Campaign underway to bring back ‘Elegance sculpted in silk’- the cheongsam

by TREVOR BAILEY

4 July 2025 rsbradbeer CULTURE, OPINIONS 0

^{Photo: Hong Kong Cheongsam Association}

A campaign to bring back the cheongsam is underway. SAI KUNG BUZZ applauds. Few garments flatter a shapely woman as well as the cheongsam. At the University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Sai Kung, Professor Liu Tak-sang has applied for the cheongsam to be added to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Prof. Liu is also a founder of the Hong Kong Cheongsam Association, which brings together people from the garment industry and fashion designers as well as enthusiasts.

At the recent 80th birthday party of SAI KUNG BUZZ publisher and editor Dr Robin Bradbeer, we spotted a woman wearing an elegant cheongsam. The sight was so unusual we rushed up and congratulated her. The lady is Vinncci Chan Wai-chi, principal of the Society of Boys Centres Hui Chung Sing Memorial School.

_{Shen Yue’s green cheongsam: the modern elegance of a beauty from the Republic of China Photo: 360onetravelcom}

Prof. Liu said, “Hong Kong is important to the evolution of the cheongsam because when it became fashionable in the city, it was banned on the mainland because of the Cultural Revolution. For decades it was a tradition largely unique to Hong Kong, which kept the tradition alive. After the Chinese economic reform of the 1970s the culture went full circle from Hong Kong back to the mainland albeit with a modern twist.”

Sometimes referred to as the mandarin gown, the cheongsam takes inspiration from the clothing of the Manchu people. It is a long, figure-fitting, one-piece garment with a standing collar, two side slits and a left-over-right neck opening embellished with Chinese frog fasteners.

“When I was young there was nothing more exciting than unbuttoning the dress of the girlfriend, who was to become my wife,” a BUZZ acquaintance, who doesn’t want to be named, said. “It’s a great sadness that the cheongsam now is rarely seen.”

The Manchu people founded the last of China’s imperial dynasties, the Qing, which reigned from 1644 to 1911. Their dress, both men and women, typically consisted of long robes. Men wore a changpao, designed for horse riding with two pair of slits for ease of mounting a horse. Manchu women wore a changfu, which looked similar to the men’s long robe. There were two styles, the chenyi and the changyi. The latter had two high-side slits, while the chenyi had no slits.

From the 1920s, the cheongsam was popularised by celebrities and politicians in Shanghai. The first lady of China, Madame Wellington Koo, was voted several times the world’s best dressed woman by Vogue magazine.

Some quotes about cheongsams: