The Cheongsam—the Treasure of Chinese National Apparel

Abstract

The cheongsam, the typical national apparel of the internal and external harmonious unity, is known as the representative of the Chinese clothing culture. It has expressed the virtuous, elegant, and gentle temperament of the Chinese women through flowing melody, rakish picturesque conception, and strong poetic emotion. The paper studies several aspects of the origin, evolution, techniques and communication to let China and the world know better about cheongsam, the national apparel of China. Cheongsams, the traditional national apparel, are owned and cherished by all Chinese of all regions. A cheongsam is a special garment favored by people all over the world. Its elegance is known by the Chinese people, and appreciated by the world. The cheongsam, as the Chinese name suggests, refers to the gown that women of Eight Banners wore before Manchu rulers went across Shanhaiguan, the important pass in north part of China. It was actually the daily dress mainly for women of Manchu and Mongolia. Its basic style is loose with standing collar, bottoms on the right chest, long sleeves, and spacious downswing without side vents by linear tailoring. Usually there is decorative embroidery or other colors of lace in the front collar or at the downswing or the mouth of the sleeves. A Chinese Cheongsam, with the oriental artistic aesthetics as the cultural heritage, has displayed various beauties, youthful beauty of young ladies and the maturity of women grow-ups. As far as its function and wearers are concerned, there is a large span of adaptability. For any occasions or for any season, no matter who is a social famous woman or an ordinary family woman, an adult, or an elderly lady or a young girl, it is no difficult for her to find a piece of suitable Cheongsam. Because Cheongsam has its unique national style and artistic charm, the undoubted characteristics and advantages, it has been loved by people from China and the other parts of the world. 1. The origin of the cheongsams The cheongsam takes the gown of the Manchurian women of Qing Dynasty as the original version. Nurhachu had spent 30 years of efforts in completing the reunification of the Nuzhen tribes. In the process of the reunification, he had established the Eight Banners system, the fundamental system of Manchu society. Since then, the Manchu nationality has been called as "Eight Banners" or "Banner People (or Qiren in Chinese). Therefore, their clothes are referred to be "Qi garments", or "Yijie" in Manchu language. The daily garments of Qiren are usually gowns and the style has been inherited generations by generations. Affected by the long dresses of the Mongolian women in Yuan Dynasty, it has taken a simple straight style as a basic modeling, all of which are named to be the cheongsam. Gown-type garments have a long history. The Chinese nation had used a gown as a garment since Shang Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty. After a long development, although the gown-type garments had their unique features in different historical times, there still existed some relationships among generations with a few changes in the basic form. The cheongsam of Manchu Nationality has some distinct differences with the gown-type garments of the pre-Ming Dynasty, which is relaxed and loose with bands in front part to close the garment. As for cheongsam of Manchu Nationality, there is a closed state with small space between the garment itself and the human body. It completed the traditional way of replacing the bands with buttons. In short, compared with the gown-type garments of different dynasties in history, the cheongsam is very simplified, cloth-saving and convenient. However, the high and face-covering stand-collar, the solemn close-fitting dress have reflected the conservative aesthetic sense of several-thousand-year feudal ethics. 2. The evolution of the cheongsams 2.1 The late Qing Dynasty As the corrupted Qing government implemented policies of non-resistance against the invasion of the world powerful countries; its close door policy was broken by the open door agreement. International exchanges began and the Western