Cheongsam

What it is

The dress is normally cut as one piece and fits close to the body, with a pair of high slits at the sides above knee level. It can be long or short, and sleeves are often short, though sleeveless versions exist. A standing collar sits at the neck, and the front fastens with an opening that runs from the collar across the chest and down towards the right armhole; in Chinese clothing this rightward overlap is called youren. Some cheongsams close symmetrically instead. Small knotted buttons, known as pankou and made with Chinese knotting, hold the collar and the opening. Piping edges both the collar and the closure.

Origins and history

The Manchu ruled China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing, from 1644 to 1911. Their long robes were called changpao, and their dress rules and the Eight Banner system set them apart, so they became known as Banner People. Men's riding robes, the neitao, had saddle slits, horse-hoof shaped cuffs and an S-curved collar. Imperial women wore informal dress, including the chenyi and the changyi; the changyi had two high slits, the chenyi none. Some writers trace the cheongsam to the chenyi. The standing collar appears in Ming-era finds, and the Manchu took the rightward closure from Han dress. Under the tifayifu policy Han men were ordered into Manchu hair and clothes, though the rule was later relaxed. The modern dress emerged in the 1910s and 1920s.

Regional styles

Styles are often grouped by city. The Beijing school is the most conservative: handmade, with a straight or A-line shape, wide piping, embroidery and heavy ornament. The Shanghai school became the dominant one, especially in the 1930s and 1940s. It borrowed Western cutting such as curved seams and waist darts to follow the body's line, used lighter cloth and narrow piping, and favoured high collars and high slits. Collars could be lapel, water-drop or lotus-leaf shaped, and sleeve shapes varied. The Jiangnan, or Su, school comes from the water towns and takes motifs from calligraphy, painting and the Wumen school, with floral embroidery such as plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, peony and rose. The Cantonese school, also called the Hong Kong style, began in Guangdong.

Edges and fasteners

Making a cheongsam involves choices about cloth, lining and finishing. Wool, silk and silk-like fabrics are used; among the silks are floss, damask, brocade and satin, and the dress may be unlined or interlined. Four traditional kinds of piping have names: gun, a narrow rolled strip and the most common today; xiang, a broad edging seen in Qing Manchu clothing and early cheongsam and now rare; qian, narrower still; and dang, a stitched narrow strip. Gun and qian are often paired, a look called yigun yiqian, and other pairings use two of one with one or two of the other. Fasteners are knotted by hand, and in the Beijing style the silk may pass through around twenty-six stages before it is shaped into a button.

Hong Kong and revival

Shanghainese tailors moved to Hong Kong after 1949, and there the Cantonese word cheongsam came to cover dress for both men and women. Through the mid-1950s and on to the late 1960s, it was what respectable urban women in Hong Kong wore most often. When it fell out of daily use in the 1970s, it stayed visible as working dress: waiting staff in Chinese restaurants and Cathay Pacific cabin crew wore it. Around 2016 a revival began. Those behind it argued that a person should wear the dress to suit her own taste and character rather than chase an ideal figure of the past. A 2018 exhibition at the Guangdong Museum told the story of the Hong Kong cheongsam. Anita Mui's dress in the film Rouge is a Hong Kong example.

How Cheongsam is kept

The dress is worn by women, and no ceremony is tied to it. It goes on as a single garment: the collar stands at the neck, the front crosses and fastens to the right, and the side slits sit above the knee. Cloth buttons hold the collar and the opening, and piping finishes the edges. What changes between wearers is the cut. A Beijing cheongsam keeps a straight shape and heavy ornament; a Shanghai one is cut to follow the waist; a Hong Kong one is plainer. Since about 2016, wearers in Hong Kong have been choosing the shape, length and cloth that suit them.

When and where

There is no fixed day for it. The dress took shape in the 1910s and 1920s and was worn widely in China from the 1920s until the 1960s, which covers the Republican years. In Hong Kong it was the dress many city women wore most often in the 1950s and 1960s. Today it is chosen for formal occasions, and Hong Kong's revival began around 2016.

The dress belongs to China. Shanghai is where it became fashionable, and Beijing, the Jiangnan water towns and Guangdong each gave it a style. Hong Kong is its other centre. Shanghainese tailors settled there after 1949, and the Cantonese tradition that grew there is known for restraint.

What Cheongsam means

For many wearers the cheongsam says two things at once: modern and Chinese. In 1930s and 1940s Shanghai it was read as a claim to freedom for women's bodies and as a break from older Confucian ideas about how a woman should look, and Western cutting helped the cloth follow the body's own line. Later, in Hong Kong, it stood for elegance and respectability. Today's revival treats it as part of living local identity, not as a costume from a museum case.

Questions people ask about Cheongsam

See also

Traditional tattooingThe ancient custom of marking the skin for protection, healing, status and sacred ritesHanbokKorea's customary dress: a short jacket, a skirt or trousers, and a bow-tied ribbonDoppaAn embroidered cap, square or round, that Uyghurs and Uzbeks wear across Central AsiaHanfuThe dress of the Han Chinese, named for the Han dynasty and worn again today

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Qipao on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.