KUALA LUMPUR: Free movie tickets for those who wore Hanfu!

About 50 people who loved Chinese traditional culture recently watched Confucius in Hanfu at Pavilion after an appeal from the Young Malaysians Movement (YMM) to revive the culture of wearing Chinese traditional costumes.

Before they went into the cinema, they held traditional Three Offerings Ceremony to worship Confucius under the testimony of Deputy Minister of Information Communication and Culture Senator Heng Seai Kei and YMM President Ng Chin Long.

The ceremony was held at 8pm on 3 March in front of the cinema of Pavilion. The 50 people in Hanfu were divided into two groups according to their genders under the instruction of the chief celebrant, before they started worshiping.

YMM was active in promoting Chinese traditional culture. After the successful "Huaxia living camp", it came out with the campaign of watching Confucius in Hanfu in order to revive the Chinese culture.

YMM committee member Ma Guojun, who was in charge of the campaign, said that about 150 members had their own Hanfu after the "Huaxia living camp". It was a good news for them.

He said that YMM was the main organization promoting the campaign of wearing Chinese traditional costumes. They started the campaign since 2007 and all activities had successfully caught the people's attention.

Other races would put on their traditional costumes during festivals, except Chinese. YMM started up the campaign of watching Confucius in Hanfu in order to remember the ancestors.

He told Guang Ming Daily that people thought that Cheongsam and long gown with mandarin jacket were Chinese traditional costumes. Chinese traditional costumes was actually Hanfu, , which was designed since the Yellow Emperor. Hanfu existed since 4000 years ago, it was one of the oldest traditional costumes in the world.

Dynasty Qing had collapsed for about 100 years. Chinese societies around the world were carrying out campaigns to revive traditional costumes. Confucius was one of the great men for Chinese. He advocated the revival of Chinese culture and etiquette during the chaotic Spring and Autumn Period.

The campaign of reviving Hanfu today was similar to what had Confucius done at that time.

Heng praised YMM and young people who were involved in the campaign for respecting and promoting cultural heritage.

She said that since the Western culture has been widely spread all over the world, it would be very difficult to promote traditional culture and art.

She hoped that the campaign of wearing Hanfu could help promoting traditional etiquette, so that young people would understand that traditional culture was not so stiff and dull.

Also, she supported the "Three Goods" promoted by Dong Zhen Temple. She was planning to include the values of "saying good words", "doing good things" and "having a good mind" in the etiquette social activities advocated by the ministry.

She also wished that young people could do their part in advocating Chinese traditional culture and values. (Translated by YOU HSUEH LIN/Guang Ming Daily)