Chinese raincoats have gone through several changes. The earliest forms of Chinese raincoats were made of straw with the name of "straw rain capes" or "coir rain capes". Originally, rain capes were made of Chinese silvergrass. Along with the progress of times, a couple of materials were found suitable for making rain capes. But straw rain capes were still used, especially among farmers and fishermen. These straw rain capes were described in lots of poems and articles in various dynasties. In the Tang and Song dynasties, sedge was the main material for making rain capes. It was chosen for its smooth surface and hollow structure, which makes it hard for water to permeate. With the time went by, there developed a more advanced raincoat with the name of "oil coat", which was made of fabrics like ordinary silk or thin, tough silk treated with oil. The oil used at that time was called "yellow oil", which was today's tung oil. Apart from raincoats made of sedge and oiled silk, there were raincoats made of burlap, coir hair and other materials. ((This is a museum quality piece)). They were very common in the 1920s, and according to experts they were in use by farmers up to the 1950s.