Why do many people in old photos of the Republic of China still have braids on the streets?

Before the Qing Dynasty, Han men did not wear braids. Shaving one's hair and leaving it in braids was originally a Manchu custom. After Nurhaci captured Liaoshen in 1621, he forced Han people to shave their hair and grow braids on a large scale. In 1644, Qing troops entered the customs. After capturing Beijing, and especially after capturing Nanjing, they strictly enforced a hair-cutting order, "all officials and civilians were ordered to have their heads shaved", and those who disobeyed the order were "killed without mercy." At that time, there was not only an order to "keep your hair but not your head, and your head but not your hair", there was also an order to "if a person does not shave, the whole family will be beheaded, and if a family does not shave, the whole village will be beheaded". [1] Because there was an ancestral motto in ancient China that "the body, hair and skin are influenced by the parents", shaving and leaving braids essentially went against the historical traditions and thoughts and feelings of the Han people. Therefore, in the early Qing Dynasty, many people would rather lose their heads. Reluctance to get a haircut, such as the famous national tragedies such as "Ten Days in Yangzhou" and "Jiading Massacre" in history. After the Qing Dynasty unified China, shaving one's hair and wearing braids changed from a Manchu custom to a common custom among the Manchu and Han nationalities thanks to the power of the political power. Since then, Chinese men have had a long braid on the back of their heads.

With the continuous development of China's modernization after the Opium War, many Chinese began to go abroad to learn Western culture and advanced technology. They are also exposed to Western lifestyles. At that time, due to China's backwardness, the braids on the back of the Chinese people's heads were derisively called "pigtail" by Westerners. In order to change this situation of discrimination, some international students tied up their braids; the bold ones, such as Chen Duxiu, Zou Rong and Zhang Ji, cut off their braids. During the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei submitted a petition titled "Please Cut Your Hair to Change Your Clothes and Change Your Hair", arguing that braids were not conducive to fighting, being used in machines, and not conducive to hygiene. They were also ridiculed by outsiders, and he advocated cutting braids and cutting hair. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, with the rise of democratic ideas, wearing braids became one of the symbols of loyalty to the Qing Dynasty. Cutting braids became a symbol of revolutionaries, indicating that they wanted to completely break with the Qing government. After the victory of the Revolution of 1911, cutting off braids became a fashion, which symbolized people bidding farewell to the old era and welcoming the new society. However, it was some young people who dared to cut off their braids. Many people, especially the elderly, were afraid that the Qing Dynasty would come back, so they tied up their braids and wore hats. Braids in Chinese society are more than just a bunch of hair. “It maintains a historical connection between every household and the dynasty and tradition. Therefore, cutting off braids and hair is nothing less than a serious political choice.” [2] However, history always moves forward. On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen stipulated in a presidential decree that Chinese citizens must cut off their braids. After this, cutting braids was no longer a new fashion, but a legitimate order that had to be carried out. Among these cuts, the most valuable was the braid of the son of Ruifang, the governor of Liangjiang, which cost 8,000 yuan. What’s ridiculous is that it’s not that he spent the money on cutting his braids, but that he and his son, who was studying in the UK, spent 8,000 yuan on telegraph fees over a dispute over whether to cut his whip. Later, my son still cut off his braids. In 1919, Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was persuaded by his foreign teachers to cut off the braids that symbolized the Qing Dynasty. Although whether to cut braids or not does not have much impact on social life, it reflects the changes in people's concepts under the specific circumstances of modern Chinese history.

Another ballad goes:

When Xuantong returned to the court, his bald head was about to be opened.

Xuan Tong ran away and his baldness was cured.

The Chinese people have been struggling with the history of braids for nearly three hundred years, and it has finally come to an end.

Of course some old-style bureaucrats and nobles resisted.