Qungua

Qungua
Qungua in Hong Kong, 2020
Chinese	裙褂
Literal meaning	Skirt jacket
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Qúnguà Wade–Giles Ch'ün2-kwa4 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Kwan4 gwaa3
Longfenggua
Traditional Chinese	龍鳳褂
Simplified Chinese	龙凤褂
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lóngfèngguà Wade–Giles Lung2-feng4-kua4 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping lung4 fung6 gwaa3
Longfeng qungua
Traditional Chinese	龍鳳裙褂
Simplified Chinese	龙凤裙褂
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lóngfèng qúnguà Wade–Giles Lung2-feng4-ch'ün2-kua4 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping lung4 fung6 Kwan4 gwaa3
Guaqun
Chinese	褂裙
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guàqún Wade–Giles Kua4-Ch'ün2 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping gwaa3 kwan4

Qungua (Chinese: 裙褂; Jyutping: kwan4 gwaa3), also known as longfenggua (simplified Chinese: 龙凤褂; traditional Chinese: 龍鳳褂),^[1] or longfeng qungua (simplified Chinese: 龙凤裙褂; traditional Chinese: 龍鳳裙褂),^[2] or guaqun (Chinese: 褂裙; Jyutping: gwaa3 kwan4),^[3] is one type of two-piece ceremonial traditional Chinese wedding set of attire, which is composed of a jacket called gua (褂) and of a long Chinese skirt called qun (裙). The qungua is a type of Hanfu worn by Han Chinese brides^[4] and originated in the 18th century during the Qing dynasty.^[1] It eventually became the traditional wedding attire of Cantonese brides in the Guangdong regions.^[3][5] It is traditionally handmade and is decorated with dragons and phoenixes embroideries.^[6] Nowadays, the qungua is still popular as a wedding dress in China, including in Hong kong and Macau.^[1]

Back in Ming dynasty, the women wedding dress worn by nobles and commoners was known as fengguan xiapei (Chinese: 凤冠霞帔) composed of the fengguan and xiapei.^[3] The wedding dress worn in Ming dynasty continued to influence the wedding dress of the later centuries.^[3]

What is known as qungua only started to be worn in the 18th century during the Qing dynasty.^[1] The qungua originated in Guangdong when Liang Zhu, a Guangdong Qing dynasty politician, was rewarded with a silk wedding dress embroidered with dragons and phoenixes by the Qing Emperor at the time of his daughter's wedding.^[7] This led to the use qungua in the Guangdong area.^[7]

In 18th century, Chinese mothers would start to sew the qungua as soon as a daughter was born in the family.^[1] The qungua would then be placed as a part of the daughter's bride dowry when she gets married.^[1] The qungua follows the ancient traditional system of shangyi xiachang (Chinese: 上衣下裳; upper and lower garment).^[3]

The qungua is composed of two separate garments: a gua (Chinese: 褂; pinyin: guà; Jyutping: gwaa3; lit. 'coat'), which is a Chinese jacket which closes at the front with buttons,^[4] and a qun (Chinese: 裙; pinyin: qún; Jyutping: kwan4; lit. 'skirt').^[2] The qun worn in the qungua is typically straight in cut.^[2] The skirt could be pleated.^[8]

While Western wedding dress tends to be white in colour, Chinese traditional wedding clothing favours the use of red and gold colour.^[1]

The gua was originally black in colour while the skirt was originally red in colour.^[5]

The gua which is completely red in colour only appeared in the 1960s.^[5] Since then the traditional black gua and red qun started to be used for the bride's mother instead of being worn by the brides themselves.^[5][3]

• 
  Bride wearing Qing dynasty qungua.
• 
  Qungua (left) worn by Chinese brides, 1900s.
• 
  Qungua is a two-piece garment attire: black gua and red qun.
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  Long skirt qun
• 
  Red gua
• 
  Construction of a black gua jacket.
• 
  Black gua

