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The Meanings of Qipao As Traditional Dress: Chinese and Taiwanese Perspectives Chui Chu Yang Iowa State University

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The Meanings of Qipao As Traditional Dress: Chinese and Taiwanese Perspectives Chui Chu Yang Iowa State University Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2007 The meanings of qipao as traditional dress: Chinese and Taiwanese perspectives Chui Chu Yang Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Yang, Chui Chu, "The meanings of qipao as traditional dress: Chinese and Taiwanese perspectives" (2007). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 15604. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/15604 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The meanings of qipao as traditional dress: Chinese and Taiwanese perspectives By Chui Chu Yang A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Textiles and Clothing Program of Study Committee: Susan J. Torntore, Co-major Professor Mary Lynn Damhorst, Co-major Professor Jean Parsons Lorna Michael Butler Shu Min Huang Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2007 Copyright © Chui Chu Yang, 2007. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 3289410 UMI Microform 3289410 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES …………………………….……………………………………………v LIST OF FIGURES…………………………….…………………………………………vii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………..…………………………………ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 1 RESEARCH RATIONALE AND BACKGROUND ........................................................................... 1 UNDERLYING MEANINGS OF THE CHINESE TERM QIPAO ........................................................ 5 POLITICAL INFLUENCE AND THE QIPAO .................................................................................. 7 LANGUAGE ISSUES................................................................................................................. 7 THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THIS STUDY ................................................................ 8 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION ........................................................................................... 10 AGLOSSARY OF CHINESE TERMINOLOGY............................................................................ 12 CHAPTER 2: QIPAO HISTORY AND RELATED ISSUES ............................................ 17 HISTORICAL MEANINGS ....................................................................................................... 18 The Manzhu Qi’s Pao and the Han Women’s Qipao....................................................... 18 Han Women’s Resistance to Wearing Qi’s Pao............................................................... 18 The Difference and Similarity between Qi’s pao and Han’s pao.................................... 20 Qipao and Han Women’s Robes...................................................................................... 21 QIPAO AS CHINESE HANDCRAFT:TAILORING TECHNIQUES .................................................. 26 THE DEVELOPMENT OF QIPAO, 1912-1990S......................................................................... 27 Background of the Origin of the Modern Qipao............................................................. 27 The Origin of the Modern Qipao, 1912-1920s: Women’s Freedom................................ 30 Urbanized Qipao in the1930s: City Wear....................................................................... 33 The Qipao Through Sino-Japanese Wartime, 1937-1949: National Identity and Office Wear ................................................................................................................................ 40 Qipao in Hong Kong, 1949-1960s: Stereotypes of the Form-Fitting Qipao .................. 43 Qipao’s Decline After the 1960s: Alternative Qipao in Taiwan...................................... 45 Qipao in Mainland China, 1949-Current: The Communist Perspectives....................... 47 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH CONCEPTS, QUESTIONS, AND FRAMEWORK .......... 51 RESEARCH CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS ............................................................................... 51 What Is Culture? ............................................................................................................. 52 Tradition and Traditional Dress...................................................................................... 55 iii Fashion and Ethnic Dress............................................................................................... 58 Qipao and Chinese Ethnicity .......................................................................................... 63 Qipao, Political Influence and Nationalism ................................................................... 70 Postmodern Expression Using Dress.............................................................................. 72 Statement of Questions.................................................................................................... 73 BACKGROUND OF THE THEORY OF PRACTICE AND QUESTIONS OF VALIDITY........................ 76 THEORY OF PRACTICE .......................................................................................................... 80 SEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL MEANINGS ........................................................... 85 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THIS STUDY....................................................................... 88 CHAPTER 4: METHOD ..................................................................................................... 90 PARTICIPANTS....................................................................................................................... 90 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................ 93 ANALYSIS AND TRUSTWORTHINESS...................................................................................... 95 CHAPTER 5: RESULTS...................................................................................................... 97 THE NUMBERS OF WEARERS AND QIPAO PURCHASES .......................................................... 97 PART I: CHINESE AS A CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONCEPT .............................................. 101 Qipao as Traditional, Ethnic, and National Dress ....................................................... 101 National Dress .............................................................................................................. 105 PART II: THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE QIPAO AND WESTERN DRESS ............................... 109 Sartorial Code of the Qipao...........................................................................................111 Qipao Types................................................................................................................... 143 PART III: QIPAO USAGE IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS .................................................................. 148 Where and When to Wear the Qipao............................................................................. 148 The Wearing of the Qipao ............................................................................................. 151 PART VI: QIPAO REPRESENTATION ..................................................................................... 156 Qipao, Chinese Culture and Women’s Beauty............................................................... 156 Chinese Adjectives and Their Meanings....................................................................... 156 What Adjectives Reveal................................................................................................. 160 CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ..................................................... 170 STRUCTURE OF QIPAO’S CULTURAL MEANINGS:SYNTAGM AND PARADIGM ...................... 171 Syntagmatic Codes for Qipao ....................................................................................... 171 Paradigamatic Level of Analysis .................................................................................. 172 SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF QIPAO’S CULTURAL MEANINGS .................................................. 184 iv Using Qipao.................................................................................................................. 184 Subjective Reactions to Social Constraints................................................................... 188 Chinese Women’s Body Figure...................................................................................... 191 Embodied Temperaments .............................................................................................. 193 QIPAO AND IDENTITIES ....................................................................................................... 197 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 200 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY............................................................................................
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