Qungua


', also known as ', or ', or ', is one type of two-piece ceremonial traditional Chinese wedding set of attire, which is composed of a jacket called and of a long Chinese skirt called . The ' is a type of Hanfu worn by Han Chinese brides and originated in the 18th century during the Qing dynasty. It eventually became the traditional wedding attire of Cantonese brides in the Guangdong regions. It is traditionally handmade and is decorated with dragons and phoenixes embroideries. Nowadays, the ' is still popular as a wedding dress in China, including in Hong Kong and Macau.

Origins and tradition

Back in Ming dynasty, the women wedding dress worn by nobles and commoners was known as ' composed of the ' and '. The wedding dress worn in Ming dynasty continued to influence the wedding dress of the later centuries.
What is known as ' only started to be worn in the 18th century during the Qing dynasty. The ' originated in Guangdong when Liang Zhu, a Guangdong Qing dynasty politician, was rewarded with a silk wedding dress embroidered with dragons and phoenixes by the Qing Emperor at the time of his daughter's wedding. This led to the use ' in the Guangdong area.
In 18th century, Chinese mothers would start to sew the ' as soon as a daughter was born in the family. The ' would then be placed as a part of the daughter's bride dowry when she gets married. The ' follows the ancient traditional system of '.

Construction and Design

The ' is composed of two separate garments: a , which is a Chinese jacket which closes at the front with buttons, and a . The ' worn in the is typically straight in cut. The skirt could be pleated.

Colour

While Western wedding dress tends to be white in colour, Chinese traditional wedding clothing favours the use of red and gold colour.
The ' was originally black in colour while the skirt was originally red in colour.
The which is completely red in colour only appeared in the 1960s. Since then the traditional black and red ' started to be used for the bride's mother instead of being worn by the brides themselves.

Embroidery

The ' is typically embroidered with the Chinese dragons called ' and the Chinese phoenix called '. It can also be decorated with other auspicious symbols, such as pomegranate, peony flowers, lotus flowers, bats, goldfish, butterfly and birds.
Nowadays, there are 5 different types of ' which is named accordingly to the percentage of embroidery covering the dress:
  1. : 30% covered with embroidery,
  2. : 50% covered with embroidery
  3. : 70% covered with embroidery
  4. : 90% covered with embroidery
  5. : 100% covered with embroidery

    Derivatives and influences

Betawi Bridal dress

The Betawi bridal dress, partly influenced by Chinese culture and by Indonesian culture, looks similar to the Chinese '. Like the ', the Betawi bridal dress is a two-piece set of attire which composed of an ankle-length with wider bottom skirt called kun and an upper garment called tuaki. The tuaki is decorated with Chinese auspicious symbols. One difference from the qungua is the use of Betawi Lotus, also known as Betawi pomegranate, a separate ornamental garment which covers the chest and shoulder areas. The Betawi ''lotus'' was used to denote the origins of the Betawi bride, but it was eventually replaced by beads which typically follows the Spanish cherry floral pattern. The kun and tuaki must match in colour.

Differences with other garments

Fengguan xiapei

The ' is different from the ', another type of Traditional Han Chinese wedding set of attire, which was worn in Ming and Qing dynasties in terms of composition of garments and accessories which the qungua lacks of. The ' is a set of attire which was composed of red ', which is a type of Ming dynasty-style round-collar robe decorated with dragons, which was worn by Han Chinese women as a court robe; a ', which is a type of long scarf in Ming and a type of stole in Qing dynasty; a ', and the ', the phoenix coronet. The Wedding attire is sometimes decorated with Chinese cloud collar known as '.

Xiuhefu

The ' is distinct from another Chinese wedding set of attire called '. The ' typically has an overlapping jacket which closes to the right side which is worn with an A-line skirt which looks similar to a ' instead of a straight cut skirt. The '' is typically embroidered with flowers and birds to symbolize love for whole seasons.

Cheongsam

The ' is different from the cheongsam which can also be worn as a Traditional Chinese wedding dress. The ' is a two-piece garment composed of jacket and skirts while the modern cheongsam is currently a one-piece robe. Prior to the 1930s and the 1940s, the cheongsam was also a two-piece set of garment which was composed of a long robe and was worn with a pair of trousers.