Today's photo, taken on the ‘Spirit Way' to the Ming Dynasty Tombs outside Beijing shows a novel way to keep your hat on – a large bolt! Of course, in western culture, the bolt ran through the neck (Frankenstein). I'm pretty sure we headed here after out visit to the Great Wall.
The ‘Spirit Way' is a 7 km road that leads to the 13 tombs of the Ming Dynasty and is lined with statues of guardian animals and officials. This then, would be one of the officials and so the garb is probably a reasonable facsimile of what officials used to wear.
There's probably an expert out there that knows, but I don't know if the bolt was to hold the headpiece together, simply a fashion artifact, or if in some combination with the wearer's hair, served to hold the headgear in place – though that would presumably mean the wearer could not be bald and would need long hair.
But, since in fashion everything old is new again, it's only a matter of time before the bolted hat is spotted on the catwalk once more.
Clearly the statue has been damaged in the 400 or so years it's been here and you'll note that the restoration is lacking in craftsmanship when compared to the original.
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