i have seen a few pictures of my mother in them, she had a maroon one for graduation. it further turns out that in her willowy youth my mater wore cheongsams to work everyday (she worked at the nlb) i asked if her old cheongsams are around so i can try them. she says she doesn't know where they are. zhe me jiu, ke neng dou diu le. argh! i really want lots of cheongsams. lots and lots. in different lengths and fabrics and with diff details, for casual and formal occasions. heh. one day i shall be known as the cheongsam ta or something. interesting isn't it, that a qipao, is after all the costume of the qis, the manchus, and therefore once a foreign costume to the chinese.
i also want a kebaya. the peranakan kind. the sarong kebaya, i have learnt, in one of those history of costumes book, used to be native to indonesia/malaysia, but the nonyas transformed it into what we now see, by turning the blouses translucent and adding the elaborate embroidery, and the kerosang. i tried to look for them at ms joaquim once. a short sleeve shirt with minimal embroidery, without even the fold over collar, was close to $200. i've inquired at various dressmakers too, and they all say that to have a full nonya kebaya made up it'll cost at least $500 (and we're talking about the short sleeve kind!!) so i've given up. i was discussing this with zak recently, about where his womenfolk get theirs made, although of course those would be malay kebayas. (hee, i like the expression womenfolk) i don't think i can wear a malay one (zak says why not) but a nonya one is extremely fashionable and is sort of chinese. anyway, i don't want a full sarong kebaya really. in fact, i can just wear a modern long skirt. (or jeans!) and i can certainly find my own camisole. all i need is the kebaya top and the kerosong to hold it together. kebaya tops are sexy! how long do i have to work to get that much money for one? at $70 a day, teaching primary school english, minus $15 for transport and lunch and miscellaneous expenses (like red pens or something), hey! just 10 days! that is not a bad idea at all. alright kebaya, here i come.
i'm trying to think of something intelligent to write about hume and personal identity, and nothing is coming to mind, frustratingly enough. so back here again to go on about maggie cheung and cheongsams, or qipaos. which, contrary to what some people might expect, are not for skinny women. to look good in many things, you need to be skinny. to look good in a cheongsam, you need to be curvaceous. that is, although you've got to have a reasonably small waist, it is imperative that you have generous hips and high breasts. but then you can't be simply curvy either. the cheongsam is impossible for short or fat women. jenny chua may be famous for owning more cheongsams than any woman in singapore, but does she look good? emphatically no. you also have to be tall, have never-ending legs, and the high stiff collars demand that you have a long neck. then, they are often sleeveless or capsleeved. that makes it very hard for most people to wear one. let's see, you have to be an hourglass, but you have to be tall and have extremely long and slim legs and arms. (i was most amused to stumble on an article from zaobao which advises on the body types suited for qipao which corroborates me. heh.) so much easier to wear a ballgown of some other kind! unfortunately, in singapore, it's the de facto dress for wives of presidents and prime ministers and cabinet ministers, much in the way wives of american presidents get into a certain kind of matching skirt suit in sometimes rather fearsome colours. they do not inspire you to wear a qipao, however much you might respect them. maggie cheung, on the other hand, makes you wildly desirous of qipaos and pray daily that if you could be granted the figure to wear them you'd never wear anything else again. maggie cheung's cheongsams, incidentally, cheats a little. they have an inconspicuous line tailored under the breast to keep the dress falling close to her body, so they look even tighter.