Very simple introduction for various traditional costumes by Miyu

Cheongsam: Elegant Chinese dress

I chose ‘traditional costume in the world’ as my blog topic because simply I am interested in it and I though it is important to know about foreign country’s culture. As there are less and less opportunities to wear traditional costume, more and more people, especially young people, don’t know or care about their own countries’ traditional costumes. I think traditional costume is not only old, out of time and inconvenient but also full of the wisdom and idea of the old. When we learn more about traditional costume, we can know local people’s way of living, thinking, and customs. Knowing other countries’ traditional costumes may help us to understand their culture it-self because it represents the country’s background and history. I think trying to understand other culture and accept it is the important thing for us who living in this international society and learning international relations.

Cheongsam is an elegant one-piece Chinese dress for women. The name ‘Cheongsam’ simply means ‘long dress’ in Cantonese. The dress fits the body and has a high neck and the slits on the sides and often made of silk with frog-button closures and high collars.

It was started to be worn during the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911 AD), which was established by the Manchu people who were from Northern China. It is now worn for formal occasions such as weddings, engagements, and on the Chinese New Year.

The evolution of the cheongsam is interesting. The traditional Cheongsam was just a long loosely-fitted and baggy dress and the women were required to wear it. It does not reveal much, only the head, hands and the toes. But through the years, it becomes more fitting and modern to fit the standard cheongsam we know today. It can either be long or short, unlined or interlined, woolen or made of silk floss. We often see red Cheongsam with gold dragon or flower pattern on TV and images. People are always wearing red Cheongsam in the movies. I think it’s a kind of stereotype about the Cheongsam.

Nicole Kidman is wearing red Cheongsam with a sexy keyhole in her movie, “Australia” (2008).

Candy and Linda, my Chinese friends told me that the most popular Cheongsam is red one with gold pattern as we imagine. In china, each color has a meaning and red is the color of good luck, happiness, joy, and for brides, since it is of energy as symbolized by fire. They told me that cheap Cheongsam is available to buy at fifty thousand yen. A high-quality and luxury Cheongsam is extremely expensive so they don’t know how much it costs. Also unfortunately, they told me that although cheongsam is suitable for wearing in all seasons by old and young, very few people wear Cheongsam and they had worn it only a few times in their lives.

I hope you get interested in Cheongsam and keep in your mind about it. If you have any opportunity to wear Cheongsam, let’s wear it! I’m sure that you can feel Chinese people’s feelings and culture (a little) because Cheongsam features strong national flavor and embodies beauty of Chinese traditional costume.

Reference

Hongxia, Liu. (2009). Asian culture and history: The Cheongsam—the treasure of Chinese national apparel (vol. 1, no. 1, pp55- 57). Canada: Canadian Center of Science and Education.