POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Zhifu with coin in pocket

Zhifu with coin in pocket

Object No. 98/126/86

Zhifu (jacket) with coin in pocket, cotton / plastic / metal, maker unknown, China, 1970-1979 / 1991

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Summary

Physical Description

Loose fitting, slightly tailored jacket made of blue cotton with long sleeves and small turn down collar. Centre front opening buttoning to neck with five blue plastic buttons and a metal hook and bar at collar. Two slash pockets at left and right breast with shield shaped flaps over opening. Two slash at left and right front at hip level with rectangular flaps over opening. Machine sewn and unlined except for yoke of white cotton across shoulders. Silver looking circular coin found in jacket breast pocket. One side of coin depicts a wreath with "1" and "1991" at top and bottom of coin.

DIMENSIONS

Width

670 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan) (1866-1925), the Provisional President of the new Chinese Republic proclaimed in 1911, is credited with the modernisation of Chinese mens dress. It is said that he instructed Huang Longshen, a Western-style tailor from Zhejiang Province, to design a suit based on one commonly worn by Chinese men in Japan and Southeast Asia. The early from of Sun Yat-sen suit (Qilingwenzhuang) had a closed stand collar and centre-front buttons. the design of the Sun Yat-sen suit changed significantly over the course of some 50 years. A major and lasting change to the design of the Sun Yat-sen suit (Zhongshan fu) was the incorporation of elements of German military dress including a turndown collar and four symmetrically placed pockets. Over time small stylistic changes were made to the design. It is the later style of Sun Yat-sen suit which was further modified and adopted as China's national dress by Mao Zedong after 1949. This blue modified Sun Yat-sen jacket is known in the West as the Mao suit, this was the most common form of dress for older men from 1950s to the 1970s. Claire Roberts Mandy Crook

HISTORY

Notes

Collected by Sang Ye in China in 1996 on behalf of the museum.

SOURCE

Credit Line

Purchased 1998

Acquisition Date

22 September 1998

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