#it's a man's fan and his style amd interests align him very strongly with that

[guqin-and-flute]

For real! Hats from ANY culture are going to look odd when you first encounter them because it's a person wearing a thing on their head. Things like form, shapes, color, and decoration are highly contextual to the culture it originated in. They're going to serve a different purpose and signal a different thing in different places.

The official's hat is no odder than a cap with a brim only at the front (baseball hat)--it's shaped by what it is used for and the culture it was created in. One is just more common in Western culture and so Western people are immune to seeing it objectively.

The hat looks a little funny the first time you encounter it, the same way bicorns do. But if you watch enough of these shows or look at enough old artwork they start to just look like "hat that comes with particular setting." It is sillier when only one person is wearing one but Idk they're not any weirder than western historical hats...

[lotuspiertorturedungeon]

#also can i just say it has a narrative and cultural purpose it's signalling within the story and it's not that he especially likes hats#like there are different tropes I've been learning as i watch more period C and K dramas#so it's kind of like people looking at Huaisang with a fan and not liking martial arts and say that he's intentionally coded ad feminine#whereas I've gleaned from context and awesome meta in the fandom that it's actually that he's SCHOLAR-coded#it's a man's fan and his style amd interests align him very strongly with that#I'm not expecting people to automatically know this (and I'm definitely not claiming to know much either)#but let's try to avoid pointing and laughing at things we aren't familiar with eh?#the hat has to do with station and servileness and belonging and his acceptance into the Jin and all the complications that come with it

The hat looks a little funny the first time you encounter it, the same way bicorns do. But if you watch enough of these shows or look at enough old artwork they start to just look like "hat that comes with particular setting." It is sillier when only one person is wearing one but Idk they're not any weirder than western historical hats...