The Hanfu(漢服) Revival and Identity: Cultural Symbols, Ethnic Boundaries, and Digital Self-Presentation

How Hanfu becomes a medium of identity through cultural display is a question shared by research on cultural symbols and design. Drawing on existing Hanfu scholarship, accounts of clothing history, and industry reporting, this conceptual literature analysis examines the relationships among recognisability, historical legitimation, embodied practice, and platform feedback. The analysis argues that clothing acquires cultural representativeness through naming, use, and recognition by others; appeals to an authoritative past may establish belonging, but whether they produce exclusionary ethnic boundaries must be assessed through specific claims and actions. “Playing someone else” and “being oneself” are potentially overlapping modes of use, rather than universal historical stages. Digital display and commodification create new settings for wearing these garments and may allow audience responses to inform subsequent choices. The analysis accordingly distinguishes wearing motivations, public expressions, and social effects, avoiding the direct inference of political positions from clothing. For design, accessibility of cultural expression, users’ scope for interpretation, and the traceability of historical references provide three directions for evaluating Hanfu practices. The resulting framework organises relationships and generates testable questions; it is not an empirically validated causal model.