Halloween Week - Day 1 - Hannibal, NBC. “Have You Seen Blood In The Moonlight?”

peter o'toole core

“The Duet” (1883) (detail) by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929).

grantaire replied in a grave tone: “you shall see.”

Details, part I; Claude Paradin: Devises Héroïques, 1551.

(source for poem: two-bees-poetry)

Can you tell me more about fabric flower hair pins used in hanfu? I saw a lot of Japanese-style kanzashi in “The Empress of China”, but I couldn’t find any info of that sort of hair ornament used in Chinese history.

Hi, thanks for the question! 

Yep, you’re right - the Cdrama “The Empress of China” sometimes uses Japanese-style fabric flower hairpins (see example below) that are culturally and historically inaccurate (then again, Chinese costume dramas are notorious for being loose with sartorial historical accuracy…):

So let’s now take a look at actual Chinese fabric flower hairpins:

The umbrella term for Chinese flower hair ornaments is Zan Hua/簪花 (lit. “flower hairpins”), which includes fresh flowers as well as artificial ones made from fabric, paper (Zhi Hua/纸花), beads (Zhu Hua/珠花), etc.

Traditional Chinese fabric flower hairpins used with Hanfu include (but are not limited to!):

1) Juan Hua/绢花: “Silk flowers” - flower imitations made from silk fabrics of various colors. Dates back to more than 1,700 years ago, and was the main ornament for women during the Tang Dynasty. In 2008, Beijing Juanhua was officially designated as an intangible cultural heritage of China.

2) Chan Hua/缠花: “Wrapped flowers” - using colorful silk threads to wind flower art onto fixed frames. The technique of wrapping flowers originated during the Ming dynasty and flourished in the Qing dynasty. Notable for being small, delicate, and lifelike. Has been designated as an intangible cultural heritage of China.

3) Rong Hua/绒花: "Velvet flowers” - made from fine silk on twisted wire frames. Dates back to the Qin Dynasty, and was a marker of nobility. Eventually became popular among the common people during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and was mainly worn during festivals and weddings. In 2006, Nanjing Ronghua was officially designated as an intangible cultural heritage of China. 

For more resources, you can check out my Zanhua tag for my posts on Chinese floral hair ornaments, as well as my sub-tags for Chanhua and Ronghua.

Of course this doesn’t cover everything, but hope this helps! ^^

Sources/Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

untitled, nicola samorì (2012) // hannibal 3x02

The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein,1925)

Alexandre Cabanel “Fallen Angel” detail.

Vincenzo Gemito, Medusa, 1911 [OS][932x1024]