Qun

What it is

The qun is a skirt, a piece of cloth wrapped around the lower body. In Chinese it is written 裙 and read qún in Mandarin, kwan4 in Cantonese. Before the Han dynasty the same kind of garment was called chang, written 裳; that character can also cover lower garments in general, which took in both the ku trousers and the skirt. Two narrower words sit under qun: danqun for an unlined skirt, and chenqun for an inner skirt or petticoat. In the broadest sense, qun is simply the everyday word for a skirt. It is worn in Hanfu, and it is a costume item in Chinese opera, where the dress is called xifu.

Origins and history

The chang appears on unearthed objects from the Shang dynasty, and it is older than the ku trousers. Over the centuries the chang turned into the qun, and the qun then took many shapes from one dynasty to the next. Wrap-over skirts have been found in Han tombs. A pleated skirt, the zhejianqun, is first recorded in the Eastern Han. One story says pleated short skirts began in the Western Han, when Feng Wufang tore Zhao Feiyan's skirt while catching her as she fell; a heavily pleated style called liuxianqun was made afterwards and became popular. Pleats multiplied after the Sui and Tang, reaching over a hundred in the baizhequn.

Styles and shapes

Names for the qun come from how it is cut, how many pleats it has, and what colour it is. A poqun is sewn from several panels instead of one piece of cloth, like a gore skirt. The jiansequn is a poqun made of alternating strips in two colours; its structure goes back to the late Northern Wei and lasted into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The mamianqun has a flat front and pleats at the sides, and the yulinqun is a version of it with small rippling pleats. The shiliqun was a red skirt popular in the Tang.

Colour, meaning and occasion

Pleats and panels carry meaning as well as shape. The jiansequn is read as a record of exchange and mixing between the Han Chinese, northern minority cultures and the cultures of the Western regions, from the late Northern Wei into the Sui and Tang. Plain and patterned pieces were kept for particular wearers. The mangchu, sometimes called the dragon skirt, carried dragons or phoenixes, most often in red and green, and was worn with a mangao jacket. In the Qing it belonged to Han Chinese women in noble or high official households, for formal and ceremonial dress, for weddings and for burial.

Today and change

The qun did not stop. In the early Republic of China, people in Beijing still wore Qing-style clothing, and women's skirts became shorter and changed in style. In opera, actors use particular skirts: the huadanqun is worn with an ao by a huadan performer, and the tongqun is a tube-shaped skirt, often worn over an inner skirt that may be pleated. From the 21st century, several old styles came back into use with the Hanfu Movement, and that revival also led to new qun designs with modern shapes and taste. The Korean chima is noted as a similar form.

How Qun is kept

A qun is put on by wrapping the cloth around the lower body and fastening it, and it is held by ties or by a belt. Where it sits changed with fashion: in some dynasties it was tied at the waist, and in others it rode high, under the armpits, above or below the bust, as in the qixiong ruqun. It is worn with an upper garment, the yi, in the set called ruqun, and it also appears in qungua and xiuhefu. Today Hanfu wearers wear it for daily dress and for festivals, and opera performers wear it on stage.

When and where

The qun belongs to China and to the Zhongyuan, the central plains, where the yi, ku and qun are described as native clothing that followed Chinese fashion in ancient times. It was worn through the dynasties, and in Beijing people still wore it, shorter and restyled, in the early years of the Republic of China. Today Hanfu wearers keep it, and Chinese opera performers use it as costume.

What Qun means

For the people who wear it, the qun is more than cloth. The jiansequn is a record of mixing, of Han Chinese dress meeting northern minority dress and the dress of the Western regions, so its stripes stand for a long cultural exchange. Pleats that go from a few dozen to over a hundred carry work and care. Colours and motifs speak: dragons and phoenixes on the mangchu, pomegranate red on the shiliqun. To wear a qun, in Hanfu today, is to take up a piece of that inheritance.

Questions people ask about Qun

See also

MamianqunA Chinese wrap skirt with flat front and back panels, worn over trousers with a jacketTraditional Chinese wedding dressThe ceremonial bridal garments worn in Han Chinese marriage ceremoniesDoppaAn embroidered cap, square or round, that Uyghurs and Uzbeks wear across Central AsiaHanbokKorea's customary dress: a short jacket, a skirt or trousers, and a bow-tied ribbon

Good reading and sources

• Qun on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• 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 2026-10-14.