Monday, 19 August 2013

Tang suit and modernity

The term“tang suit”is originated from abroad. A Chinatown is a section of an urban area associated with a large number of Chinese within a city outside the majority. The local people always named the Chinatown as“town of people from Tang Dynasty”(唐人街)and called these Chinese“people from Tang Dynasty”(in Chinese唐人) since Tang dynasty was the most thriving, prosperous, splendid, and glorious period of ancient Chinese. Thus, the clothing worn by the Chinese is called“tang suit”.

Actually“tang suit”is not the clothing of Tang Dynasty. They are totally different. The origin of Tang suit or Tang jacket can be traced back to Qing Dynasty. It is evolved from Magua from Qing Dynasty, a traditional Chinese costume worn by males. It is a short tunic with high and round collars and lapels, which are fasten down the front. By the 1940s, what we now know as the Tang suit became prevalent for all classes in China. Compared with the ancient style, the sleeves had become longer and wider. Patch pockets were added and the number of frog buttons became standard at seven. This jacket was worn with matching pants.

The unified and prosperous China was established in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In China's history, the Tang Dynasty was a period when the polity and economy were highly developed and the culture and art were thriving.

Women's dress and personal adornments of the Tang Dynasty were outstanding in China's history. The clothing materials were exquisite, the structure was natural, graceful and elegant, and adornments were splendid. Though the forms of garments were still the continuation of the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) and the Sui Dynasty (581-618), they were influenced by cultures and arts of the Western Regions. Especially, the national power of the High Tang was strong. The trades and cultural exchanges with Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Persia and other countries gradually became frequent, and they mutually dispatched emissaries and accepted students of other countries. In this way, a special open and romantic style of dress and personal adornments was formed.

(By Mary)
ref:http://www.google.com.au/search?q=tang+suit&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=0p0UUsuoC67uiAfy5YGwAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1311&bih=594#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=wlMAPA0g0OIerM%3A%3BQQ-G341tHp1VIM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.cultural-china.com%252FchinaWH%252Fupload%252F01460865.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftraditions.cultural-china.com%252Fen%252F15Traditions6359.html%3B520%3B367

Tang Suit

A tangzhuang (Chinese: 唐装; pinyin: tángzhuāng; literally "Chinese suit" ^[1][2]) is a Chinese jacket that originated at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). The Tangzhuang evolved from the Magua (马褂), a Manchurian piece of clothing, which was in turn adopted by the Han Chinese during the Qing Dynasty. At that time, only aristocrats and government officials wore it, however, in modern times it has been adopted by common people. They are often worn by men, although women wear them as well.^[3]

In Chinese communities, the Mao suit, the western suit, and the Tang suit are the main forms of formal dress for men on many occasions. Tangzhuang are made in different colors, most commonly red, navy, gold, black and green. One common design is the usage of Chinese characters (Hanzi, 汉字) as monogram such as Fu (福,'happiness' in Chinese), Shou (寿, 'longevity' in Chinese) to spread good luck and wishes. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shanghai in November 2001, the host presented silk-embroided tangzhuang jackets as the Chinese traditional national costume.
(By Mary)
ref:http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/upload/01460840.jpg&imgrefurl=http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/15Traditions6359.html&h=323&w=456&sz=17&tbnid=ethj3aiHEr6iPM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=127&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtang%2Bsuit%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=tang+suit&usg=__btv9H21JephSZAQtZBYpsF-j_K0=&docid=QQ-G341tHp1VIM&sa=X&ei=0p0UUsuoC67uiAfy5YGwAw&ved=0CCwQ9QEwAA&dur=188

Ancient Tang suit

Because of communication with the Western Regions, the influence of dressing culture of other minorities on the Tang court also reflected the change of thoughts and concepts. The social status of ancient women was very low: they often served as Jileren (music performer), Guanji (official performer), Gongji (palace performer) and Jiaji (family performer), and were regarded as the playthings and goods that can be sold and bought by rich people. Some females had rebel spirit in the Tang Dynasty, so they climbed or jumped over the walls and went to the nature to view the beautiful scenes and/or go sightseeing in the spring by riding horses with men. Just as recorded by many historical materials, some girls therefore dressed as boys in order to go out.

