Chinese tunic suit

The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire traditionally known in china as the Zhongshan suit, and later as the mao suit).Sun Yat-sen introduced the style shortly after the founding of the Republic of china as a form of national dress although with a distinctly political and later governmental implication.

Origins
When the Republic was founded in 1912, the style of dress worn in China was based on Manchu dress, which had been imposed by the Qing Dynasty as a form of social control. The majority-Han Chinese revolutionaries who overthrew the Qing were fueled by failure of the Qing to defend China and science compared to the West. Even before the founding of the Republic, older forms of Chinese dress were becoming unpopular among the elite and led to the development of Chinese dress which combined the changshan and the Western hat to form a new dress. The Zhongshan suit is a similar development which combined Western and Eastern fashions.
After repeated attempts to win support and recognition from Western countries failed, the Nationalist Party government in Canton led by Sun gained help (advisers and small arms) from Soviet Russia, which viewed it as a likely revolutionary ally against Western interests in the Far East; Chinese nationalism at the time (of treaty ports and extraterritoriality discriminations) was heavily infected with resentment against the West. As a result of this geopolitical alignment, Sun agreed to permit the nascent Chinese Communist Party to join the Nationalist Party — as individual members — not as a party-party union, combination or alliance. As a result, early Communist Party members adopted the attire as a mark of joining the Nationalist Party.
After Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925, popular mythology assigned a revolutionary and patriotic significance to the Zhongshan suit. The four pockets were said to represent the Four Virtues cited in the classic Guanzi: Propriety, Justice, Honesty, and Shame. The five center-front buttons were said to represent the five Yuans (branches of government)–legislation, supervision, examination, administration and jurisdiction–cited in the constitution of the Republic of China and the three cuff-buttons to symbolize Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People: Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. Finally, unlike Western-style suits that are usually composed of two layers of cloth, the jacket is in a single piece—symbolizing China's unity and peace.

Historical development
In the 1920s and 1930s, civil servants of the Chinese government were required to wear the Zhongshan zhuang. A slightly modified version of the suit, adapted for combat, formed the basis for National Revolutionary Army uniforms leading up through the Second Sino-Japanese War, although during the 1930s, as German military advice and assistance to the National Government waxed, the formal military uniform in the professional elements and ranks essentially became that of Weimar and then Nazi Germany(including the famous helmet).
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and especially during the long Maoist era culminating with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976, the suit came to be widely worn by the entire male population as a symbol of proletarian unity; it was regularly worn by Communist Party cadres until the 1990s when it was largely replaced by the Western business suit.
Symbol of national sovereignty
The Mao suit is worn at the most formal ceremonies as a symbol of national sovereignty. Chinese paramount leaders always wear Mao suits for military parades in Beijing, even though the Vice President and other Politburo officials wear Western business suits. It is customary for Chinese leaders to wear Mao suits when attending state dinners. In this situation, the Mao suit serves as a form of evening dress, equivalent to a military uniform for a monarch, or a tuxedo for a president.
The Mao suit also serves as a diplomatic uniform. Although Chinese ambassadors usually wear Western business suits, many Chinese ambassadors choose to wear a Mao suit when they present their credentials to the head of state. The presentation ceremony is symbolic of the diplomatic recognition that exists between the two countries, so it carries a higher level of formality that other diplomatic meetings.