In Beijing’s Silk Street Market, Liu Jin owns a store that takes orders for custom-made and mass produced clothes in addition to selling varieties of satin, silk, and other fabrics.
During the APEC Summit in October 2001, posing on the stage together in Chinese Tangzhuang were the leaders of 20 countries. Yes, the leaders were all wearing Tangzhuang, either red or sapphire blue, with Chinese-style buttons down the front. Since then, the Chinese Tangzhuang has rapidly achieved popularity around the world.
Yu Ying, one of the original designers of the Tangzhuang worn by the APEC leaders, recalls that the designers, after they had completed the designs, held discussions as to what name these suits should be given. They finally settled on “Tangzhuang”, said Yu Ying, “mainly because, outside China, Chinese neighborhoods are referred to as ‘Tángrénjiē’ (meaning Chinatown). It’s only natural, then, that suits worn by ‘Tángrén’ (Chinese people) should be called ‘Tangzhuang’. Another reason is that Chinese people are proud of the Tang Dynasty, (618-907) a period when China was most powerful and prosperous. Also, some overseas Chinese had already begun calling Chinese-style clothes ‘Tangzhuang’.
As a generic name for Chinese-style clothes, today’s Tangzhuang in not simply a development from Tang Dynasty clothing.
Tangzhuang has four major stylistic features: standing jacket collar that opens in front; raglan style sleeves with no seams between the sleeves and the garment body, thus the dominance of planar cutting; buttons set vertically or slantingly down the front; rectangular buttons (also called knot buttons), each consisting of a button knot and a button loop.
The predominant fabric for Tangzhuang is brocade satin with traditional Chinese patterns – five-color earth, dragon, phoenix, crane, butterflies, peony, lotus, and the Chinese characters “ 龙lóng” (dragon), “ 寿shòu” (longevity), or “ 福fú” (happiness). Flowers like peonies and pomegranates –– either individually or in clusters, Chinese characters like “ 福” fu (happiness) and “ 寿 shou (longevity)”, and the “ 囍xi（double happiness) ” pattern are all symbols of good fortune and festivity in traditional Chinese ornamentation.
According to the designer, today’s Tangzhuang is a product of many improvements upon its traditional versions, retaining the essence of its style while incorporating modern elements. Chinese style garments of today, she said, seldom use raglan style sleeves, for such sleeves mean the absence of shoulders, which in turn precludes the use of shoulder pads, thus compromising the garment’s aesthetic appeals. While today’s Chinese style garments are all drawn in at the waist, the traditional garments were not; therefore, they are not able to accentuate the feminine figure. Whereas the skirts of the past had a narrow lap, which forced the wearer to walk in but mince steps, the modern skirts are designed with a wider lap, allowing for more freedom of movement. In the case of the Qipao, it traditionally had slits much higher up than it does today; modern Chinese ladies, though in general much more open than our ancestors, find it awkward to be in a Qipao with very high slits.
“Modern Tangzhuang is a combination of tradition and modernity, because it draws upon the Chinese cultural tradition in style and fabric, and at the same time takes advantage of three dimensional cut used in Western garments,” said Yu Ying.