The qungua is typically embroidered with the Chinese dragons called long (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍) and the Chinese phoenix called feng (simplified Chinese: 凤; traditional Chinese: 鳳).^[3] It can also be decorated with other auspicious symbols, such as pomegranate (symbolism for fertility), peony flowers, lotus flowers, bats, goldfish, butterfly and birds.^[5]

Nowadays, there are 5 different types of qungua which is named accordingly to the percentage of embroidery covering the dress:^[1]

1. Xiaowufu (小五福): 30% covered with embroidery,
2. Zhongwufu (中五福): 50% covered with embroidery
3. Dawufu (大五福): 70% covered with embroidery
4. Guahou (褂后): 90% covered with embroidery
5. Guahuang (褂皇): 100% covered with embroidery

The Betawi bridal dress, partly influenced by Chinese culture and by Indonesian culture, looks similar to the Chinese qungua.^[7] Like the qungua, the Betawi bridal dress is a two-piece set of attire which composed of an ankle-length with wider bottom skirt called kun and an upper garment called tuaki.^[7] The tuaki is decorated with Chinese auspicious symbols.^[7] One difference from the qungua is the use of Betawi Lotus, also known as Betawi pomegranate, a separate ornamental garment which covers the chest and shoulder areas (similar to the yunjian of the Chinese people).^[7] The Betawi lotus was used to denote the origins of the Betawi bride, but it was eventually replaced by beads which typically follows the Spanish cherry floral pattern.^[7] The kun and tuaki must match in colour.^[7]

• 
  Chinese Bride in Batavia in her wedding dress, 1870. The dress is heavily influenced by Chinese culture but also shows subtle differences.
• 
  Betawi bride and groom, 2008.

The qungua is different from the fengguan xiapei (Chinese: 凤冠霞帔), another type of Traditional Han Chinese wedding set of attire, which was worn in Ming and Qing dynasties^[3] in terms of composition of garments and accessories which the qungua lacks of. The fengguan xiapei is a set of attire which was composed of red mang ao (Chinese: 蟒袄; lit. 'python jacket'), which is a type of Ming dynasty-style round-collar robe decorated with dragons, which was worn by Han Chinese women as a court robe; a xiapei (Chinese: 霞帔), which is a type of long scarf in Ming and a type of stole in Qing dynasty; a mangchu (Chinese: 蟒裙; lit. 'Python skirt'), which is a skirt which can be red or green and is embroidered with dragons and phoenixes on the front and back skirt lapels), and the fengguan, the phoenix coronet.^[9] The Wedding attire is sometimes decorated with Chinese cloud collar known as yunjian.^[9]

• 
  Portrait of lady in fengguan xiapei in Qing dynasty,
• 
  Qing dynasty fengguan xiapei (凤冠霞帔), a yunjian is on top of the attire.

The qungua is distinct from another Chinese wedding set of attire called Xiuhefu (simplified Chinese: 秀禾服; traditional Chinese: 繡和服).^[1][2] The Xiuhefu typically has an overlapping jacket which closes to the right side (instead of the qungua central closing jacket) which is worn with an A-line skirt (qun) which looks similar to a mamianqun instead of a straight cut skirt.^[2] The Xiuhefu is typically embroidered with flowers and birds to symbolize love for whole seasons.^[3]

• 
  A bride in Xiuhefu between Taihedian and Zhonghedian, 2022
• 
  A bride in Xiuhefu near Xiehemen, 2022

The qungua is different from the cheongsam which can also be worn as a Traditional Chinese wedding dress.^[3] The qungua is a two-piece garment composed of jacket and skirts while the modern cheongsam is currently a one-piece robe.^[4] Prior to the 1930s and the 1940s, the cheongsam was also a two-piece set of garment which was composed of a long robe and was worn with a pair of trousers.^[4]

• Traditional Chinese wedding dress
• Fengguan
• Hanfu
• Ruqun
• Traditional Chinese marriage