Chinese jacket is basically called as "ru " in ancient China, it also had other names like shan, ao. When shan mostly referred to unlined jacket, ao mostly referred to lined padded jacket.

While all modern western jacket has a waist-length, ru of ancient China can be waist-length or knee-length. Therefore, the equivalent Chinese upper garment of modern western jacket should be "duanru", which means short "ru".

Beyond that, there are some several differences between ancient Chinese duanru(Chinese jacket) and modern western jacket:

• Duanru closes to the right
  The most obvious difference is most Chinese upper garment(duanru included) closes to the right(jiaolingyouren principle), when western jacket usually has zipper or buttons on the front center. "Jiaolingyouren" principle means if the collar is crossing, then you can only have the left side covered the right side(so closes to the right) and never do the opposite.
• Duanru has bigger cuffs
  Other than that, while modern western jackets have narrow cuffs, ancient Chinese duanru can have wide and even large cuffs.
• Duanru has slits at the lower hem
  At last, duanru has slits at both sides of the lower hem, which western jacket doesn't has.

As an exception of traditional Chinese upper garment, Tang suit doses't follows the "jiaolingyouren" principle. It has narrow cuffs and has no slits at the lower hem just like modern western jacket. The only difference between Tang suit and modern western jacket is its Chinese button knots, which function quite alike with the modern buttons. So, if you are a newbie in Chinese traditional culture and want to try some Chinese traditional clothing, a Tang suit jacket should be your first try.

For Chinese jacket, we have traditional and modern jacket with Tang suit and Hanfu style.