Reflections | Why Chinese men with long hair were executed for refusing to shave their heads, and a history of men’s longer hairstyles in the country
- Most adult males sported long hair for much of China’s past, believing that the body was a precious gift from one’s parents that must not be desecrated
- When the Manchu conquerors required all men to wear their hair in the Manchu style, many refused - with the death penalty imposed on those who did not comply
Like most men of a certain age, my hair is getting thinner. While I don’t have a bald spot on my head - not yet - and none of my close relatives are bald or balding, I know my follicles are shedding at a quicker rate than before.
It’s good that I’ve always worn my hair short because a short haircut makes hair loss less noticeable. Besides, long hair means heavier follicles that are more easily detached from their rightful place.
Long hair on men is still frowned upon in some countries today.
Once upon a time, Singapore famously banned musicians like the Bee Gees, Kitaro and Led Zeppelin from performing in the city state unless they cut their signature tresses, making its an international laughing stock and cementing its reputation as a humourless, regimented island - a reputation that, perhaps unfairly, continues to plague the much more cosmopolitan city state today.
For much of China’s past, most of its adult males sported long hair. The Han Chinese used to believe that the body was a precious gift from one’s parents that must not be desecrated by inking one’s skin or cutting one’s hair. (Fingernails and toenails had to be considered less precious, for practical reasons.)
From the age of 20, Han Chinese men wore their hair up, gathering it into a topknot that was secured by strings, ribbons and hairpins. The more fastidious ones would apply oils to tame unruly hair and give it a sleeker look.
