The Chinese Traditional Costume Movement, which I founded, draws upon and pays tribute, in its core logic and its strategy of struggle, to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi's "nonviolent non-cooperation" movement. What I wish to do is to use a modern, homegrown cultural symbol to walk a Gandhian path of peaceful resistance. It can be said that the Chinese Traditional Costume Movement is China's "nonviolent non-cooperation" movement.
I. Clothing as a Political Symbol
In his day, in order to resist Britain's economic plunder and colonial rule, Gandhi called upon all the people of India to boycott British foreign cloth, to spin yarn and weave cloth with their own hands, and to wear Indian homespun. The "Gandhi cap" and the white coarse-cloth garments thereby became the most powerful visual symbols of anti-colonialism and the struggle for independence.
I likewise concentrate political demands into a single garment. Hanfu, Tang-style dress, and the Song- and Ming-dynasty systems are, within the Costume Movement, not merely clothing, but also a mirror and a visual language. I call upon the public to wear traditional costume in the streets, at work, and at school — to use the traditional attire of the Chinese people themselves to satirize and dissolve the modern system of lifelong tenure of supreme power. What clothing one wears has never been merely a personal choice; it can be the collective declaration of an entire nation.
II. Upholding the Principle of Absolute Nonviolence
Gandhi put forward "Satyagraha" and the doctrine of nonviolence. Confronted with the colonizers' military and police forces, he resolutely opposed armed uprising, because violence only creates new hatred and bloodshed.
My position is entirely consistent with this. In the philosophy of the Costume Movement I have clearly stated: we do not advocate violence, we do not encourage armed conflict, and we do not wish to see ordinary people pay with their lives for political goals. Under high-pressure social control, the cost of head-on confrontation is too great, and we must find a path that is peaceful, open, and woven into everyday life. Nonviolence is not weakness; it is the most clear-sighted and responsible way to struggle in this era.
III. Bringing Political Expression into Everyday Life
Gandhi made resistance very simple and low in threshold: do not work for the colonial government, do not buy British goods, spin your own thread. Every ordinary person, simply by changing daily habits, was taking part in politics.
The Costume Movement adopts the same logic: lowering the risk and the threshold of political expression, so that politics enters the everyday lives of ordinary people. Ordinary folk need not take the risk of marching in the streets; they need only put on traditional costume during their commute, in online spaces, and in their short-video creations, giving traditional culture a new public meaning. Everyone can take part, and expression is possible everywhere — this is precisely where the power of "non-cooperation" lies: when more and more people make their stance known through everyday actions, the silent majority is silent no longer.
IV. Our Differences and Challenges
I also see clearly that the context of the era confronting the Costume Movement is very different from Gandhi's day. Gandhi faced the British colonial government, which was nonetheless subject to a measure of legal and public-opinion constraint; what we face is the highly digitized social control of modern China. The homespun cloth movement of that time struck directly at the vital economic interests of the masses, while the Costume Movement at present lays greater emphasis on the deconstruction of concepts, symbols, and the visual; its spread relies on the modern internet, overseas social media, and TikTok short videos, rather than on newspapers, rallies, and long marches.
The road is different, and the difficulty is different, but the direction is the same.
Conclusion
In short, the Chinese Traditional Costume Movement is, in essence, Gandhian nonviolent non-cooperation with traditional Chinese culture as its outer form. I hope, by means of clothing — this most intuitive of visual symbols — to awaken the civic consciousness of the people in the digital age.
We are not imperial subjects; we are people who would be citizens.