A Bit of My History

I make origami and I love so many parts of Asian culture and I thought I'd share a bit of my own Chinese heritage. My cousin who was visiting from college is one of the members of the Asian Society Club and they wanted to showcase Asian fashion unfortunately the students don't have any. Fortunately for him and his club one thing I love is ancient Asian clothes such as the ones above called qipao or cheongsam which are long elegant embroidered dresses from China. They are rather pricey in the U.S because they're imported. When my mom went back to China last year I jumped on the chance to ask her to pick me up a few and she did! Okay my pictures are kind of bad but my cousin took them. The first one is a light silk material with silk screened flowers and the fabric is unbelievably smooth and silky to the touch. The orange one is thicker with all these tiny embroidered details of flowers, branches and birds. The black one is also embroidered but this one was brought in New York. They're pretty snug and comfortable though becuase these are so form fitting a custom one would be awesome but very expensive.

Traditionally nowadays when someone gets married it's a fusion of Western and Eastern culture. The bride starts out in the traditional white wedding dress for the ceremony. For the dinner party a bride can change between 1 - 3 qipao outfits each one gorgeously embroidered and vibrant in color. One is usually red and gold to symbolize good luck and money. The next is one with a large phoenix since women are considered the "phoenix" and men are considered "dragon" the last one is usually some embroidered flowers like peonies and what not. I also see this type of dress style in modern fashion which I find very cool. Pearl River is a store that has a huge inventory on Chinese imports from clothes, ceramics, food etc. I hope you enjoyed this slice of my history. =D

Until next time... Your past is equally important as the present and the future.