the culture of vietnamese costumes throughout the historical period and the study on ao tu thanthe culture of vietnamese costumes throughout the historical period and the study on ao tu than

Reason for the topic:“Nào đâu cái áo tứ thân…”Trích Chân Quê - Nguyễn Bính“What a four-piece dress…”From Chan Que – Nguyen BinhSimple and rustic verses about the “ao tu than” four-piece

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COURSE: VIETNAMESE HISTORY AND CULTURE

Lecturer: Prof Dr Vo Van Sen

FINAL REPORT THE CULTURE OF VIETNAMESE COSTUMES THROUGHOUT THE HISTORICAL PERIOD AND THE STUDY ON “AO TU THAN”

Student Name: Đinh Quỳnh Tường Vân

Student ID : BABAUH21191

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 3

1 Reasons for the topic 3

2 Research situation 3

3 Methodology 3

4 Subjects and scope 4

PART 2: THE DEEP INSIDE 4

CHAPTER 1: THE CULTURE OF VIETNAMESE COSTUME 4

1.1 The Costume of Vietnamese People Throughout The Period 4

1.1.1 Hung King era with Dong Son culture 4

1.1.2 Ly Dynasty 4

1.1.3 Tran Dynasty 5

1.1.4 Le Dynasty 6

1.1.5 Nguyen Dynasty 7

1.1.6 The 21 century 8 st 1.2 Some Typical Costumes of Vietnam 8

1.2.1 Ao Dai 8

1.2.2 Ao Ba Ba 9

1.2.3 Ao Tu Than .9

1.2.4 Ao Cham 10

1.2.5 Traditional costumes of other ethnics 10

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY ON “AO TU THAN” 11

2.1 The Process of Formation and Development 11

2.2 The Characteristics of “Ao tu than” 11

2.2.1 The structure 11

2.2.2 The material 12

2.2.3 The objects 12

2.2.4 The situation 13

2.2.5 The useage instruction 13

2.3 The Significances of “Ao tu than” 13

2.3.1 The meaning through the design 13

2.3.2 Honoring the beauty of Vietnamese women 13

2.3.3 The symbol of Vietnamese costume culture 14

PART 3: CONCLUSION .15

REFERENCES 16

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Reason for the topic:

“Nào đâu cái áo tứ thân…”

(Trích Chân Quê - Nguyễn Bính)

“What a four-piece dress…”

(From Chan Que – Nguyen Binh)

Simple and rustic verses about the “ao tu than” (four-piece traditional dress) imbued with Vietnamese women spirit, evoking the rural and rustic features of poet Nguyen Binh has gradually become very familiar to Vietnamese people The four-piece shirt left an impression of unmistakable similarities throughout the history of our country and has been mentioned in literature It is associated with memories of the couple on the shore of the bamboo during the village festival, as well as with childhood memories of buffaloes grazing and cutting grass in the countryside The genesis of the four-body shirt has remained a mystery up to this point The glamorous beauty of four-piece Ao Dai was discovered long-since printed to the faces of Ngoc Lu bronze drums Over the years, from the past to the present, the four-body dress is still gentle and affectionate, leisurely, arrogantly, becoming a part of Vietnamese life Proudly showing identity and aesthetics when introducing the four-piece Ao Dai to friends about Vietnam's traditional costume culture

Due to the fact that the “ao tu than” has the meaning of crystallizing the quintessential beauty

of ethnicity and to understand the beauty in the costume culture of the Vietnamese people, I decided

to choose the topic “THE CULTURE OF VIETNAMESE COSTUMES THROUGHOUT THE HISTORICAL PERIOD AND THE STUDY ON “AO TU THAN”

2 Reasearch situation:

Through research on a lot of information in books and newspapers and many reading materials to study the history of the formation and development of the four-body shirt over the periods, it is known that it appeared several thousand years ago There is also a transmission legend that, due to seeing Hai Ba Trung when expelling the invading Han army, they wore a long golden armour dress with a long, split tunic Because of the respect and gratitude, the predecessors avoided wearing two-piece Ao Dai, they wore four-piece dress instead Or with another explanation, because the technology in the past was still rudimentary and underdeveloped, only weaves a narrow fabric, so when wearing it, it is necessary to put four pieces together Or the primitive style of the old Vietnamese ao dai (“ao dai giao lanh”) when worn usually let the two front trunks intersect rather than tie, and for convenience fieldwork, that ao dai gradually turned into “ao tu than”

Experiencing many ups and downs of history along with the interference between national and abroad cultures makes the culture of Vietnamese women's costumes also exist many changes to catch up with the development of society By the 17 to 19 centuries, the four-body dress wasth th

transformed into a five-body dress as a way to show its nobility and elegance In recent years, along with the development of society, the four-piece shirt has entered the fashion industry with innovative, exaggerated designs that are extremely bold Some designs have been showed in the international arena in big beauty contests And in this topic, I will mention and study in detail below

