In Asia, the queue was a specifically male hairstyle worn by the Manchu people from central Manchuria, and later imposed on the Han Chinese during the Qing dynasty. From 1645 until 1910 Chinese men wore this waist-length pigtail. The queue was utilised as a symbol of dominance over the Han Chinese by the Manchu people. Being a Manchu hairstyle, it was imposed on the Han Chinese to force them into submission. The queue hairstyle involves shaving the rest of the hair on the front and sides of the head, leaving a meagre portion that is tightly tied into a braid. With this hairstyle, the Han Chinese could not grow their hair naturally and freely to style them as they normally did in their own culture, and were hence denied their cultural right to grow their hair comfortably, experiencing suppression and limited agency in the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Any Han Chinese man who did not wear the Queue was executed by beheading. This rule of law was upheld with the exception to monks, who attended monasteries and shaved their entire heads. For this reason alone, many Han Chinese left their homes for monasteries to protect their freedom from this symbol of domination. Otherwise, those who opposed the Queue were perceived as threats to Qing culture and power, and were purged. Ironically, many of the officials who contributed to the enforcement of this law were Han Chinese who defected to the Qing.