【正文】 nominally called “internationalization” or “globalization”. In recent years, the costume industry of China has developed swiftly. The “international” costume, featured by the western costume culture, has bee a pretty important part of our daily life.However, as our economy takes off, international status rises and living standard improves, a wave of national costume culture resurgence is rising. Moreover, people from the West pay more and more attention to the giant dragon in the East——China. Western costume designers constantly introduce Chinese costume cultural elements to their latest designs. Those phenomena arouse a series of thoughts: what distinguishes Chinese costume culture from the western one? Are there any similarities between them? What kind of costume culture will we Chinese hold as the mainstream in the future, the socalled “international” western one, the Chinese one or the fusion of the two? To obtain the answers to these questions, we are supposed to study and contrast carefully the characteristics and developing processes of them, and then draw some regularity.To contrast the costume culture between China and the West, it is necessary for us to master a good knowledge of the Chinese and western costume cultural characteristics.Chapter 1 Chinese and western dress The different features of Chinese and western dressChina is known as “Xia” as it’s a land of propriety, and it’s also known as “Hua” with the beauty of its costume. (①《左傳》p83) Our national costume is Hanfu. It originated in the Yanhuang era, formed in the Spring and Autumn Period and officially took form in Han Dynasty. That’s the reason why it’s called “Hanfu”. Since then, in spite of historical evolutions of all ages, their basic characteristics have never changed. Hanfu, on the whole, can be divided into four developing stages: Zhou Han Hanfu, Wei Jin Hanfu, Sui Tang Hanfu and Song Ming Hanfu. Zhou Han Hanfu was featured by dignity and simplicity, while Wei Jin Hanfu by chic and elegance, Sui Tang Hanfu by dignified, graceful, elegant and poised style. Hanfu in Song and Ming Dynasties epitomizes the characteristics of the pastsimple, dignified, elegant, etc. In Qing Dynasty, Hanfu was forbidden by the government and disappeared from the land of China.The main features of Chinese clothing are focusing on the right collar’s overlap, the band deducted hidden, big sleeves, no buttons and using string binding, giving the impression of free and easy flowing. These characteristics are obviously different from those of other ethnic costumes. Hanfu is divided into uniform and mon clothing. With strict standards, uniform is dressed on formal occasions while the mon clothing, without long sleeves, is very convenient to people’s daily life.However, the western clothing is different form the Chinese clothing. The West belongs to Marine civilization, it emphasizes the subjective and objective separation and that we should rationally treat clothing, advocate releasing personality, stress dress effect and be good at showing beautiful the posture of the body. Besides, we use various clipping, color collocation means to perfect bodily curve and give a person with visual fort in the modeling.A suit, also known as a business suit, prises a collection of matching clothing consisting of: a coat﹙monly known as a jacket﹚,a waistcoat﹙optional﹚﹙USA vest﹚for men, a pair of trousers﹙USA pants﹚, or for women, a shirt or trousers. A suit is generally acpanied by torment, a shirt and tie or for women, a blouse. Why people wear clothingChinese people are concerned more about its social function of helping to rule a country well than that of keeping warm or decorating. It has a lot to do with ruling a country to regulate the dressing way of the mon people. Nevertheless, the westerners pay more attention to its wealth value and function. Therefore, people put on clothing for functional and social reasons. The functional reason The first use of clothing is to resist the cold and cover the body. Functions of clothing include providing the human body protection against extremes of climate (extreme heat, icy winters, and drenching storms) and protection against insects, noxious, chemicals, and contact with abrasive substances. In sum, clothing protects human beings against anything that might injure the naked, unprotected human body. The social reasonClothing also delivers social messages to other humans. Social messages sent by clothing, accessories, and decorations can involve social status, occupation, ethnic and religious belief, marital status, cultural degree and sexual availability, etc. For example, only Roman citizens can wear “Toga” in Rome while dragon robe can only be dressed by the emperor in China.Chapter 2 Cultural differences between Chinese and western clothingAs the saying goes：People rely on apparel, beauty relies on good makeup. This is the same between China and the West, but for the specific performance it will be different.Chinese clothing culture differs from western clothing culture in the following aspects. DesignThe Chinese style is decided by the unique Chinese culture and the Oriental body feature. As the curve of we yellow race’s body is not so obvious, and Chinese are fastidious about selfrespect, implicitly and the doctrine of the mean, our clothing is a straight overall with wide coat and fat sleeves, which emphasizes plane design. Men’s wear is a onepiece robe while women’s wear is a short Chinesestyle jacket and a long skirt. The western style is determined by the western aesthetic thought of pragmatism and nationalism and the white race’s body structure. Their body curve is pretty sharp. Stressing scientific nature, the western clothing is in keeping with the law of motion. Its semistereoscopic designed with muffs, puckers, etc. Besides, it advocates individuality and physical beauty. Various kinds of designs sharply revealed th