thepankou

[thepankou]

From Nurhachi to Madame Song: a brief history

The original qipao as worn by ladies of the Palace | Source: Library of Congress

China has a rich history in fashion. Elaborate silks, luxurious brocades and intricate embroideries were often created by artisans and gifted to the palace or senior officials to gain their favour.

 But the traditional dress more indigenous to China’s majority Han population – a style of clothing very similar to the Japanese Kimono, now referred to as the Hanfu (汉服/漢服) － was largely discontinued in the middle of the 17th century, with the fall of the ethnically Han-ruled Ming dynasty. The succeeding dynasty, the Qing – also the last imperial dynasty of China – was founded by Manchurians, from modern day North East China.  

As the history books have it, a chieftain named Nurhachi (努尔哈赤/努爾哈赤）is credited as the fore-father of the Qing dynasty. He united and expanded an army under the Eight-Banner (or Eight-Flag, 八旗) system, which eventually came to be the administrative foundations of the entire Qing society. Every soldier, and eventually every family, belonged to a coloured Banner, the equivalent of a modern day regiment. This is how the Manchus came to be known as the Banner people, and the long robes that they introduced, known as the Banner robes.  

The Banner robes were originally long and loose fitting. And at the fall of the Qing in 1912, with the introduction of “western clothing”, they may have vanished altogether. But it was the legendary Shanghai tailors who carried the tradition on – they reinvented the cut, slimmed down the silhouette, lifted the hemline, and varied the sleeve lengths. Soon the city was in love – qipao and the glamor and seduction of  1920s Shanghai became ever so intertwined.

And it was not just the city, or the country. The qipao was catapulted onto the world fashion stage by Song Meiling (宋美龄／宋美齡), wife of General Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek,蒋介石), who was the leader-at-large in China in the the 1920s and 30s. Madame Song made a point of always wearing a qipao, particularly on public occasions, and is said to have owned over 1,000 dresses, with two new ones completed every week by her personal qipao tailor.

And this, is the short story of the modern day qipao. 

[thepankou]

Qipao, or cheongsam? [Chee-Pao | Chi-Eng-Sum]

Chinese names can be confusing. They are difficult to pronounce, and there is almost always a few versions which bear no resemblance to each other. Even when there is a single name, there may be different spellings – for example, the late first lady of the Republic of China, an extraordinary  woman who also brought the qipao to international fame – 宋美龄, is known interchangeably as Soong May-ling and Song Mei-ling, or some combination of both.

  So why the different names? It all comes back to the fact that different dialects exist in different parts of China, and the dominance of the dialects have ebbed and flowed through history in different parts of the world.

  A majority of early day emigrants to the West for example, were from Guangdong (Canton) and spoke Cantonese. This, combined with the fact that Hong Kong, as a British colony from the late 1890s, provided more open access to foreigners, meant Cantonese was the de-facto Chinese language known internationally, and its pronounciation was adopted for many things. Cheongsam is in fact one of these words. Cheongsam (长衫/長衫) literally means a long shirt, and was the name for the loose fitting long garment worn by both men and women in the Qing dynasty, the Manchu robe – the very early predecessor for the modern qipao.

  Mandarin, on the other hand, is the official language of Mainland China, and even before this formalization in 1911, had been used as the political language in Beijing for 500 years or so. Qipao (旗袍) is mandarin, and literally means the flag or banner robe. As the Manchus became known as the Banner People (旗人) in the Qing dynasty, this name is also a reference to the same Manchu dress.

  As I am personally a mandarin speaker born in mainland China, I favour the name qipao. For me, it somehow is a more relevant name for today. Mandarin is the official language of Chinese people today, and I feel that using the mandarin name somehow pays respect to this choice.. and the emergence of China as a sophisticated, contemporary society.  

[thepankou]

the start of the journey

I don't quite remember how long ago my infatuation with qipaos started, but I am sure it was when I first watched In the Mood for Love. Maggie Cheung, as the ever so wistful Su Lizhen, showcased an astoundingly beautiful wardrobe of qipaos.

Demure, elegant, fitted perfectly at the waist, and of course enclosed with nothing but the pankou - silk knots, hand stitched from her two-inch high collars down to the top of the left thigh opening - these mandarin dresses captured my imagination. They were feminine, and breathtakingly seductive. 

But little is written of them, and little is spoken of the era that brought them to fame - the glamorous, sophisticated and revolutionary 1920s Shanghai. I hope this small project helps to uncover some of the lost gems, and would be ever so honoured to share the journey with you.