cheongsam

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Two women wear qipao in this 1930s Shanghai advertisement.

The qípáo (旗袍), qípáor (旗袍儿), or ch'i-p'ao, often known in English as the cheongsam or mandarin gown, is a body-hugging (modified in Shanghai) one-piece dress for women. In the 17th century, Manchurian conquerors (Qing Dynasty) who invaded the Ming Dynasty created a law that outlawed the native Hanfu clothing and replaced them with the Manchu Qipao. In Western countries like America, the Hanfu garment is often mistakenly called a kimono.

Chinese language usage

The English loanword cheongsam (長衫) comes from the Cantonese pronunciation of the original Shanghainese term. In most western countries and in the Cantonese dialect cheongsam is the name of a garment worn by both men and women. Chinese who do not speak the Cantonese dialect view the cheongsam as an exclusively male dress and use the word qipao for its female equivalent. In Cantonese usage the word qipao is either interchangeable with the female cheongsam or refers to the two-piece qipao variant that is popular in China.

History

A woman in the traditional qipao with the over jacket

When the Manchu established and ruled China in the Qing Dynasty, certain social strata emerged. Among them were the Banners (qí), mostly Manchu, who as a group were called Banner People (旗人 pinyin: qí rén). Manchu women typically wore a one-piece dress that came to be known as the 旗袍 (qípáo or banner quilt). The qipao fit loosely and hung straight down the body. Under the dynastic laws after 1644, all Han Chinese were forced to dress in Manchurian cheongsam instead of the traditional Han Chinese clothing (剃发易服), under penalty of death. In the following 300 years, the cheongsam became the adopted clothing of the Chinese and were eventually tailor to suit the preferences of the population. Such was its popularity that the garment form survived the political turmoil of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that toppled the Qing Dynasty. The qipao after several centuries, has become the archetypal dress for China.

The first and "traditional" or national qipao when introduced to the larger Han population were wide, baggy and rather loose. It covered most of the women's body revealing only to head, hands, and the tips of the toe. The loose baggy nature of the clothing also served to deemphasize and conceal the figure of the wearer regardless of age. However, with time the qipao were tailored to become more form fitting and revealing. The modern version, which is now recognized popularily as the "standard" qipao was first developed in Shanghai around 1900, when the Qing Dynasty came to an end. People eagerly sought a more modernized style of dress and transformed the qipao to suit their tastes. Slender and form fitting with a high cut, it contrasted sharply with the traditional qipao. In Shanghai it was first known as 長衫 (or long dress. Mandarin: chángshān, Cantonese: cheongsam, Shanghainese: zansae).

The modernized version is especially noted for accentuating the figures of women, and as such is highly popular as a dress for high society. As Western fashions changed, the basic cheongsam design changed too, introducing high-necked sleeveless dresses, bell-like sleeves, and the black lace frothing at the hem of a ball gown. By the 1940s, cheongsam came in transparent black, beaded bodices, matching capes, and even velvet. Later, checked fabrics also became quite common.

The 1949 Communist Revolution ended the cheongsam and other fashions in Shanghai, but the Shanghainese emigrants and refugees brought the fashion to Hong Kong where it has remained popular. Recently there has been a revival of the Shanghainese cheongsam in Shanghai and elsewhere in Mainland China; the Shanghainese style functions now mostly as a stylish party dress.

Modern use

In the 1950s, women in the workforce in Hong Kong started to wear more functional cheongsams made of wool, twill, and other materials. Most were tailor fitted and often came with a matching jacket. The dresses were a fusion of Chinese tradition with modern styles. Then they were commonly replaced by more comfortable clothings like sweaters, jeans, business suits and skirts, even among the elder people. For its restrictive nature it functions as a formal wear in important scenes like the business suits for those people with more life experiences, such as an elder women in her birthday party which most guests younger, or a married women in her forties. They are sometimes worn by some politicians and film artists in Taiwan and Hong Kong. They are showed in some Chinese movies about scenes of the time when qipao is popular. They are also common seen in beauty competitions, along with the swimming suits. They are only common in daily living for some people as a uniform.

Women in video games are often in qipao, so cosplay showgirls may wear a qipao in show times. These qipao usually made of rubber or silk, so reflective in color to catch camera focus, with sleeves to the upper part of the arms and the bottom of the qipaos to half of the upper legs. They are common in short socks and white shoes.

Some Airlines in Mainland China and Taiwan have qipao uniforms for their women flight attendants and ground workers such as China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines. These qipaos are very similar to other airline uniforms. They are in a plain color, the bottom about 3/4 down to the upper legs, with a body fitting wool suit of the same color of the qipao. The workers wear stockings and shoes or low heeled shoes. Their working places are often air-conditioned so they do not feel very hot.

