Chinese qipao is a kind of clothing of Chinese women invented in modern times, which is a kind of clothing formed by women imitating men's long robes during the Republic of China, and was widely popular in China in the 20th century, represented by women in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The cheongsam is characterized by a right diagonal placket with decorative disc buckles, side or right side slits, stand collars, cinched waist, short sleeves or sleeveless. The cheongsam combines Chinese clothing with Western aesthetics that highlight women's curves, changing the wide image of men's long robes and setting off the sexiness and elegance of Chinese women.
There are different theories about the origin of the qipao, some scholars believe that the qipao originated from the qipao worn by Manchu women in the Qing Dynasty, and some scholars believe that the qipao originated from the upper and lower skirts worn by Han women in the Ming Dynasty. In any case, qipao, as a word with a specific meaning, first appeared in a book in 1918. The cheongsam became popular in Shanghai in 1925, and the initial shape was still dominated by inverted large sleeves, but it was much simpler than the robes of the Qing Dynasty.
One of the reasons for the popularity of the qipao was that women at that time sought ideological independence and women's liberation, imitating men in wearing robes. Another reason is that under the influence of European and American clothing culture, the cheongsam gradually became more close-fitting, short skirts, slits and sleeveless. The government of the Republic of China issued a decree in 1929 to designate the cheongsam as one of the national dresses. The wives of successive heads of state of the Republic of China often wear cheongsam in diplomatic occasions.
In the 1940s, the cheongsam developed into a waist-cinching design that showed women's curves, bold nudity, and simple dressing, which was welcomed by the intellectual circles at that time, and women wearing qipao would be considered by the intellectuals to be iconoclastic, independent and free New Chinese women. This custom began to spread from Shanghai to all of China, making the cheongsam once the main clothing of urban women and intellectual young women in China at that time.
After the 50s, the cheongsam was gradually snubbed on the mainland, and was criticized as feudal waste and bourgeois sentiment during the Cultural Revolution. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, the status of the cheongsam as a traditional dress and dress has been retained. To this day, the cheongsam is still one of the symbols of Shanghai and Hong Kong in modern history.
