The Afternoon Tea Party – Cheongsam Dreams Over The Sea @classic Gate Salon

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It’s not easy to find the right words to express the scenes in the old Shanghai, nor to outline the exclusive beauty of oriental women.

Let the afternoon tea party “Cheongsam Dreams over the Sea” bring us to the world of the ladies of the old Shanghai, and tell us about their elegant amorousness.

Seven-Character Poem “Cheongsam Dreams over the Sea”

Peerless beauty of colors flirting with rosy clouds,

Splendid brocades knitting up riots of blossoms.

A pleasant scent hovering in the dreams of cloud,

Glance back from distance to see the resplendence over the sea.

- Mo Ji, impromptu at Shanghai Guidu Theatre, Oct. 5th, 2012

When referring to dresses, Eileen Chang said that costume is a kind of language, a portable drama play people carries every day. To Shanghai Women, Shanghai cheongsam would be the said “language”. To some extend, the lingering charm of cheongsam qipao can only be fully expressed by the Shanghai ladies with their aroma of gentleness and noble gracefulness bred by Shanghai culture, and the wisdom of the mixture of traditions and ...
... modern.

14:00 p.m., the hostress from SMG Yan Hua announced the commence of the tea party, Mr. Chen Cun in Chinese suit is also among the members enjoying the afternoon tea – lapsang souchong.

Modern qipao was originated in Shanghai. Since 1920s, cheongsam qipao has thrived and became a representative costume of Chinese women. Through years of delicate refining and modification inspired by the cultural atmosphere of the prosperous old Shanghai, cheongsam has evolved from the Manchurian’s loose casual daily clothing to so called “the second skin of a woman” – a dress that can fully exhibit a woman’s beauty. The changes projected the women’s thirst for freedom and liberation not just for their body but in fact for their soul. Mr. Gao Chun-Ming from Shanghai Intangible Cultual Heritage Preservation Office talked about the history of cheongsam, unveiling the root of the beauty of cheongsam dress.

As a Shanghai lady, the writer Ms. Cun Zi prepared slide show of precious photos of Shanghai women during 1930s. The fabric of the cheongsam dresses wore by the ladies in the photo seemed simple and plain, but it’s in fact made with materials of high grade, it gracefully deliveried a sense of delicacy, and reflect the elegance and refined accomplishment in their blood to the perfect extent. Just as Mr. Chen Gang taking a line from “Butterfly Love” as metaphor to describe the exclusive “entangled beauty” of China, “something slack, something tense, but it all stop in a sudden, just when you think that is it, it starts to linger, leaving you in endless after taste.”

A cheongsam dress is not able to fully express a woman’s implicit beauty without the careful measurement by an experienced tailor. A cheongsam tailor have to take the measurements over 36 spots of a woman’s body. It is the high standards for perfection that makes tailor-made cheongsam never go out of time even with the fast development of modern industialized fashion business. 85-year-old Mr. Jin, the owner of the old Hong-Xiang cheongsam store explained the procedure of the measurement for a cheongsam.

Stories about the old Shanghai, stories about the Shanghai ladies and gentlemen during those fabulous years are all hiden behind the cheongsams. Under the lead of Ms. Wang Wei-Yu, the founder of the cheongsam salon, Shanghai ladies brought a cheongsam show on the stage, making all the guests drowning in the poetic dreams of cheongsam.