Young Chinese in the country’s northern regions are saluting their grandparents’ once venerated and once vilified wintry weather style this year. As temperatures plunge to minus 15 degrees Celsius, they tszuj up their winter pizzazz by wrapping up in an oldie but goodie: the Chinese military coat.
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It’s retro, puffy and olive drab green, for everyone skating down the icy streets to see and be seen… We’re talking about China’s military coat (“军大衣“| jūndàyī in Chinese, literally “army big coat”) – which you are bound to have seen if you’ve ever watched any of visual overlord, aka director, Zhang Yimou’s movies documenting China in the 1960s and 70s.
The jundayi is the perfect blend of practicality and prêt-à-porter principles.
Although seemingly outdated and “rustic” to many today, some young Chinese are beginning to see the value of the PLA coat, which combines vintage fashion with practicality and history. From fashion faux pas, the jundayi in the Roaring Twenties 2.0 once again marches to the beat of trending style’s swankiest drums.
Two men visiting the city of Harbin in northeast China, known for its extreme winter cold and annual ice sculpture festival, show off their traditional Chinese military overcoats on Chinese lifestyle and e-commerce app 小红书 (xiǎohóngshū| Little Red Book (LRB)). Image: LRB
Faux Pas to Street Stomp
It’s thick and heavy, filled with cotton, with a dark faux-fur collar. The front features two columns of gold buttons with the Chinese characters “八一,” literally meaning 8-1, or August 1, the date of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“Originally designed to keep soldiers bundled up and warm in winter, it became popular with civilians in the 1980s for its fashionable vibe and practical features. This trend continued into the 1990s until the military coat was gradually replaced by leather jackets and down jackets,” reporter Zhang Yage writes in this year’s issue 52 of China’s only English newsweekly, Beijing Review.
If you search for “jundayi” on Taobao, you will find more than 100 stores with sales volumes in the hundreds and thousands. However, most of them are imitations. They are not produced by the army.
Popular designs include military wool coats, trench coats, flight jackets, pea coats, and parkas with designs inspired by military coats from different countries and eras, according to the People’s Daily News.
SUNGUITIAN’s AW23 military coat as presented on the Chinese brand’s official LRB account
According to Zhang, the phenomenon is particularly visible on campus. For example, on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, a short video of a group of students wearing army coats marching into the classroom garnered 200 million likes.
Yiwugo.com, the official website of the Yiwu Commodity Market, is the largest commodity wholesale market in the world. During a conversation about the recent sales of the jundayi in early December, Mr. Chen from Liliang Apparel told PRNewswire that “the earliest delivery for pre-ordered Chinese military-style overcoats would take at least 20 days” due to the order volume. That’s quite a bit longer that the average delivery time of three days to one week residents of the Middle Kingdom are accustomed to. Chen highlighted that, except for a few scattered items, the market is currently “grappling with widespread shortages.”
Zhou Haifeng, manager of a store on Taobao, one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms, told Beijing Review that his store had sold more than 2,000 military coats in November. “They are very popular this year; last year we sold about 2,000 of both (these coats and padded jackets) for the whole winter,” Zhou said. On the front page of Zhou’s shop, the military coat styles are priced at ca. 70-80 yuan ($10-ish) each, including delivery.
On Chinese lifestyle and e-commerce app Little Red Book (小红书| xiǎohóngshū), hashtag “jundayi” had raked in 20k notes as of December 16 – that may not seem like a big number but is still a 20-percent increase from October, mind you.
FYI:
NOTES ON LRB OFTEN CENTER ON THE USER’S OWN CONSUMPTION EXPERIENCE, WHICH SERVES AS A USEFUL GUIDE FOR OTHER USERS. GENERALLY, PHOTOS AND TEXT NOTES ARE USED TO CONVEY MORE DETAILED PRODUCT INFORMATION, WHEREAS SHORT AND FAST-MOVING VIDEOS HIGHLIGHT LOOKS AS WELL AS (DIS)ADVANTAGES OF THE PRODUCT IN A DOUYIN STYLE FORMAT.
Professor of Psychology at Beijing Forestry University Wang Guangxin told Jiupai News that the popularity of these coats “reveals people’s nostalgic feelings buried deep in their collective subconscious, and also reflects people’s mutual cultural identification.”
Fashion is cyclical and many young Chinese remember growing up with the revamped military mode (literally). Many netizens on Little Red Book and Douyin have commented that their grandfather “used to hang his army coat by the door” after entering the house accompanied by a “glacial airstream.”
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Military Mood
In spring this year, “military-style” travel was the most stylish travel mode among Chinese college students, meaning they’d spent as little much money as possible to travel to as many places as they can during the weekend, rarely taking a break or even sleeping.
To save money, they’d usually hop on a normal-speed train on a Friday night, arrive at the destination city on Saturday morning, travel extensively in the city, sleep at a 24-hour restaurant for a few hours on Saturday, then repeat the same busy schedule on Sunday before returning to their university in time for classes on Monday morning, according to China Daily. Videos of students taking such trips were trending on social media platforms, from LRB to Douyin.
But we wrap this piece up with a quick fashion fact. Military boots make up the sole of the city this author calls home: the city of Beijing, nicknamed 帝都 (dì dū or “Imperial City”). The Chinese capital is home to what we refer to as the military stomp. The Beijing pavements often receive the heavy tread of its residents’ too-cool-for-school boots.
FYI:
IN THE QING DYNASTY (1644–1911), ESTABLISHED BY THE MANCHUS WHO WERE RIDING AND SHOOTING EXPERTS, MILITARY BOOTS WERE ADAPTED FOR CIVILIAN WEAR AND ALSO BECAME PART OF THE UNIFORM FOR OFFICIALS. BOOTS CAME IN TWO STYLES–POINTED OR SQUARE TOES, THE FORMER BEING FOR EVERYDAY WEAR, AND THE LATTER FOR COURT ATTENDANCE. THE SOLES OF THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FROM 32 LAYERS OF CLOTH AND WERE LATER USED IN THE MAKING OF THE CLOTH SHOES WORN BY THE COMMON PEOPLE, WHICH HAVE SINCE BECOME KNOWN AS ONE-THOUSAND-LAYERED SHOES. NOW YOU KNOW.
We find ourselves up north, where the climate is a bit rougher, a bit tougher. Dropping temperatures in winter aside, there’s a palpable sensation of a city that “just is” and not pretends to be anything it’s not ever so slightly reinforced by the capital’s beloved 儿化 (érhuà) — a phonological process that adds R-like sounds to certain words – and the “whatever” attitude it entails. With some matching style to boot.
All in all, it seems the military trend is ready to march right into 2024.
FEATURED IMAGE: VIA LRB ACCOUNT: 呆呆爱分享
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Perpetually in pursuit of the greater good that is “China Fashion”, van Paridon set up The China Temper to help promote the dynamite dynamic fashion scene sprouting within Beijing, Shanghai, and China overall. Catering to anybody and everybody who reads English and/or Chinese, Temper covers all the basics and bases. From China's street style scenery to its budding photographers, internationally renowned designers, and underground quirks plus phenomena: We present one hot-hip-happening current collective weaving The New "Made in China" tag.
The term “Made in China” is undergoing the ultimate 21st Century makeover. Escorted by the increasingly strong influence of a new thinking among China’s younger generations, regarding individuality and the expression thereof, the fashion scene in the Middle Kingdom is exploding. And stretches far beyond what meets the eye. It’s appliqué, one might say.
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