[ image description: a digital drawing of Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender drawing in my style. He is a light-skinned man standing in ¾ view and looking at a fire in his hand. His right eye is gold, but his left is heavily scarred and closed. His black hair is held up in a top knot with the flame-shaped Fire Lord Crown. He is wearing a gold-trimmed red inner robe, with a brown outer robe. It has gold embroidery of Chinese dragons on the shoulders, and a peacock feather motif on the hem of the robes. He is standing in front of a brown Fire Nation symbol ]
prints ✨ commissions
📣 If your Zuko isn't half blind, I don't want him 📣
I feel like some Fire Nation outfits are bright and red, but Zuko's are always in some way darker. Let's not unpick the symbolism there :/ as always, influences and inspiration under the cut, with the reminder that these originally came from Instagram slides I made, so they're missing a lot of extra context and nuance - also that I don't speak a lick of Chinese (any flavour of it) but I tried my best with the characters:
A Bit of Background:
The Fire Nation is visually and geographically inspired by volcanic islands such as Iceland, Hawaii and Polynesian islands, while the culture of the Fire Nation is primarily inspired by East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as sun-worshipping cultures (such as the Ancient Egyptians and Mesoamericans). For example:
the Confucian concept of ‘filial piety’ (孝顺 or ‘xiao shun’) is central to the Fire Nation too;
the agni kai is a form of honour duel commonly seen in warrior societies of South Asia, and literally translates as ‘Duel of Fire’ or ‘Fire Quarrel’;
the Fire Nation propaganda justifying the war is reminiscent of the Japanese Empire during the Second World War;
the architecture draws on that of Ancient Egypt, different Chinese dynasties, and historic Southeast Asian kingdoms;
the food typically resembles the Sichuan food, particularly in the spiciness and quantities of meat.
Fire Nation Clothing:
The clothing of the Fire Nation draws from many East and Southeast Asian clothing. For example, the armour the military wears has influences from traditional Thai armour, the shoulder pieces the Royal Family wears come from Burmese court wear, the school uniforms are inspired by traditional Thai clothing, and the Royal Family's top knot appear to come from Qin Dynasty China.
The Royal Court are often seen wearing changshan, a traditional clothing of the Han Chinese, although that is not the only influence. For example, Azula's skirt comes from the wraparound trousers worn in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, while Ty Lee and Toph's jewellery comes from the Thai mongkut.
My Design:
Zuko's wardrobe is one of (if not) the most varied, diverse and expensive of any character is the show. For example, his Ember Island clothing is very Thai-inspired, his Blue Spirit mask is based of a Chinese Nuo mask, his armour and hair in season one come from Thailand, and his dual swords come from Chinese niuweidao swords (牛尾刀). And that's not even mentioning the can of worms that is season two. But, since I'm drawing outfits for a ball in Republic City, I decided to draw inspiration from his looks in season three of ATLA and ATLOK.
I decided to go for the traditional daopao (道袍) robe, which usually had white or plain facings, but I decided to make them gold because Fire Nation. I put peacock feathers on Zuko's clothing because they symbolise the sun and virtue in Chinese clothing. I also decided to draw dragons on his outer robe. The dragons in ATLA are a combination of Western and Chinese dragons. Visually, they are very inspired by Chinese dragons, although they have four toes, which is more common with Korean and Vietnamese dragons, and they retain a connection to the Emperor. However, the presence of wings and their association with fire comes from Western dragons.
Started a habit of doing warmups by putting Jia Yongtao in various styles of historical fashion and then got carried away and now they're all going to be fully lined and colored ig¯\_(ツ)_/¯ First set is Ming yuanlingpao and a daopao+dahu combination (any inaccuracies are this humble artist's fault🙇)
In the last picture, both men were wearing 道服 (dàofú) - not to be confused with a 道袍(dàopáo) - and a pair of 云履 (yún lǚ - cloud shoes). The man on the left (in blue) was wearing the chanfujin shown above while holding a book.
