“Chinese New Year is coming! How about getting a new haircut? Start afresh and refreshed after a long year!” Sound good? These sorts of considerate advertisements are simply never seen in China, as it has long been believed to be unlucky to have one’s hair cut in the first month of the traditional Spring Festival. For the past 400 years, this belief has been widely accepted and carried out by Chinese citizens. Primarily, for patriotic reasons. In accordance with the Western stereotype of old Chinese men, the Han - who composed 90 percent of China's population - were forced to wear braided queues, by the Manchus. During the early 17th century, the Manchus conquered China and forced the haircuts upon all males. The queue is a traditional hairstyle of the Manchu ethnic group, and requires the man to shave off the hair on the front part of his head, and fix the rest into a long braid. After conquering China, the Manchus forced this upon male individuals as a sign of submission and obedience. These forced queues were greeted with great resistance among the Han people, as cutting one's hair was seen as an act against filial piety in ancient Confucian times. In an attempt to override these traditions, the Manchu rules adopted a policy of "keep your hair and lose your head, or keep your head and lose your hair". As a sign of honor, some people would have preferred to lose their head instead of their hair. However, the Manchus did not retreat. Thousands of the Hans were executed for simply not obeying. Most of these executions occurred in Yangzhou and Jiading - two modern-day districts in Shanghai. Since resistance to the queue was no longer an adequate response, the Han population gradually began to accept the haircut, while always resenting the act of cutting one's hair. The Spring Festival was a festival solely celebrated by the Han, and it became a popular custom that hair should not be cut during the first month of ever new lunar year. Through this, the Han people remembered the strength of their old nation and expressed their ill will towards the Manchus. In 1912, just two years after the establishment of the modern-day Republic of China, queues were abolished. However, the custom lives on. Nowadays, people all over China celebrate the Lunar New Year and accept this custom nationwide. This article was written by Emma Tao. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch.