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What replaced the qipao as a politically and socially approved outfit was, of course, the drab and shapeless blue, green or
grey pants and jackets for both sexes, sometimes referred to as the "Mao suit," although it was earlier pioneered by none
other than Sun Yatsen himself. The practical purpose behind its promulgation lay both the problems of clothing vast population
in a poor country in the most efficient way possible, and in the egalitarian ideology behind Chinese communism. Yet almost
immediately some voices were raised in discontent.
Chinese Store Gifts Wedding Prom Dress As early as 1955, a national conference was held in response to letters
from readers expressing dissatisfaction with universal drabness.
As in many parts of the world, dress in China is and has always been considered a convenience enabling the observer to
rank-order strangers, a process vital to social interaction anywhere.
In China it used to be the practice to integrate the
logos or badges of rank into the costume itself. Little has since changed, except that the badges of rank are not quite
so blatant. The (unsuccessful) attempt to eliminate this practice, which went so far as to eliminate the insignia of rank
on military uniforms, was one of the aims of Chinese dress reform policies under Mao. If for formal affairs like ceremonies or performances, in summer, you should
select pure silk crape de Chine, thin silk, which are soft, light and cool since
it won't stick to your body. Indian
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As in many parts of
the world, dress in China is and has always been considered a convenience
enabling the observer to rank-order strangers, a process vital to social
interaction anywhere. Indian Apparel
In China it used to be the practice to integrate the logos or badges of rank
into the costume itself. Little has since changed, except that the badges of
rank are not quite so blatant. The (unsuccessful) attempt to eliminate this
practice, which went so far as to eliminate the insignia of rank on military
uniforms, was one of the aims of Chinese dress reform policies under Mao.
Indian Apparel In the
1990s, China went through yet another stage of the clothing dilemmas with which
it had long been afflicted as a facet of attempts at modernization. In 1995, at
the Xi'an Academy of Arts, I met a young student designer who was, incidentally,
the only woman I ever saw then to wear a hippie-style, full, long, tie-dyed
skirt: all others stuck either to pants or to a short-skirted business suit.
She gave me a paper she had written and entitled, significantly, "Dressing
Doubts." It began: Two decades ago, it was customary to wear and see
simple, inexpensive blue or green clothing. Clothes did not distinguish between
male and female or old and young. Indian Apparel
People did not dare stand in the sunlight of bright, variegated colours. . . .
Now it is hard to avoid losing one's sense of direction. Focusing on women's
clothing, the paper proceeded: How can public relations women and factory women
dress the same? Enterprises are now divided into state-owned and private,
Chinese-foreign ventures and wholly-foreign-owned enterprises.
Indian Apparel
The result is that even women who have the same line of work in different
enterprises have different sorts of dress requirements to fulfill. Teachers do
not need to dress up in expensive clothes and jewelry, but they need to wear
modest pieces in jade and gold in order to fit the image of "the engineer
of the soul." Now the dressing habits of teachers have become a constant
topic of student conversation.
Those who dress unsuitably will lose the respect of their students. Even if
teachers are outstanding in scholarship, if they wear plebian clothing or other
unsuitable dress, students will have doubts as to their ability to know the past
and keep abreast of the present. Indian Apparel
Another factor affecting Chinese "dressing doubts," but one not
considered by this budding designer, was the otherwise pervasive rural-urban
distinction, which in China is of far greater social importance than in the
west. Poor communication and poverty has meant that changes are slower to affect
the countryside than the cities. In her study of factory workers in southern
China, Joyce Lee observed that she found it easy to tell which girls had come
very recently from the country. Girls straight from villages wore blue or green
polyester pants.
After adaptation, which started with the first paycheck, they sported miniskirts
or black or blue jeans, very bright colors and running shoes. Her view was that
what the adapted factory workers tended to wear were crude imitations of Hong
Kong styles, which in turn were crude imitations of western fashions. Indian Apparel
Clothing make the man, as the saying goes. Though not everyone agrees with that
trite old adage, most people will agree that clothing is one of the fundamental
elements of life, particularly if you’re female. The basic reason given for
the importance of clothing is protection from the elements, but for many, it is
far more than just a way to keep warm. Indian Apparel
Clothes are a way of showing social status, religious beliefs and artistic
aspirations. They are often an easily i dentifiable and fiercely treasured
cultural heritage. This is especially true in Asia, where each of the hundreds
of ethnic groups have developed traditional attire particularly suited to the
culture and environment.
Indian Apparel In recent years,
there has been a strong move to reinstate the cheongsam as everyday attire.
Fashion designers constantly modify the traditional form (occasionally with
outrageous results) and in the Hong Kong movie In the Mood for Love, the endless
parade of exquisitely tailored cheongsams stole the show from the attractive
stars, prompting a brief revival of the dress. One traditional costume that has
circumvented obsolescence and Western influences to become firmly embedded in
modern life is the Vietnamese ao dai. Indian Apparel
The ao dai got its start in 1744, when Lord Vu Vuong of the Nguyen Dynasty
decreed both men and women should wear an ensemble of trousers and a gown-like
blouse. It was not until 1930 however that the ao dai as we know it really
appeared, when the top was lengthened to reach the floor, the bodice was fitted
to the curves and raglan sleeves were incorporated.
Indian Apparel Like the cheongsam, the
upheavals of the twentieth century made the ao dai unfashionable for long
periods. This was particularly true in the seventies, as austerity drives caused
the Vietnamese to shelve the ao dai as an impractical luxury. It was only with
the brightening economy of the late eighties and the early nineties that the ao
dai made its comeback and today, the dress is a common sight on Vietnamese
streets. Indian Apparel It is
the standard uniform of schoolgirls. It can be seen on office women going about
their daily tasks. Respectable matrons doing their morning grocery shopping
often step out in ao dais. Traditionally, the colour of the ao dai indicated
age: pure white for girls, soft pastel colours for young, marriageable woman and
strong, rich colours for the older ladies. Indian Apparel
Of course, with the changing whims of fashion and the availability of lush
materials, the ao dais seen on the streets are often altered to be short
sleeved, high hemmed or embroidered; practically every modification is tried in
the quest to impress, but the basic form remains the same. Indian Apparel
Even in the United States, the forces of conformity hasn’t been enough to
staunch the ao dai’s popularity — after years of complete assimilation with
the local community, the Vietnamese Americans are increasingly showing their
pride in the heritage, with many communities staging Ms. Ao Dai pageants to
celebrate their traditions.
The western suit, at that time, was considered a standard dress for China. The
people's concept regarding clothes underwent great change. High-heeled shoes and
qipao once again became fashion. People were also surprised to see that there
were are also elegant dresses in China. There was no limitation of regulations
on clothing anymore. Indian Apparel
The open-door political policy finally leads to an open view of fashion. Through
consideration of Chinese clothing styles, the dramatic cultural, social, and
especially political changes that have occurred in Chinese society are explored.
The clothing styles are like markers of the shifting political configurations
20th-century China. Politics and fashion have always linked together and
illustrated the Chinese history.
Indian Apparel The 'Chinese
gown' Lu Xun referred to was of course the qipao (or cheongsam in Cantonese), a
style sometimes considered the sort of Chinese national dress to be equated with
the Indian sari, the Korean hanbok and the Japanese kimono, but it is not nearly
so well established. The qipao is usually thought to be a relatively recent
development, an evolution of the long, loose, wide-sleeved Manchu gown, dating
from the 1920s, though that in itself does not make it untraditional.
Indian Apparel Concentrating
on skirts, he seemed to assume that pants were also worn, and they could
sometimes be seen peeping beneath his reconstructed gowns. With the coming of
the Manchus, the Chinese resisted the conquerors' attempts to force them to give
up the old-style Ming costume; some patriots indeed declared themselves ready to
die for it. Eventually the men compromised, wearing Manchu styles in life and
Ming styles in the coffin, while women were left more or less to their own
devices. Indian Apparel In the
end, the Manchu women's tunic evolved into the qipao, which was consecrated as
formal dress by the KMT (The Kuomintang, the political party led by Chiang
Kaishek) in 1928. It is still relatively accepted in Taiwan, but after
Liberation in 1949, the qipao disappeared on the mainland, except perhaps for
formal visits to other countries on the part of official wives. Indian Apparel
Even then, there were dangers. The wife of Liu Shaoqi, who was toppled during
the Cultural Revolution, was criticized for having worn a qipao three years
previously on a state visit to Indonesia. My own informants agreed emphatically
that it was then taboo.
But there was a
notable exception, namely Song Qingling (the wife of Sun Yatsen, the founder of
the Chinese republic) who throughout the Cultural Revolution continued to wear a
black qipao and even painted her eyebrows and her lips. Indian Apparel
One of my informants (Li Fang) recalled that when, as a child, she saw Song's
picture in a magazine, she assumed that this was a bad woman until it was
delicately explained to her that in fact this was the widow of the great Sun
Yatsen, and that nobody could say anything against her qipao. My informant's
mother, however, reported that her family did have one hidden in a closet, and
that her own mother had been married in one.
Indian Apparel She recalled that
the ban on qipao seemed to date from the 1961 Si Qing ('Four Cleanlinesses')
movement. This was an anti-corruption campaign that in some ways pre-figured the
Cultural Revolution by diverting popular sentiment away from official corruption
to focus on supposed popular corruption. Indian Apparel
In any case, the qipao in mainland China then became, as it still is, something
associated with the stage and with official and commercial hospitality --
airline hostesses and hotel staff. Even in 'entertainment' it is sometimes
viewed as problematic. As Antonia Finnane pointed out, Deng Xiaoying, China's
foremost female conductor, having seen a film that contained qipao-clad Hong
Kong prostitutes, refused to share a stage with a singer who wore one (Finnane
6). Indian Apparel Other mainland
Chinese with whom I spoke confirmed the qipao's indelible association with
prostitution. As "national dress," it seems to have been compromised.
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