Traditional Chinese Clothing?

Question

Do Chinese people associate their traditional dress with the Hanfu or the Qipao? Which one is more representative of the Chinese? I know that the Qipao is actually a Manchurian dress during the Qing dynasty? Did everyone in that Qing dynasty wear Manchurian dress instead of Hanfus?

And out of preference, do you think the Hanfu is better or Qipao?

Answer 1

I believed Hanfu is a little too distant away from this current year (it's more than 2000 years out-dated).  However Hanfu can also look very good with slight modification for more movement.  But it has been done by the Japanese. Japanese Yukata and their martial arts Gi is a modified version of our Hanfu. Simple and light. Kimono is abit too complicated and troublesome to wear for the modern society.

The Koreans tradition dress is copied from our Tang ~ Ming Dynasty dress

However the Qipao is more representing of the modern society.  The Qipao is not Manfu, however it does has some connection with the Manfu.  In fact, the Qipao was actually modified from the women's Manfu after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

It was simplified and the materials of the cloths was modified to reveal women's beautiful shapes & contours. It has a little western influence too (French trend).

Till today, all slim women can never be any nicer or prettier wearing any other dress other than Qipao.  It was a great modification!

Men's dress in my opinion should be similar to the Gi of the current Aikido Master's dress... Although the ZhongShanZhuang is even simpler and original creation from the Republic of China (Sun Zhong Shan)

Answer 2

1. China has a very long history and there are a lot of clothing styles in china's history, not only the Hanfu and Qipao.

i think the most beautiful dress during the history in China is in the Tang dynasty, if you want to get the pictures you can send me a email, i can show you some

2. To Hanfu and Qipao, Hanfu is more representative than Qipao definitely. It has a longer history, and it means more than Qipao

3. Actually, Qipao isn't the manchurian dress during the Qing dynasty, it was popular in the end of the Qing dynasty.

4.During the Qing dynasty, people wore Manfu, which is a tranditional clothing too. But if you know the history of China, you may understand that the Qing dynasty is specisal, the leaders of China is not Han(they are not belong to the same nation), so during that time, the men of China wore Man clothing, and the women in China, who is Han, wore the Han chothing, and the women in China, who is Man, wore the Man chothing.

5. I think the Qipao is mote beautiful,haha~~~