In the history of the Republic of China's clothing, the qipao can be said to be the most amazing "confused account".
During the Republic of China period, Sun Yat-sen shouted the slogan of "expelling the Tartars and restoring China", but ironically, the qipao soon arose. Cao Juren once said in the book "Shanghai Spring and Autumn": "The former Qing Dynasty died and the qipao flourished, which is also a great change in our times."
National flag robe
One
However, the content and process of this change are still entangled to this day, and the view that the qipao is a new type of clothing and has little to do with the Flag Costume of the Qing Dynasty has gradually prevailed. The formation of this kind of view or concept is somewhat funny to say, but it is only the result of cutting off history and blocking the blind. Because if you look at the 1930s and 1940s when the qipao was mature, you can look at it as such. The question is, does the cheongsam become like this in a day?
The most popular text about the origin of the cheongsam that many people quote most explicitly or darkly is Zhang Ailing's "Changing Clothes": "In 1921, women put on their robes." Yes, the tradition of the Han people is to top and bottom, and then add skirts to the top, and the robe is the patent of the grandfathers, and the daughters can only lean over.
However, the women of 1920 easily had too much heart and thought of wearing a robe. "After the Five Nationalities Republic, women throughout the country suddenly adopted the qipao in unison, not to be loyal to the Manchus and advocate the Restoration Movement, but because women deliberately imitated men."
In fact, Han women who wanted to wear robes did not wait until 1921, and at first they did not "deliberately imitate men", but because the robes of Manchu women were a symbol of the noble race, and since they could relate to the nobility, they inevitably wanted to imitate it.
As Shen Zuo's skinny Meisheng's "Bamboo Branch Words" said: "Cluster new School of Learning Flag dress, hairpin double pair perfume fragrance, mopping the floor flower robe palace like good, wide placket and large sleeves brocade edge inlay." Of course, the dare to imitate must wait until the evening sun is crumbling and declining, and only in the Shanghai Concession.
If the qipao at that time and the later qipao are not the same thing, Cao Juren's statement should always be worthy of attention: "The production of the qipao, around 1914 to 1915, the center of the wind meeting fell on Shanghai, an oriental city. The style of the cheongsam varies from year to year, and it is a fresh style developed from the clothing of Manchu qing women. It originally appeared in the form of a cheongsam vest. That is, the vest is extended and the back of the foot is added to the short jacket instead of the original skirt. When the Northern Expeditionary Army advanced northward, the qipao became popular for a while. ”
Two
Although the qipao was originally expensive with low-cost effects, later like Zhang Ailing and others advocated the emergence of the qipao because of the call of the times, women deliberately imitated men, but there is also an objective practical effect - keep warm. A pair of robes is always much warmer than two pieces of clothing, and it is also much more convenient.
Therefore, the original qipao were all winter coats (unlike the qipao that now highlight the lines). In the years before the founding of the Republic of China, women followed the example of men wearing coats, and then gradually changed to composite shirts, that is, cheongsam, with fine fluffy fur on the inside and very beautiful silk on the outside, the design of this kind of clothing is mainly to keep warm and cold.
On March 30, 1920, Zhu Rongquan's "The Benefits of Women Wearing Long Shirts" made a good summary of the function of the qipao: one is convenient (the top and bottom are too inconvenient; one long shirt is enough, saving time and effort); the second is hygiene (warmer up and down in winter, cooler than skirt in summer); third, beautiful (qipao is better than dress); fourth, saving money (saving fabric). There is also a layer of relationship, that is, the woman cuts her hair, wears a long shirt and is no different from the man, the man can not see that it is a woman, it can not afford all kinds of bad thoughts.
Therefore, rather than saying that the qipao was a bold change based on the original Manchu flag dress, it is rather a thorough reform of women's clothing. Although it sounds a bit too mixed.
Three
The other side of the formation process of the qipao, the so-called imitation of men's clothing, to be precise, directly imitates the pseudo-Manchurian women's clothing, indirectly imitates the men's clothing, but also shows that the qipao is inherited rather than revolutionary.
"The Evolution of Chinese Women's Clothing" said: "The robe was originally the indigenous costume of Manchurian women, and in order to commemorate the Eight Banner Soldiers, it was called 'Qipao'", so the qipao "style is very rich in male feeling". And the clothing of Han men, also from the Beginning of the Qing Dynasty, only bid farewell to the top and bottom of the coat, wearing a flag-style robe, just like we say today that a man is like a northerner, with a rough manhood.
It was also at this time that men's and women's clothing had a distinction in the oldest commonality of tops and bottoms. Therefore, when a man is attacked, he will pat his chest and argue that he is not a man in knotted clothes, which means that he is not a woman.
For a long time, the qipao has given people a sense of masculinity, even mr. Zhou Shuangjuan, who recognized the qipao in aesthetics, but the male beauty of the qipao was focused on: "Women's decoration is really the best look at the qipao, no matter the length of the body, wearing the qipao, it feels generous and graceful, and there are more men's heroism."
Even so, the development of the qipao will eventually go to feminization. The arrival of this important opportunity is the introduction of Western-style waist sleeves and other processes. In this way, the qipao underwent a revolutionary change, from the previous qipao that imitated the qiren women's "both large and wide, enough to withstand the cold and easy to get on the horse and run through", to "both long and narrow, extremely low, only enough to show the delicate and graceful, but it is not suitable for walking and doing things.".
Around 1934, the qipao returned from the revolution to the classical, getting rid of both the westernized model and the model of the flag woman, and became the robe that the people of the time demanded.
At the same time, the men's qipao, which symbolizes bravery and martial arts, has become a gentle robe in the new era, and even a robe as elegant as Kong Yiji. Later, men wore robes, just like women wore skirts, with feminine characteristics.