And no one else even cared...

fuckyeschina:

Contrary to what most people think, the qipao (also known as the cheongsam) is not the traditional dress of the Chinese people. The current (highly sexualised, Westernised) form that grew from Shanghai socialites’ desires to look more Western in the 1920s is not even the traditional dress of the Manchus, from whom the qipaos originate.

the original qipao

The actual traditional clothing for ethnically Han Chinese is the above — the hanfu (han= Han, fu = clothing/outfit). Granted, there are many forms of the hanfu, with a variation of styles across all the dynasties (except the Qing, of course), but the general “look” of the hanfu remains recognisable. Folklore has it that even the “Yellow Emperor,” Huang Di, wore a form of the hanfu.

They generally fasten at the right side (that is to say, left-over-right, the opposite of what America and the European nations do), unless you’re dressing a corpse for burial. Which is why I laugh so hard when I see western clothing marketed as “kimono” influenced (the kimono and the hanbok are both influenced by the hanfu, and the kimono fastens left-over-right as well, and right-over-left is for dressing a corpse, too) or anything similar with the right collar over the left.

They be walking corpses and they don’t even know it.