ultimately I think I came out of this feeling even more strongly about what I do, and I'm glad I did it.

The Error Analysis

When you have events that have expenses and higher-ups in politics or big nonprofit organizations are invited, you have to spend a lot of time acknowledging sponsors and shaking hands. I will not lie, I didn't know like 80% of the Important People that I was told to shake hands with, all I can offer is that I'm glad they came to watch anyway. The whole PR side of things isn't something that I'm very comfortable doing, though, hence why I usually leave it to Yulan, and it was definitely not my favorite part of this event.

Other limitations including time and audience also made it so that I had to cut out a lot of what I wanted to say during the interview. We did briefly talk about what topics to focus on before the event, but otherwise the interview was entirely organic. Unfortunately that also meant that a lot of it was out of my control. It's hard to describe without getting into detail, but I do think that there were subjects that the other event organizers wanted to focus on that I didn't want to focus on, and things that we knew the audience would want to hear about that I didn't think were important. Compromises have to be made!

Anyka doing her eyeshadow :>

Chaos is mandatory during event planning, but I also think that switching the topic from year of the snake -> snakes & dragons made it much less cohesive. I talked about the inspiration behind the year of the snake collection during the interview and highlighted a few specific sets for their connections to folklore & adjacent cultures, but the dragon sets were kind of just not mentioned. Not sure if audience members noticed it but it felt weird to me.

Another thing is that after discussing with my parents after the event (it's a thing we do, my dad likes to Get Deep into things), I realized that the event presented me as a designer and only as a designer. This is similar to how I depict myself online usually, but the truth is that there's more behind it that I didn't do a good job at communicating: I don't just draw pictures of clothes, I do a mind-numbing amount of research, international logistics tracking, supply chain management, etc. etc. to make this happen, and I do sometimes wish I was able to express that, because it's a big part of what I'm doing.

Conclusions

I am SO TIRED, this ate up all my energy for two months and then I had to take my special relativity midterm right after the event. I'm probably not going to have the energy for something like this for a while! That being said, going through the whole process was really fun and interesting and I'm curious about more events—informational, in person, online, whatever—in the future. With any luck, the more I do them the better I'll get at them, right?

Backstage shenanigans. Screenagers smh

Anyway, this post is long enough as it is. If anyone who attended sees this, hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for coming!!!!!!!!! Otherwise I will go gorge myself on post-midterm snacks to untwist my brain from quantum physics. <3

Press:

SF Epoch Times - 穿越千年時光 灣區漢服秀展現華夏章服之美

Worldjournal - 「蛇龍舞春 漢服演繹」活動 洪兆寧設計9套漢服 感受傳統魅力

OCAC News - Cultural Fusion on the Runway: ‘Spring, Skirts & Serpents’ Highlights Hanfu Designs

快樂方程式 - 認識漢服之美 由Ariel 與董秀婷老師介紹蛇龍舞春的漢服活動