The garments in the Tang Dynasty also greatly affected the garments of neighboring countries. For instance, Japanese kimono adopted the elites of the dresses of the Tang Dynasty in terms of colors, and the Hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) also adopted the advantages of the dresses of the Tang Dynasty. The dresses of the Tang Dynasty were mainly made of silk, so dresses were famous for softness and lightness. The dresses of the Tang Dynasty boldly adopted the features of foreign garments in terms of forms and adornments; i.e. they mainly referred to the garments of other countries (such as the Central-Asia countries, India, Iran, Persia, northern countries and the Western Regions) and used them to improve the culture of the Tang Dynasty.
(By Mary)
ref:http://www.google.com.au/search?q=tang+suit&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=0p0UUsuoC67uiAfy5YGwAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1311&bih=594#imgdii=

Sunday, 18 August 2013

Style of cheongsam

Cheongsam style a lot, there is wishful breasted cardigan, pipa lapel, Xie Jin, double-breasted; possess high collar, low collar, no collar; cuff long sleeve, short sleeve, sleeveless; slit with high slits, low slit; still has a long dress, short dress, clip cheongsam, cheongsam and other single.
cheongsam style changes are mainly sleeve, lapel shape changes.
Sleeve-shaped styles are: wide sleeves shaped, narrow sleeves shaped, long-sleeved, the sleeves, short sleeves or sleeveless.
There are round-shaped lapel lapel styles, straight lapel, side lapel, pipa lapel:
Round breasted cheongsam dress - lapel Department smoother flowing lines;
Straight lapel cheongsam dress - plump, round face female fit this style, can make the body look slender;
Party lapel cheongsam dress - the lapel unit carried out bold reforms, suitable for different face shape wear.
There are also double-breasted cheongsam circle, double cardigan cheongsam and other styles.
Collar
General collar, penguins collar, impatiens collar, no collar, drop collar, bamboo collar, horseshoe collar
Material
Have made cheongsam fabric, silk, brocade, at present there are silk crepe de chine, silk spinning, spinning power, Hang Luo and other real silk.
Color
Common red cheongsam, colorful eye-catching, unique style, fully demonstrated the full national history and culture, with emphasis reflects the charm of oriental women subtle elegance.
Pattern
Modern common pattern for the brocade cheongsam, together with traditional Chinese decoration such as fish, rich flowers, plum, etc., as well as in Chinese ink painting depicts a hand-painted floral designs cheongsam.
Button
Buttons on the plate buttons cheongsam is that it is mainly used production method called "loop of" folding sewing thin strips of cloth woven. This is modern with a single piece made of hard material button holes are not the same. If thin fabrics can be lined with cotton yarn. Do buckle corsage loop strip is lined with tinsel general, in order to amorphous.

(By Nico)

ref:http://baike.baidu.com/view/2113.htm

Modern cheongsam

Within the early twentieth century popular wore horn Duanao wide sleeves, jackets and places around the pendulum sleeveless long vest. Thereafter cheongsam in the side, sleeve, lapel, collar, etc. made some changes to increase the decoration, appear complicated changes. But still maintain the straightness of large old-style cheongsam vest, Xi Yong traditional linear way of tailoring, revealing no women's slim figure. The late twenties and thirties, cheongsam in length, width, height and slit short sleeve long sleeve, high neck collar and low-scale aspects of the changes has been repeated. In 1929, affected by European and American short skirts, the original medium length cheongsam began to become shorter, reduced to the knee hem, cuffs shorter smaller. Subsequently, uniform style cheongsam hem shortened to one inch above the knee, the sleeves using Western. This change was criticized in 1931 after a variable length cheongsam began to hem drooping. Development of extreme mid-thirties, robe bottom floor covering feet, known as the "sweeping cheongsam." Original dress can cover the wrist to the elbow sleeves shortened. After getting shorter sleeves, shrink two inches under the shoulder-length, 1936 after almost sleeveless.

No slits Qing cheongsam, cheongsam shortening sleeves, also quietly opened lower on the left side slits. Later, the higher the more open panties getting high knee to the thigh. As no objection, once back gown slit below the knee. However, a reduced pressure of public opinion, gowns panties and increased rapidly after 1933 popular big slit cheongsam. Traditional dress is a straight up and down, plus high collar. The early 1930s began to accumulate and shrink waist gowns, to 1934, the entire female body curves finally revealed. Tall collar and ear gradually grow shorter, and later some became no collar cheongsam.