From the definition of the word “Qipao”, it means the long robe that Banner people wear. The long robes include chaopao, mangpao in formal occasion, and changfupao which is various for both men and women in daily life. Later, it narrowed down to the “Banner women robe” which was limited to the changfupao that Eight Banners’ women usually wore. Not only women of Eight Banners wore this kind of long robes, but other Manchu women who didn’t belong to Eight Banners also wore them. Therefore, qipao refers to the changfupao that Manchu women wear in daily life. According to the definition above, qipao especially refers to the daily costume that Manchu women wear; qipao excluded men’s clothes and women’s formal dresses from its category. The definition has been revised repeatedly which means the origin of qipao is unknown. In short, the point of view that academic are most acceptable currently is qipao means the abbreviation of “Banner women robe” in Mandarin’s pronunciation. Qipao is equal to Banner women robe. Such the definition are important because the scholars of clothing industry generally believe this clothes that Manchu women wear gradually evolve into a new “improved” qipao after the Republic of China which is today’s qipao. In broader meaning, qipao were the long robes that Manchu women wore in Qing Dynasty and the new qipao in the Republic of China. In narrower meaning, qipao refers only to the qipao in the Republic of China.

The first impression people will think of “Dadaocheng” is the cloth trade. Because cloth is easy to obtain, many famous qipao designers settle down here. This time we are going to interview the famous store----Yufeng qipao, and we vocational students are curious about how to make such a traditional and distinctive qipao which can attract many fans to find a master to customize and we want to know the master’s original intention of making qipao, and understand the origin and inheritance of qipao more deeply.

▲8 qipao lovers wears their own colorful qipao.