Cheongsam, the eternal beauty of China
Cheongsam, also known as Qipao, has been popular in China since the Qing Dynasty. Then in Shanghai in the 1920s, after colonial rule, people transformed Qipao to narrow the wide waist and outline slender line. Qipao is characterized by softness, delicate buttons, exquisite embroidery, and a slit on the side of the leg. These details make the Qipao elegant and vivid.
There are many fabrics for Qipao, such as cotton, silk and chiffon. In the novels of Ailing Zhang, a writer in the Republic of China, a fabric called Xiangyunsha often appeared. The production of this fabric required more than 30 processes: first, crushing and boiling the plants into juice, soaking the fabric with this natural dye, exposing to the sun, and then soaking again. It takes many times to make this fabric. Xiangyunsha is expensive, and it sends out the fragrance of plants without wearing perfume when wearing it, which is loved by the women in high society.
After the 1950s, the Qipao almost disappeared in China. This may be because China, which has just entered the modern civilization, deliberately abandoned many things, including aesthetics. At that time, people thought aesthetics was useless. Today, Qipao appears almost exclusively as a uniform of upscale restaurant.
Qipao has witnessed the century-long changes of modern Chinese society and is a history of Chinese aesthetics. Its fate is unpredictable, but its beauty is eternal.
