49 replies to this topic

[hellfire190]

I believe it's to let the Chinese conform to the Manchus' cultural habits. North Asians had Qs at that time. Bandits and 'barbarians' wore Qs as well.

[Johan]

Well even the queue is Manchurian origin, whether we like it or not, it becomes a cultural symbol for Chinese already.
In Indonesia, whenever there is any stereotyping of Chinese in media will always involved the Manchu style queue with its dress as well, sigh !

Though some Chinese could claim the queue not as part of the original Han culture, but how about the Qing dynasty itself ?, a sinified Manchurian government who at least despite being blamed for China ills and fallen prey to foreign powers in the late 19th and early 20th century, did contribute to the largest territorial expansion of China.
Ming dynasty might be the last official Han based Dynasty , but if we applied that Ming should be the barometer for all proper Chinese then Modern China territory will have to be reduced to almost 50 percent.

[muaNXQ]

They are not "wearing" pigtails. It has nothing to do with 'chinese racism', since the Manchu themselves became sinified. The pigtails are infact a manchurian hair-style. One of the main aims of having pigtails at the back is to make the han-chinese 'forget' that they are originally han-chinese, so as to allow the manchu to more easily rule China without having to face any possible rebellion of han-chinese. If the han-chinese continues to have the han-chinese hair-style, they will be constantly be reminded of who they were 'originally' (i.e. han-chinese) and might be more likely to rebel against the Manchu rulers. This imposition of having pigtails was a policy used to effectively rule China. Anyone found not growing pigtails will be executed.

well,i think that their plan to make the han-chinese forget their identity did not succeed. There were still patriots who resisted having that hair style despite knowing that they may get executed. Also, although some of them shaved their heads, they hated the manchu's rule and even formed secret societies opposing the Qing government and hoping to overthrow them.

[YummYakitori]

Shaving off foreheads? Do you mean like shaving off the meat of their forehead?

I'm just clarifying but it sounds extremely painful. Imagine you find your forehead full of dripping blood and shreds of flesh hanging around. Yuck.

I have watched this movie on China's dynasties before in the past. I saw this imperial army person trying to shave his (at least what it seems like) scalp off. Is this the 'shaving of the forehead'?

[bloodmerchant]

Shaving off foreheads? Do you mean like shaving off the meat of their forehead?

I'm just clarifying but it sounds extremely painful. Imagine you find your forehead full of dripping blood and shreds of flesh hanging around. Yuck.

I have watched this movie on China's dynasties before in the past. I saw this imperial army person trying to shave his (at least what it seems like) scalp off. Is this the 'shaving of the forehead'?

No, it is just shaving, not scalping. I think you confused the two together. It actually means cutting off hair, do people bleed profusely when they shave their facial hair? Please read and pay attention more carefully till you make an uneducated opinion. They shaved only the hair off the head. Standards for having the queue were strict early on, but then relaxed as time went on. And it was imposed on not just the Han, but other southern minority ethnic groups.