Every dynasty had its own casual wear, but throughout Chinese clothing history, the most elegant, comfortable, and culturally distinctive garment is undoubtedly the Song Dynasty's "beizi" (a type of jacket worn on the back). The most common Song Dynasty beizi style featured a straight collar and a front opening, varying in length, without buttons or loops at the front, and sleeves of varying widths. The garment had slits on both sides, sometimes extending from the hem to the waist, sometimes from the armpits all the way down, and some styles had no slits at all.
It is quite remarkable that the beizi was loved by men, women, young, old, and regardless of social status during the same era. In the painting titled "Walking on the Jade Terrace Under the Moon," women wearing beizi exude quiet elegance; female entertainers wear beizi in murals unearthed from the Song Dynasty tombs in Baisha, Yuzhou, Henan; and maids wearing beizi are also depicted in clay sculptures at the Jinci Temple in Shanxi. Women wearing casual wear was considered normal in many situations.
Men in the Song Dynasty, however, mostly wore beizi while resting at home. The unbuttoned, straight-waisted style, which could be loose, slim, long, or short, was incredibly casual. In a painting purse attributed to Emperor Huizong of Song, titled "Playing the Qin" (or "Listening to the Qin"), the emperor himself is depicted wearing a dark-colored vest. The fact that even the ruler of a nation wore a vest in his leisure time speaks volumes about its comfort and representative of casual wear.
The Chinese have readily embraced modern leisure life and casual clothing. With the implementation of the two-day weekend system in most areas, modern leisure activities such as bowling, karaoke, and roller skating are becoming increasingly popular along with corresponding casual wear.
