Qungua

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Qungua found in Hong Kong Museum of History.

Qungua (Chinese: 裙褂， kwan4 gwaa3 in Cantonese jyutping), also known as or longfeng gua (simplified Chinese: 龙凤褂; traditional Chinese: 龍鳳褂),[1] or longfeng qungua (simplified Chinese: 龙凤裙褂; traditional Chinese: 龍鳳裙褂),[2] or guaqun (Chinese: 褂裙, gwaa3 kwan4 in Cantonese jyutping),[3] is one type of two-piece ceremonial traditional Chinese wedding set of attire which is composed of a jacket called gua (褂) and of a long skirt called qun (裙). The qungua is a type of Hanfu worn by Han Chinese brides;[4] it is also the traditional wedding attire of Cantonese brides in the Guangdong regions.[3][5] Nowadays, the qungua is still popular as a wedding dress in China, including in Hong kong and Macau.[1]

Tradition[]

Back in Ming dynasty, the women wedding dress worn by nobles and commoners was known as fengguan xiapei (Chinese: 凤冠霞帔).[3] The wedding dress worn in Ming dynasty continued to influence the wedding dress of the later centuries.[3]

What is known as qungua started to be worn in the 18th century during the Qing dynasty.[1] The qungua 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.[6] This led to the use qungua in the Guangdong area.[6]

In 18th century, Chinese mothers would start to sew the qungua as soon as a daughter was born in the family.[1] The qungua would then be placed as a part of the daughter's bride dowry when she gets married.[1] The qungua follows the ancient traditional system of shangyi xiashang (Chinese: 上衣下裳; upper and lower garment).[3]

Construction and Design[]

The qungua is composed of:

  • Gua (Mandarin), gwaa3 (Cantonese) (褂): A Chinese jacket which closes at the front with buttons,[4]
  • Qun (Mandarin), kwan4 (Cantonese) (裙): a generic term of skirt; the qun worn with the qungua is a long skirt which is typically straight in cut.[2] The skirt could be pleated.[7]

Colour[]

While Western wedding dress tends to be white in colour, Chinese traditional wedding clothing favours the use of red and gold colour.[1]

The jacket gua was originally black in colour while the skirt was originally red in colour.[5]

The gua which is completely red in colour only appeared in the 1960s.[5] Since then the traditional black gua and red qun started to be used for the bride's mother instead of being worn by the brides themselves.[5][3]

  • Bride wearing Qing dynasty qungua.

  • Qungua (left) worn by Chinese brides, 1900s.

  • Qungua is a two-piece garment attire: black gua and red qun.

  • Long skirt qun

  • Red gua

  • Construction of a black gua jacket.

  • Black gua

Embroidery[]

The qungua is typically embroidered with long (龙, 龍) dragons and phoenix feng (凤,鳳).[3] It can also be decorated with other auspicious symbols, such as pomegranate (symbolism for fertility), peony flowers, lotus flowers, bats, goldfish, butterfly and birds.[5]

Nowadays, there are 5 different types of qungua which is named accordingly to the percentage of embroidery covering the dress:[1]

  1. Xiao wu fu (小五福): 30% covered with embroidery,
  2. Zhong wu fu (中五福): 50% covered with embroidery
  3. Da Wu fu (大五福): 70% covered with embroidery
  4. Gua Hou (褂后): 90% covered with embroidery
  5. Gua Huang (褂皇): 100% covered with embroidery

Differences with other garments[]

Chinese garments[]

Fengguan xiapei[]

The fengguan xiapei (Chinese: 凤冠霞帔) is another type of Traditional Han Chinese wedding set of attire which was worn in Ming and Qing dynasties.[3] The attire is composed of a red mangao (Chinese: 蟒袄; lit. 'Dragon jacket': a type of Ming dynasty-style round-collar robe decorated with dragons, which was worn by Han Chinese women as a court robe), a xiapei (Chinese: 霞帔; a type of long scarf in Ming and a type of stole in Qing), a mang chu (lit. 'Dragon skirt'; a skirt which can be red or green and is embroidered with dragons and phoenixes on the front and back skirt lapels), and a phoenix coronet.[8] The Wedding attire is sometimes decorated with Chinese cloud collar.[8] Following the wedding, married women were expected to wear the fengguan xiapei on formal occasions, however, trousers or leggings were worn beneath instead of the skirt.[8]

  • Ming dynasty fengguan xiapei.

