Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Queue (hairstyle)
Summary
A queue or cue is a hairstyle worn by the Jurchen and Manchu peoples of Manchuria, and was later required to be worn by male subjects of Qing China. Hair on top of the scalp is grown long and is often braided, while the front portion of the head is shaved. The distinctive hairstyle led to its wearers being targeted during anti-Chinese riots in Australia and the United States.
The requirement that Han Chinese men and others under Manchu rule give up their traditional hairstyles and wear the queue was met with resistance, although opinions about the queue did change over time. Han women were never required to wear their hair in the traditional women's Manchu style, liangbatou, although that too was a symbol of Manchu identity.
The queue hairstyle predates the Manchus. The Chinese word for queue, bian, meant plaited hair or a cord. The term bian, when used to describe the braid in the Manchu hairstyle, was originally applied by the Han dynasty to the Xiongnu. Jurchen people wore a queue like the Manchu, the Khitan people wore theirs in Tartar style and during the Tang dynasty, tribes in the west wore braids.
The Xianbei and Wuhuan were said to shave their heads, while Xiongnu had queues. Other evidence from Chinese histories indicate that the Tuoba or Tabgach groups of the Xianbei wore braids, since they were called "braided" by the southern Chinese. However, their hairstyle is hidden in depictions due to a hood they wore. The Liu Song dynasty's records called them "braided caitiff", suolu, while Southern Qi's history said they wore their "hair hanging down the back" (pifa), and called them suotou, "braided". A braid of hair was found at Zhalairuoer in a Tuoba grave.
Han Chinese also made the barbarians they'd conquered undo their queues. To show submission to the Han Chinese of the Sui dynasty, the people of Turfan (Gaochang) undid their queues, as did the Göktürks upon surrendering to the Tang dynasty. Hairstyles showed affiliation to a tribal confederation or dynasty.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.