To show submission to the Han Chinese of the Sui dynasty, the people of Turfan ( Gaochang) undid their queues, as did the Göktürks upon surrendering to the Tang dynasty. Han Chinese also made the barbarians they'd conquered undo their queues. A braid of hair was found at Zhalairuoer in a Tuoba grave. The Liu Song dynasty's records called them 'braided caitiff', suolu, while Southern Qi's history said they wore their 'hair hanging down the back' ( pifa), and called them suotou, 'braided'. However, their hairstyle is hidden in depictions due to a hood they wore. Other evidence from Chinese histories indicate that the Tuoba or Tabgach groups of the Xianbei wore braids, since they were called 'braided' by the southern Chinese. The Xianbei and Wuhuan were said to shave their heads, while Xiongnu had queues. Jurchen people wore a queue like the Manchu, the Khitan people wore theirs in Tartar style and during the Tang dynasty, tribes in the west wore braids. The term bian, when used to describe the braid in the Manchu hairstyle, was originally applied by the Han dynasty to the Xiongnu. The Chinese word for queue, bian, meant plaited hair or a cord. The queue hairstyle predates the Manchus. In the 18th century, both soldiers and sailors of western nations wore their hair pulled back into a queue, but the fashion was abandoned at the start of the next century.

Han women were never required to wear their hair in the traditional women's Manchu style, liangbatou, although that too was a symbol of Manchu identity. The requirement that Han Chinese men and others under Manchu rule give up their traditional hairstyles and wear the queue was met with resistance, although opinions about the queue did change over time. The distinctive hairstyle led to its wearers being targeted during anti-Chinese riots in Australia and the United States. Hair on top of the scalp is grown long and is often braided, while the front portion of the head is shaved. Mn̂g-bué-á/mn̂g-bé-á or thâu-chang-bué/thâu-chang-béĪ queue or cue is a hairstyle worn by the Jurchen and Manchu peoples of Manchuria, and was later required to be worn by male subjects of Qing China. Chinese American men with queues in Chinatown, San Francisco, 1880s

Chinese queue hairstyle