By KEJIA JI

If you’ve seen two students wearing traditional Chinese clothing to lectures at Monash, it’s probably Ruomeng Wang and and Jialei Song.

The two international students wear it to promote Chinese culture – even to Chinese students.

Ms Wang said many have never seen traditional Hanfu clothing before.

“I felt sad that even some Chinese students did not recognize Hanfu, which is our traditional clothing,” she said.

Ms Wang wore her Hanfu clothing to the welcome session of the Chinese History & Garment Society last month.

“People were staring at me and nearly 20 people took pictures of me, but it was disappointing that over half of them thought I was wearing Japanese clothing or doing cosplay,” she said.

Ms Wang said beside going to the university, she often wears traditional clothing with her peers to attend activities.

“As an international student, I am responsible to promote our traditional clothing and culture in Australia,” she said.

Ms Song became interested in and began to wear Hanfu after meeting Ms Wang during a class.

“I strongly agree with her that we should do something to make more people understand Hanfu,” she said.

Ms Wang’s motivation for wearing Hanfu came from making traditional Chinese headwear five years ago. She said it was meaningful to make her own decorations with silk and jade.

“After I have been made headwear for two years, I though why not wear traditional clothes to match my headwear?”

Ms Wang is teaching people how to make traditional Chinese handcrafts and to photograph Han clothes and in the Chinese History & Garment Society.

“This is the effort I can make to let people know more about Chinese costumes and culture and I will continue to encourage others.”