President Xi Jinping appeared at Saturday's state banquet hosted by the Dutch royal family in a formal traditional Chinese suit, which experts say displayed the leader's national pride and confidence in Chinese culture.
3月22日，在荷兰王室举行的国宴上，习近平主席身着一套正式的传统中国服饰，专家称这一举动展示了国家领导人的国家自豪感和对中国文化的自信力。
The eye-catching dark blue suit, slim-cut with a
standing1 collar, is a simplified and redesigned "Zhongshan suit", or "Mao suit" - a typical formal garment for Chinese men.
Zhou Jiali, a diplomatic
protocol2 expert from China Foreign Affairs University, said Xi's
attire3（服装） not only meets international diplomatic norms, but also manifests China's
ethnic4 style.
"President Xi's
outfit5 at the
banquet（宴会） is not
strictly6 a Zhongshan suit, which normally has four pockets. Instead, it is a type of modified Chinese standing-collar outfit," Zhou said in an interview with a Chinese newspaper.
"The entire design goes with Chinese style, but some
subtleties7 are
tinged8 with a modern tailoring spirit. For example, a Western-style pocket square was designed at the left chest," she said.
Lu Peixin, former
acting9 head of the Protocol Department of the Foreign
Ministry10, said the
decorative11 color of Xi's suit pockets matched the
embroidery12（刺绣） color of first lady Peng Liyuan's traditional overcoat.
"In addition to exhibiting the beauty of Chinese culture, the
outfits13 of Xi and Peng also create a
harmonious14 and vivid impression of a 'lovers pack'," Lu said.
In the fashion world, the traditional qipao dress
portrays15 a Chinese woman's beauty, and Zhongshan suits represent a man's status.
"Foreigners will interpret the Zhongshan suit as a political symbol because it has typical Chinese connotations," said associate professor He Yang at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.
"It came out during a period when Western culture entered China in 1920. The Mao suit was a
fusion16 of fashion and culture. It had an outline of a Western suit, but it had Chinese elements," said Liu Yuanfeng, dean of BIFT.
The blue and gray suit was the only choice for Chinese men. It dominated local menswear from 1920 to 1980. That was why many people in the Western world thought China was a "gray society", because nearly all the men wore gray Zhongshan suits.
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