3 Methodology:

To complete the tasks mentioned above, we have used some of the following research methods to analyze and understand the topic:

1 Research Methods

2 Theoretical method and practical relationship.

a) Method of synthesizing and generalizing documents and information

b) Writing method

4 Subjects and scope:

 Research subject: The “ao tu than” (four-piece dress) of Vietnam from the past to the present

 Scope of research object: Analyzing and clarifying the concept, history, meaning as well as the role

of the four-body dress for Vietnamese traditions and women

PART 2: THE DEEP INSIDE CHAPTER 1: THE CULTURE OF VIETNAMESE COSTUME 1.1 The Costume of Vietnamese People Throughout The Period

1.1.1 Hung King era with Dong Son culture:

The costumes of women in Hung King's period were usually short, tight-fitting, chest-slit V-neck and normally worn with ankle-length skirts In addition to that style, we can also see images of women wearing short-sleeved shirts, square necks, partially revealing shoulders or full breasts This shirt was available in two styles: button-up and pullover The shirt was always decorated with very vivid floral motifs, bearing the identity of that time The shirt was short and there was a large belt along with a long skirt to the bottom The belt had three lines of decorative dots evenly spaced and wrapped horizontally on the belly

When wearing this suit, they often combined it with metal accessories such as large bracelets and large necklaces or maybe the earrings and hat that were the same color as the shirt

1.1.2 Ly Dynasty:

This was the period when our country had to go through history stained with blood and influence by a period of 1000 years of colonization However, the provisional government at that time decided not to use the brocade of the Song Dynasty, but instead used woven fabric from Dai Viet to sew traditional clothes.Vietnamese costumes in this period were no longer costumes with rudimentary materials, needlepoint lines and less sharp details The highlight of the costume of this period were the images of clouds, flowers, and nature meticulously embroidered on the body, and they were considered the intersection between natural beauty and the human soul The fabric material was also improved compared to the previous period, which was a positive sign of the development of

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the textile industry in our country at that time Compared to Vietnamese costumes in other periods, the costumes of the Ly dynasty looked quite graceful, and soft Along with that were the details, and the layers are very trendy

Figure 2 and 3: 11th - 13th Century (Ly Dynasty)

1.1.3 Tran Dynasty:

Speaking of the Tran Dynasty, we were always proud to be the bloodline of those who have defeated the Mongol-Nguyen enemies three times This was the most arduous period in history, lasting throughout an entire imperial era Hence, being influenced on national culture such as costumes and aesthetics was inevitable Characteristically, the shirt had long and wide sleeves, a deep-cut collar, and a strapless camisole inside Costumes of the Tran Dynasty evoked a strong feeling and national temperament, bearing a bold and heroic spirit that contributed to the collection

of Vietnamese costumes through periods with full of magnanimity and vibrancy

Women's national costume was divided into two phases From the 13th to the 15th century, the characteristics were as mentioned above In the 15-16th centuries, during the late Tran and early

Le dynasties, the collar was sewn more discreetly with a round neck and neater sleeves However, the colors were more sophisticated and eye-catching

Figure 5: 15-16th Century (the late Tran - early Le Dynasty)

As for men's clothing, it was also very eye-catching The design was quite similar to women, but instead, the details on men's shirts were strong and more powerful The collar was designed with

a vertical neckline and bevelled diagonal In addition, to create an impression, in men's costumes, there was also a large belt along with it, on which there can be decorative details as you like

1.1.4 Le Dynasty:

Coming to the costumes of the Le Dynasty, instead of the temperament like the Tran Dynasty,

we feel more dignified and feminine This period was considered the most sublime one, that the costumes developed the most of all time At this stage, all designs and styles gradually became more diverse and also were much more sophisticated Despite the variety, every design generally had a very prominent colour combination, with many layers of quite sophisticated robes That was the result of the process of being oppressed by the colonial people and greatly influenced the traditional dress style of our nation

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The biggest difference in design was the "seamless high wall" through each layers of fabric, the softness of the fabric and the more eye-catching sophisticated colours The costume of Vietnamese women in the Le Dynasty had many similarities with the Chinese Hanfu robe with wide sleeves, a large waist-length belt used to fix this robe It was because of the influence of Chinese culture that made the costume to be not welcomed by many people in Vietnam

1.1.5 Nguyen Dynasty:

It was not until the last dynasty - the Nguyen Dynasty that our country's costumes were divided between the royal class and the regular people At this stage, a lot of different types of costumes appeared These were developed upon what was before, partly based on creativity and the variability of fashion

