Hundred Cities and Hundred Arts, What is the name of the red gang tailoring skills | the list of intangible cultural heritage?

The Red Gang Tailoring Technique, also known as the "Fengbang Tailoring Technique", originated in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. The Red Gang tailor originated on both sides of the "Fenghua River" in Ningbo, and the two words rhyme similarly, and "red" is the "Feng" of Fenghua.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the people, the imperial powers invaded, and in some economically developed cities along the coast, foreigners were clustered and foreign companies were lined up, and for a time, suits suddenly rose among the employees of foreign banks and even the children of rich families, becoming a dazzling target of identity and wealth. As a result, some of the tailors (Chinese tailors) who were forced to make a living had to abandon their robes, horse coats, and cardigans and change to suits. At that time, the Chinese people called foreigners "red haired people", and industries serving foreigners had to add the word "red gang". The title of "Red Gang Tailor" was derived from this.

Image from the People's Government of Fenghua District, Ningbo City

In 1896, Jiang Liangtong, a Fenghua person, founded the earliest red gang clothing store in China at No. 405 Julu Road in Shanghai, "Hechang". After the 1920s, the Red Gang tailors relied on their own craftsmanship, learned from Western craftsmanship, and used knife skills, hand skills, car skills, ironing skills and the principle of "pushing, returning and pulling" in the measurement, calculation, sewing and testing, and over time summarized the nine potentials and sixteen standards of suit craftsmanship, becoming the classic theory of Chinese tailors.

In the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects released by the State Council, the Red Gang Tailor skills are on the list.

Source: Cultural Tourism China