Re: Jet Li's hairstyle in Fearless and the China Series
Originally posted by atv2
I had question about Jet Li's hairstyle in Fearless and the China series, what was it called and was it realistic for almost every chinese man to have that hairstyle?
The hairstyle is typical of the Qing Dynasty and is called the queue. The history behind it is pretty interesting. It was imposed on the Han Chinese by the Manchurians as a form of submission to their rule and those who didn't shave their heads were executed. Later on, cutting off the braid would also be seen as a sign of treason that would also justify execution. The Hans originally kept their hair long because under Confucian belief, any harm or alteration of the body is against filial piety, something along the lines of hurting yourself is equivalent to hurting your parents.
So to answer your question... yes everyone in that time period had to have that hairstyle or else death.
I didn't like Fearless very much. It's a noble story but the quality of the film was poor and the storyline wasn't carried out very well. Jet Li's new movies are all really disappointing, imo. Even in the Warlords, which he won best actor in the HK film awards... he used to be so much better.