Clothes are the "foundation of culture," said Jiang Xue, who is part of Beijing-based hanfu club Mowutianxia.

  "If we as a people and as a country do not even understand our traditional clothing or don't wear them, how can we talk about other essential parts of our culture?" she said.

  Even some foreigners have actively joined the Hanfu-enthusiasts. They also wear the traditional Chinese clothes to participate in some traditional Chinese festivals. There is a unique charm to have foreigners recite ancient Chinese poetry while wearing Hanfu in the blessing ceremony.

The foreign friends dressed in Hanfu and offered excellent performances at Wenzhou Overseas Publicity Base in that day of winter solstice last year. Are you one of them?

Outlandish Clothes？

 There is some way before the style reaches mainstream acceptance in China.Others say they're deterred by the odd looks they get when wearing hanfu in public.

"I used to be very embarrassed to wear (hanfu) out," 

screenwriter Cheng Xia told AFP.

Yang, the high school student, is more upbeat.

He said: "At the very least, we can wear our own traditional clothes."