A young Chinese girl wore, I suppose, a traditional Chinese costume during a gathering and an American lass asked me what was it called. I was taken by surprised because it didn't cross my mind that the white dress which consisted of a pant and a flowing blouse with long, flowing sleeves had a name. I only know of samfoos and cheongsams, I replied and she laughed and said, How come you don't know? You are Chinese. I suppose that was because Chinese dresses change throughout history and modern Chinese are more comfortable with T-shirts and other Western clothes. In the 60s, I bet young Chinese women still wear their samfoos. Foochow women in Sibu, Sarawak, I read somewhere, used to wear black pants and a blue blouse with Mandarin collar and buttons on the side. I suppose that was samfoo. Samfoo is a Cantonese term just like cheongsam is Cantonese. Samfoo is more casual. It consists of sam, in this case, a waisted blouse and foo, the trousers. Cheongsam is known as qipao In the north of China, Cheongsam in Cantonese means long dress. Long as it may be, I suppose all of us know that it can be elegant and sexy and Chinese women today occasionally wear it on festive seasons and when attending gala dinners. Anyway, in future, maybe if someone asks me the name of a Chinese costume, I'll just say it's Hanfu, a new term introduced in the Net. The term literally means Hans clothes and I take that as Chinese clothes. If one's shopping online for Chinese clothes, one just has to search for Hanfu.
Mouth watering cheongsams...
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