Figure 7: 19th Century (Nguyen Dynasty)

The most typical costumes in fashion reform are the shirt Tac (tấc), Nhat Binh shirt, Vien Linh shirt, Giao Linh shirt, and counter-ham shirt As for kings, Vietnamese costumes still had a mixture of the East and a little bit of influence of the West

Figure 8: Emperor costumes in Nguyen Dynasty

If the costumes of the ruling class became increasingly weathered between two separate cultures, in our society, our people still retained their inherent traditions Costumes such as “ao dai”, camisole, four-body shirt, “ba ba” shirt, strapless hat have gradually become an indispensable item and a crystallization of a long-standing culture

As for the upper class, they accept the culture of modern Western clothing At this stage, society began to appear flared skirts or innovative long dresses For men, started with shirts, trousers and vests The styles of Vietnamese costumes through these periods were widely popular, including three Nam Phuong Queen, who was very passionate about innovative ao dai

1.1.6 The 21 Century: st

From the beginning of the 21st century up to now, the Ao Dai has become familiar and is also the national costume of our country Upper-class people choose Ao dai styles that has been luxuriously sewn with gold-embroidered motifs, hand-embroidered To the aunts and the grandmothers, the young girls with Ao Dai go to festivals, walk the streets and go to school Experiencing a long time in the process of forming and developing culture; today, the Ao Dai is an indispensable traditional costume for Vietnamese people Despite going through many changes and being influenced by innovation, the most beautiful Ao Dai is still the one that is sewn in the traditional style These ao dai have the shape of the waist, long skirts to the feet, stand neck and are sewn with silk fabric

Figure 9: The 20-21st Century

Vietnamese woman, when wearing ao dai, becomes very gentle and dignified All exude the feminine, soft and elegant beauty of this traditional outfit

1.2 Some Typical Costumes of Vietnam:

1.2.1 Ao Dai:

Ao Dai is not only a traditional costume but also honoured to become the national costume of our country Ao dai is suitable for both men and women At almost any time of the day, one can wear

ao dai However, these days, this type of clothing is mainly used by women when going to school or working in some offices The purple ao dai is considered a symbol of the gentle, discreet, shy Hue women "Symbolically, the áo dài invokes nostalgia and timelessness associated with a gendered image of the homeland for which many Vietnamese people throughout the diaspora yearn," wrote Nhi T Lieu, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin

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1.2.2 Ao Ba Ba:

Ba ba shirt is a traditional costume for both men and women It is also a symbol of women in the South of our country The design of the Ba ba shirt is completely similar to ordinary shirts The collar is moderate, and the sleeves can be long or short The shirt is printed with a row of buttons extending from the neck straight downwards to the belly The design of the shirt is simple and usually made from soft, thin, light, cool fabrics such as silk, Today, Ba Ba shirt is still popular with versatile usage on all occasions From staying at home, going out, going to the market or attending traditional festivals, etc

Figure 11: Ao Ba Ba

1.2.3 Ao Tu Than:

The four-body dress is a traditional costume and also a symbol of women in the North of Vietnam As a long-standing costume, the four-body dress has a symbolic design, symbolizing the good qualities of Vietnamese women, such as the four tunics symbolize the four mothers, their parents and parents of their husband; the tie which is located in the two lapels symbolizing the parent's embrace with their beloved child; five buttons are symmetrically arranged, symbolizing the five great qualities of human beings (the Five Constant Virtues), which are benevolence, righteousness, ceremony, wisdom, and faith; two front flaps tied to symbolize the love between husband and wife is always close, durable, and glued together Currently, the four-body dress is mostly worn on holidays only, summer festivals, etc

1.2.4 Ao Cham:

"Ao Cham" is the traditional dress of some ethnic minorities in the northern mountainous region of our country The name of this shirt comes from the indigo tree, which is used to dye fabrics Traditional “ao cham” are made from self-woven fabrics, without embellishments and are used almost all the time However, today, the Cham shirt is increasingly being lost and forgotten The reason is that the manufacturing process is relatively complex and lengthy

Figure 12: Ao Cham

1.2.5 Traditional costumes of other ethnics :

Vietnam is home to 54 groups of ethnics, distributed in all regions of the country Therefore, the national costume in our country is very diverse with all different colours, designs and materials Such as:

 Muong ethnic: Muong men and boys often wear blouses Top with split bust, round neckline, wide-leg pants, and a mid-waist bandana Meanwhile, Muong women and girls often wear blouses: The body is short, and the sleeves are not longer than their elbow, and with the black ankle-length dress Skirts can be decorated with intricately woven patterns

 Cham ethnic: Men wear crisscrossed blouses, laced up, shorts inside, and skirts wrapped around the outside Women have different costumes depending on the region However, it is

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