Queue (hairstyle)
Also known as: cue · kūnfà · biànzi · biànfà · queue (hairstyle)
- 1The hairstyle features a shaved front scalp with a long, braided tail at the back.
- 2It was historically worn by the Jurchen and Manchu peoples.
- 3The Qing government made the queue mandatory for all male Chinese subjects.
- 4It served as a powerful symbol of submission to the ruling Manchu dynasty.
- 5Wearers faced discrimination during anti-Chinese riots in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The queue was a mandatory hairstyle for men during the Qing dynasty, characterized by a shaved front scalp and a long, braided back. It served as a symbol of submission to Manchu authority and became a distinct cultural marker of the era.
Connections1
symbol of Manchu authority
The mandatory hairstyle imposed on Han Chinese men served as a visible sign of submission to Qing rule and Manchu cultural dominance.
The queue originated among the Jurchen and Manchu peoples of Manchuria. Upon establishing the Qing dynasty, the Manchu rulers enforced the hairstyle on all male Chinese subjects as a sign of loyalty and submission to the new regime. Refusal to adopt the queue was often treated as an act of rebellion, punishable by death, making it a highly controversial and symbolic policy.
A European artist's conception of a Manchu warrior in China – surprisingly, holding the severed head of an enemy by its queue. Later historians have noted the queue looking more like Cossack chupryna as an inconsistency in the picture. (From the cover of Martino Martini 's Regni Sinensis a Tartari devastati enarratio,...Wikimedia Commons: File:Martino-Martini-Regni-Sinensis-a-Tartari-devastati-enarratio.pngManchu queuesWikimedia Commons: File:Geschichte_des_Kostüms_(1905)_(14580605068).jpgKhitan man in tomb painting in Aohan Banner, Inner MongoliaWikimedia Commons: File:Horse_leading,_mural(part)_from_Tomb_in_Aohan,_Liao_Dynasty.jpg Beyond its political implications, the hairstyle involved shaving the front of the head while growing the hair at the back long, which was then braided. In later centuries, as Chinese immigrants traveled abroad, the queue became a target of discrimination and anti-Chinese sentiment in countries like Australia and the United States. It remained a defining, albeit contentious, feature of the Qing era until the dynasty's fall.