Li Junqiang wears his first Zhongshan suit to work. The 28-year-old bought his black Zhongshan suit from a small tailor shop for about 700 yuan three months ago.

"I was tired of the ordinary suit because every man in my office, including foreign employees, wears almost the same outfit - just shirt, suit and tie," Li said. "My new Zhongshan suit is cool and makes me stand out from the crowd."

Li shares his fondness for Zhongshan suits with other netizens at an online community and most of them, in their 20s, have already got one or more.

Although Zhongshan suits are considered old-fashioned, these younger people, some of whom are middle school and university students, like them, Li said.

"Maybe I will buy my next Zhongshan suit from Hongdu. It is recognized as the best Zhongshan suit-maker in the city," Li said.

Gu Tianming, general manager of the Hongdu Group Company, said that to cater to a younger market the company is making changes to the suit. He said Hongdu now has a series of products specially designed for young customers, called young men's suits with a special stand-up collar.

Other parts of the suit can be changed to meet customers' needs, he said, such as the waistline, which is traditionally straight but can be slimmer to be more fashionable.

Hongdu moved from Shanghai to Beijing in 1956 and was composed of five brands, including Liantian, Zaochun and Bowei. Hongdu, one of the five, specializes in the Zhongshan suit, which is also called Sun Yat-sen's suit or the Mao suit. It is different from Chinese and Western suits.

Since the suit was designed for people taking part in the Revolution of 1911, every detail has significance, Gu said.

Four pockets with flags, which are symbolic of the suit, stand for four important Chinese values: propriety, righteousness, integrity and honor. The lapel collar represents the strict attitude Sun brought to administering the country. The back of the suit is made of one piece of cloth, signifying the country's unity.

Hongdu will produce 100 Zhongshan suits to celebrate the centenary of the Revolution of 1911. The high-quality limited edition suits will feature the original details and will cost 30,000 yuan each.

The company also produced 100 suits last year, which were the same as the dark gray Zhongshan suit President Hu Jintao wore on Oct 1, 2009, for the National Day parade, which celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China.

Those suits were very popular, Gu said.

Top officials, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, were customers of Hongdu. In the picture at Tian'anmen Square, Mao is wearing a suit made by the company.

Hongdu also serves foreign dignitaries. They once made clothes for former US President George W. Bush and NBA star Dikembe Mutombo.

Ordinary foreigners make up about 10 percent of Hongdu's customers, according to Gu. He said the foreigners come for Chinese suits as well as Zhongshan suits, qipao and fur coats.

Gu said Hongdu also has ordinary Zhongshan suits for the public priced from 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, which is still a little higher than suits made by other Beijing tailors. Besides the high-grade fabrics, Hongdu suits are expensive because of the quality of the manufacturing.

"No one can make the suit as well as we do," said Yan Ruihuan, Hongdu's production supervisor. The 54-year-old woman began learning to make Zhongshan suits in 1982 as an apprentice to Tian A'tong, who was one of the top tailors in China.

Yan manages a Hongdu workshop in Changchunjie Street, where she has two apprentices, both of whom are highly skilled technicians. But, like other traditional brands, Hongdu faces a shortage of technically skilled workers.

Gu Tianming, the general manager, said young people do not want to be manual workers any more, because they don't feel such work is valued. Also, skilled workers need to spend a long time as apprentices on lower wages.

In its two Beijing workshops, Hongdu has more than 200 staff members, who are migrant workers or graduates of technical schools.

After a year with Hongdu, they become higher technicians. But they need a lot of time and talent to master all the skills to make a Zhongshan suit.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/11/2011)