Few primary school(s) and some secondary schools in Hong Kong, especially those established for a long time by Christian missionaries use a plain rimmed sky blue cotton and/or dark blue velvet (for winter) cheongsam with the school badge right under the stand-up collar to be closed with a metal hook and eye as the official uniform for their female students to be worn to regular classes. The school Schools known to set this standard include True Light Girls' College, St. Paul's Co-educational College, Heep Yunn School, St. Stephen's Girls' College, Ying Wa Girls' School, etc. These cheongsams are usually straight body shape, not narrow in the waist, and the bottom of the cheongsam at least have to cover the upper legs. Their cheongsams uniform is tailored so that the size of their collar is tightly fitted to their neck, and the stiff collar is hooked up all the time amidst the tropical humid and hot weather. The bottom with short slits are also too tight to allow students to walk in long strides. The silts often split when walking and are repeatedly sewed. Many schools also required to wear underskirts of the cheongsam, which is usually bought in the schools. It is a full slip white cotton gown with its bottom near but less than the length of the cheongsams, and like the cheongsams, they have silts at the right and left side of the lower part of their cheongsams, which the silts are longer than that of the cheongsams. A white cotton undershirt is often worn inside. The blue color of the cheongsam is different in different schools, and the sleeves of the winter uniform may be half to the upper arm to full sleeves. Some schools cheongsam may be white in color, fit to the waist, worn by the elders classes students or worn in a school term in a year, allow undershirts and pants, soft collar, require side hair braids, white socks up to the lower legs or have no silts in the cheongsam etc. Many students feel it an ordeal, yet it is a visible manifest of strict discipline that is hallmark of prestigious secondary schools in Hong Kong and many students and their parents like that. In summer wearing this for a school day would be sweaty and un-hygiene. Some dissident students express their dissatisfaction with this tradition by wearing their uniform with stand-up collar intentionally left unhooked or the bottom cut shorter than their knees. The Ying Wa and True Light Schools have set questionnaires to their students about unifrom reforms but not passed ^[1]. But Madam Lau Kam Lung Secondary School of Miu Fat Buddhist Monastery ended their cheongsam uniform in 1990 after student unions suggested ^[2]

Many waitresses in Chinese restaurants over the world wear suits and skirts but some, especially the receptionists, wear qipao uniforms. These qipaos are long, often foot- or floor-lenght, slit high to the waist or hip, have no sleeves or cap sleeves. They are often made of brightly-colored silk or satin with rich Chinese embroidery. Some nightclub waitresses, ritual girls in ceremonies, and competitors in Chinese beauty competitions wear similar qipao uniforms. They may wear panties but not an underskirt so walking shows their legs. These uniforms are too sexy and are worn and kept in the working places. They would change to their causal clothes before go home.

Similar garments

The Vietnamese ao dai is a similar version of this dress as is the Tibetans national dress.

The Qipao in popular culture

Nancy Kwan wearing a cheongsam on the cover of Life magazine in 1960

• The movie In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar-wai of a Shanghainese community in Hong Kong is notable for its use of a variety of qipao worn by female lead Maggie Cheung.

• In the movie The World of Suzie Wong, Nancy Kwan made the cheongsam briefly fashionable in the west.

• Female characters in anime and manga will often wear the cheongsam. Equally often, the cheongsam will be tight in the bust and slit very high on the thigh, to provide fanservice.

• The popular Chinese Street Fighter video game character Chun-Li is very well known for her signature blue cheongsam (first seen in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior), worn with white knee-high boots, hair bun covers, and oversized spiked bracelets for a non-traditional style. A male Street Fighter character known as Gen wears the male version of the cheongsam, as do his students, Yang and Yun Lee.

• Tekken video game character Anna Williams wears a qipao with a peacock on it.

• Dead or Alive character Lei Fang often wears different colored qipao.

• In the anime and manga Naruto the character Sakura Haruno wears a qipao, and the character Tenten wears a pink cheongsam before the timeskip in the series.

• In the movie Kill Bill, Sofie Fatale wore a typical male black cheongsam. The costume department may have mistaken it for a qipao.

• In the manga & anime Mahou Sensei Negima, characters Ku Fei and Nagase Kaede both are fond of qipaos.

• In the movie Spider-man the character Mary Jane Watson played by Kirsten Dunst wears a qipao.

• In the ending credits for the anime Ashita no Nadja, the main character Nadja Applefield wears a dark blue qipao (among several other outfits) and poses in front of a mirror. However, it suddenly rips and shows a part of her leg, so the embarrassed Nadja covers the rip with her hands and struggles her way off-screen to sew it.

References

See also

• Hanfu/Han Chinese clothing
• Mao suit

External links

• Cheongsam article on the Beijing Official Website
• About.com entry on the qipao
• Documentary on the qipao on CCTV website
• Slideshow of a few items from the Fashion Institute of Technology's China Millennium exhibit

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