The the man on the right (in green) was wearing a 四方平定巾 (sìfāng píngdìng jīn - a square hat with a flat top) with a red 花簪 (huāzān - flower hairpin). It was probably a 缠花 (chán huā - a type of handicraft made by wrapping threads on a flat surface, usually made into leaflets and those leaflets are then arranged to make flowers, leaves, insects, etc.). He was holding a 如意 (rúyì - ‘as [you] wish’ - a type of scepter).
New design for an OC of mine, Tao Jianhong! A med school student that had to suddenly become a combat medic during a war, of which afterwards he became Shanzun's top doctor. At some point, he also became a part-time priest of the Leveret Spirit to support his community.
He has an affinity for Water, as such it's no surprise his Qi Control manifests as 陰水 and 陽冰.
陰水 is a black almost ink/blood like water that he originally used for healing and soothing, but during war, it changed, and he used it in battle as a slow necrotic poison that saps enemy strength.
陽冰 is a dry ice that glows with radiant light, during battle it would burn foes, especially particularly evil demons, and the fog it created would conceal and obscure. But when peace came, it also changed, becoming a anesthetic and a way to close wounds and lessen bodily damage.
I am still kinda confused about the differences of TieLi 贴里 and YeSa 曳撒 They are both from Ming Dynasty but they also have the pleated skirt and similar print. I tried to see the differences, but I can’t, thanks for your attention!
Hi, thanks for the question!
Tieli/贴里 and Yesa/曳撒 (also known as Yisan) are different Ming dynasty men’s hanfu styles that look very similar. This is because tieli is actually a variant design of yesa. Torguqin wrote an informative article on yesa and tieli here, which I’ll summarize:
On Yesa (x):
Yesa is a distinctive hanfu design from the Ming dynasty. As a Sinicized version of the Mongolian jisün (banquet) robe, the function of this robe changed greatly as it changed hands to the Han. Yesa was worn by imperial eunuchs, servants, and street-running pages, and as martial and military parade regalia. The large pleated skirt in front greatly enhances the hip and thigh profile, and with the robe sometimes worn short enough to expose the entire boot, it exemplifies the masculine prowess of the wearer. Below - yesa in Ming painting (x):
The distinctive feature of yesa is the construction of the outfit itself – while looking from the front it consists of a cross-collared top sewn together to a pleated skirt, the back is a straight long robe. The skirt is not sewn shut to the back piece, but rather use two large outward-extending “flaps” or “ears” to cover the side slits, creating a unique side and back profile that allows unrestrained leg movement and access to the inner layer of clothing. Below - yesa pattern:
On Tieli (x):
Tieli is a variant design of yesa, but instead of its unique bottom design, it is a pleated skirt attached to the top. Its name comes from the Mongolian term “terlig”. Both yesa and tieli serve similar functions and offer similar freedom of movement, and hence were loved by commoners and elite alike. Moreover, tieli is often seen in paintings as the outer clothing of young boys and servants of pre-adolescent age. Below - 1) tieli in Ming paintings (x), 2) tieli pattern:
Here’s a handy slide that summarizes the differences between yesa and tieli (in Chinese), via:
So as you can see, the easiest way to tell yesa and tieli apart visually is by looking at the skirt. If there’s a large flat center panel in the front & back of the skirt, it’s yesa. If it’s evenly pleated all around, it’s tieli. For example, in the Ming painting below, the little boy in green is wearing tieli. Everyone else is wearing yesa (x):
Another clue is the presence of “waibai/外摆” - the “flaps” on the sides of the skirt that yesa (below right) has due to its construction, and tieli (below left) doesn’t have:
Finally, here’s a quick quiz - can you identify which of the below four outfits are yesa and which are tieli? (answers below):
Answers (top to bottom, left to right): 1) yesa, 2) tieli, 3) tieli, 4) yesa.
For more information on yesa and tieli, Newhanfu has an in-depth article here. There are also Wikipedia articles on yesa & tieli. And you can check out my tieli and yesa/yisan tags.
If any followers have more information, please share. Hope this helps!
