Mao Suits

 
Despite its modern-day name, the roots of the Mao suit can be traced back to Sun Yat-sen and the Nationalist government. In an attempt to find a style of clothing that suited modern sensibilities without completely adopting western styles, Sun Yat-sen developed a suit that combined aspects of military uniforms, student uniforms, and  western-style suits. In the late 1920s civil servants of the Nationalist government were required by regulation to wear the Sun Yat-sen suit which would later be called the Mao suit.

 

Sun Yat-sen 1924

SOURCE:  Wang Gengxiong,  Sun Zhongshan yu shanghai (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1991).

    

Mao Zedong 1939      

SOURCE:  Weida lingxiu Mao zhuxi yongyuan huo zai women xinzhong (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1977),  p. 25
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This is a photo you saw previously on the 20th century developments page. Take a closer look at the figure wearing a Sun Yat-sen/Mao suit.

　

 

 

 

He is Chiang Kai-shek. Since Chiang Kai-shek was embroiled in a struggle for political power, he may have adopted a Sun Yat-sen suit in order to visually reinforce his claim as the legitimate successor to Sun Yat-sen.

　

 

What are the differences and similarities between the clothes of Sun Yat-sen and his second wife Song Qingling, shown in the photo below?

Sun Yat-sen and Song Qingling in 1917

SOURCE:  China Reconstructs 31. 9 ( Sept. 1982):  33.
　

After the Communist Revolution, the Mao suit became a symbol of proletarian unity, and was regularly worn by party cadres. 
The collars, pockets, and seams of the Mao suits these men are wearing are all the same, but the suits are still not identical. 

Can you spot Mao Zedong within this group of men? How is he distinguished from the others?

Communist Party leaders in the 1950s

SOURCE:  Deng Xiaoping. Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi (Beijing: Zhongyangwenxian chubanshe, 1988), p. 156.

ANSWER:  Mao Zedong is the person sitting in the bottom row second from the right. Notice how his suit is the lightest in shade. Also, a young Deng Xiaoping can be seen fifth from right in the same row.

 

Political leaders were not the only ones to wear Mao suits. People of both genders, in all areas, and in all different kinds of professions began wearing variations of the Mao suit on a daily basis.

How do these outfits seem different from those worn by the political leaders above? Do you think these differences or the uniformity of the clothes of this period reflected the social structure of China?

　Factory cadres at a meeting                             

SOURCE:  China Reconstructs 33.5 (May 1984): 42. Their caption: "The Shanghai Jinghua Chemical Company guards against environmental pollution and is beautifying its grounds, thanks in part to trade union leadership." Photo Zhang Heling.
Why do you think some of the men in these two scenes from the 1980s wear Mao jackets and others do not?

Commuters in Beijing

SOURCE:  China Reconstructs Vol 35, No. 1 (January 1986): 1.

Discussing building plans

SOURCE:  China Reconstructs 33.11 (Nov. 1984): 10. Their caption: Jinling graduates assisting on the design for a hostel to be built by the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum administration. Photo by Zhou Youma.

　

Children's clothing, while not generally called Mao suits, could also indicate political allegiance.  The red scarves seen around the necks of the children in these two pictures indicate that they are young pioneers. The scarves became important symbolic objects to many of the children in this period.

The label on the poster to the left reads "Set your mind on becoming a strong revolutionary successor."

Poster from 1965 

SOURCE:  Courtesy of the University of Westminster collection of Chinese posters.

　

Children on a field trip to a temple, circa 1980

SOURCE:  Cover of Fu Tao Yuan (Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, March 1981).

Move on to the Western-Style Suit