"Correct attire was regarded as the ultimate expression of Chinese culture and identity, differentiating them from 'inferior' foreign neighbors while making social and gender distinctions within their society. The clothing of bodies had specific cultural meaning, with properly attired bodies reflecting order and control and unadorned bodies and feet serving as visible signs of disorder and dangerous nonconformity with the individual risking association to barbarian outsiders." (Goody 1990: 49)

· The Principal Dynasties of China Page 3

· Qing Dynasty and Manchurians 5

· Mao Zedong and The People's Republic of China 15

Scott, A.C., Chinese Costume in Transition. Singapore: Donald Moore,1958.

Clothes were often blue, concealing the contours of the figure. Men and women wore jackets and trousers, usually made of cotton. The style was meant to reflect simplicity and as revolutionaries the Chinese were expected to reject luxuries and excessiveness as sign of the bourgeois, the old China and its outdated principles and dependence upon the West. Consequently, furs, high heels and the qipao were ostracized by Mao, because of the strong Western influence and the way in which they emphasized the female body and her sexuality. "The Chinese word that conveys a sense of simplicity is pusu, and its repetition in different forms of state propaganda was understood to apply to all forms of consumption, including dress...such phrases, imbedded in directives and slogans, were the homogenizing tool of the totalitarian state." (Wilson 1986: 171) The drabness and conformity of dress was the result of the conformity of the populace at large and the loss of individual freedom and pe!

The buttons on a qipao came from a long Chinese tradition of a knotting craft. They used knotted buttons and loops with intricate designs on the front of the dress called toggles. There was always an even number of buttons on the qipao, usually six. On the men's jackets they used odd numbers of loops and buttons, odd numbers considered to be good luck and sticking to the male principle of the yang. (Chwang)

Qing 1644 - 1911 (Manchu conquest dynasty)

The People's Republic of China was founded by Mao Zedong after his victory in the civil war against the nationalists in 1949. The communists were for the 'workers, peasants and soldiers.' They believed in revolutionary puritanism, and simplicity. These principles appeared as early as the May 4th Movement, during which the ultimate goal was the reevaluation of the entire society, including the government, history and the national culture. Mao had early hopes to rid Chinese women of skirts and jewelry, anything that was a sign of female enslavement, and later in 1919, he created a women's revolutionary army in 1919. (Schram 1992: 353)

Wilson, Verity. Chinese Dress. London: Bamboo Publishing, 1986.

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Some common words found in the essay are:
Song Dynasty, Han Chinese, Initially Qipao, Qing Emperor, Fuzhi Alas, Mao Zedong, Mao's Revolutionary, Watt Wardell, Communist China, Chinese Manchu, hong kong, manchu women, university press, bound feet, women wore, chinese society, chinese women, chinese dress, loose fitting, finnane 1999, wore loose fitting, people's republic china, stanford university press, principal dynasties china, qing dynasty manchurians,
Approximate Word count = 5362
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page double spaced)