Qipao: living and evolving tangible and intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

“Clothing always shows people’s personality.” said William Shakespeare. “Even we bow our heads with silence, our clothing and bearing will still reveal our past experiences.” As for a Chinese woman, Qipao reminds and even reveals her own background and roots. Qiapo is so widely recognized that people from different countries relate it to China once they see it. Such a Chinese female identity has been built for decades.

Qipao has been seen as the National Costume throughout the 20th Century until nowadays. It expressed the patriotic purposes in the sense of Chinese and the rest of the world implicitly and explicitly. More importantly, it is an international symbol of Chinese femininity.

The reason why Qipao can be preserved through history and time is that through the vicissitudes of the process of social and historical development, it has steadily given expression to the distinct character and individual style of the nation, making it distinctively different to the rest of the world. Qipao with its bewitching eastern charm, peerless style with its universal appeal established its unique place in the history of clothing in the world. It is an international symbol of Chinese femininity.

In short, Qipao is a living heritage that has been evolving to adapt to the socio-historical circumstances of different times. This dissertation seeks to discover the process of this evolution through the tangibility and intangibility of Qipao.