  • Reconstruction of Ming dynasty fengguan xiapei.

  • Reconstruction of Ming dynasty fengguan xiapei.

  • Portrait of lady in fengguan xiapei in Qing dynasty,

  • Qing dynasty fengguan xiapei (凤冠霞帔), a yunjian is on top of the attire.

Xiu he fu[]

The qungua is distinct from another Chinese wedding set of attire called xiu he fu (simplified Chinese: 秀禾服; traditional Chinese: 繡和服).[1][2] The xiu he fu also originated in the Qing dynasty and was worn as another type of Qing dynasty wedding dress; it was a type of aoqun which was worn as a wedding dress.[3]

The Qing dynasty wedding aoqun became popular in 2001 when the actress Xiu He wore a modern recreation version of it in the Chinese TV series "Orange turned red" and thus gained its contemporary name.[3][9]

The xiu he fu has a overlapping jacket which closes to the right side (instead of the qungua central closing jacket) which is worn with an A-line skirt (qun) which looks similar to a mamianqun instead of a straight cut skirt.[2] The xiu he fu is typically embroidered with flowers and birds to symbolize love for whole seasons.[3]

  • Qing dynasty Xiu he fu, a form of aoqun worn for wedding.

  • A Chinese bride wearing a wedding aoqun, Qing dynasty.

Cheongsam[]

The qungua is different from the cheongsam which can also be worn as a Traditional Chinese wedding dress.[3] The qungua is a two-piece garment composed of jacket and skirts while the modern cheongsam is currently a one-piece robe.[4] 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.[4]

  • Chinese bride wearing cheongsam for wedding ceremony.

Non-Chinese garments[]

Betawi Bridal dress[]

The Betawi bridal dress, partly influenced by Chinese culture and by Indonesian culture, looks similar to the Chinese qungua.[6] Like the qungua, 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.[6] The tuaki is decorated with Chinese auspicious symbols.[6] 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 (similar to the Chinese cloud collar).[6] 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.[6] The kun and tuaki must match in colour.[6]

  • Chinese Bride in Batavia in her wedding dress, 1870. The dress is heavily influenced by Chinese culture but also shows subtle differences.

  • Betawi bride and groom, 2008.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "To Have And To Embroider: The "Long Feng Gua" Wedding Tradition | US-China Institute". china.usc.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  2. ^ a b c d JNTT (2020-07-30). "SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT". The Red Wedding. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Li, Yuling (2019). "New meaning in traditional wedding dresses – Xiu He Fu and Long Feng Gua – in contemporary China [Master's Thesis]". Cultural Centre, University of Malaya: i-102.
  4. ^ a b c d Qiao, Nan; Tan, Yan-rong (2017). "Talk About the Chinese Wedding Dress of Modern Women". 2017 3rd International Conference on Social, Education and Management Engineering (SEME 2017): 299–301.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Chinese Wedding Traditions: Qun Gua | Hong Kong Wedding Blog". 2016-01-28. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Indonesia-Taiwan Relations: Searching for Better Understanding. Prof. Dr. Tirta Nugraha Mursitama, Ph.D., Dr. Shidarta, M.Hum., Dr. Yi Ying, M.Lit., M.Pd. Penerbit Andi. 2021. pp. 52–63. ISBN 9786230112744.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ "Chinese Wedding Gown (Qun Gua)". Queensland Museum Collections Online. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  8. ^ a b c Garrett, Valery M. (2007). Chinese dress : from the Qing Dynasty to the Present. Tokyo: Tuttle Pub. ISBN 978-0-8048-3663-0. OCLC 154701513.
  9. ^ "Xiu He Fu | Traditional Chinese Wedding Costume". Jin Weddings. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
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