Dear Writerguy:
From a book of historical costumes in my own collection, I have the
following information for you:
The daily costume of the ordinary Chinaman is much the same as that
worn at the time of the empire. The trousers are long and very full,
and may be blue, black or white. The stockings are white and are worn
with Chinese [*cotton] slippers.
The upper part of the body is covered by a short, dark blue jacket.
It has a standing collar and full sleeves and is fastened across the
front of the chest with buttons and loops.
It is not generally known that the Chinaman's queue, or pig-tail, was
worn by the order of his Manchu conquerors as a sign of submission.
It has not generally been worn since the passing of the Manchu empire
in 1912. The most commonly use hat is the round black skull cap.
Chinse women wear the hair with bangs in front, drawn straight back
and fastened in a knot at the nape of the neck.
The Chinese women wear trousers, like the men, but they are not so
full. The favorite color for all parts of the women's costume is
blue, but black and gray, as well as lighter colors such as green and
pink for special occasions, are also widely used. White stockings and
Chinese slippers peep out from beneath the woman's trousers. In North
China, the trousers are tied at the ankles, but in South China they
are left unconfined.
Over the upper part of her body, the woman wears a knee length or
shorter coat, called the ma-coual. It has wide sleeves and a narrow
standing short collar and is buttoned up the right side. Its color is
sometimes the same shade as that of the trousers, and sometimes a
contrasting shade.
Out-of-doors, the Chinese woman wears a long, wide-sleeved robe, or
haol. Generally it is of dark blue or black.
[From the book "The Costume Book" copyright 1938. This type of dress
would probably have been what immigrants wore when they arrived. I
also have a description of the Chinese mandarin and his wife in
official robes (more decorated) - if you believe mandarin officials
immigrated as well as the ordinary citizens, please request a
clarification and I'll add that description.]
*I found a reference to cotton slippers worn by Chinese immigrants in
the 1800's but the URL would not load so I have not included it - it
was a repeated "Page Not Found" and seemed to be an expired student
report from the description.
*************
You may want to conact the Chinese Historical Society of America
directly and see if they have any early photos of Chinese immigrants.
Their contact information is:
965 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Tel 415.391.1188
Fax 415.391.1150
mailto:info@chsa.org
********************
"In addition to their unfamiliar customs, Chinese people looked much
different from native-born white Americans as well as from European
immigrants. They also dressed differently. Most Chinese men kept their
hair in a long braid, called a queue, and wore quilted cotton jackets,
broad cotton pants, and wide-brimmed hats."
From http://www.mcdougallittell.com/state/ca/cachi.cfm
**************
Reference to cotton pants and
"But this time, instead of rags he was wearing jade rings and a
brocaded silk robe. He bowed and welcomed Ott and through a translator
confided that he considered Ott's impulse to help him as an
intercession by the gods on his behalf."
From http://americanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blchineseonthewesternfrontier2.htm
**********
"Observing and learning from the backlash against the Chinese, the
Japanese tried hard to give a more favorable impression than their
fellow Chinese immigrants by assimilating to the dominant culture.
They wore western clothes, cut their hair to western styles (which,
for religious reasons, the Chinese men could not do"
From http://prizedwriting.ucdavis.edu/past/1997-1998/kim.html
************
"It is a mark of degradation for a Chinaman to lose his pigtail, so
even in America he sticks religiously to that distinctive ornament.
But the great feature here is that he has adopted the wide-awake. This
is universal. I have not seen a Chinaman in San Francisco without one,
and they are all very much of the same cut. It is not the slouching
wide-awake or the billycock hat, but a small hat with a flat brim,
which has a sailor-like appearance. Often, as they do in their own
country, they wind the pigtail round the head like a turban, and the
hat goes over all. Another distinctive change is the adoption of
European trousers; and this is as universal as the wide-awake. It
gives John Chinaman a breeches pocket, which he seems to be proud of,
for he has his hands continually in that portion of his dress, a
practice which his own costume did not permit of. I believe that in
this he copies a common American habit, but it gives him the
appearance of having something in his pocket; it is suggestive of the
idea that he is a man of means, and that he has dollars where the hand
loves to be. Many have also adopted European boots and shoes, but a
great number walk about the streets of San Francisco with their own
thick, white-soled shoes. Mrs. John Chinaman retains all the
peculiarities of costume belonging to the land she came from. She
dresses her hair in the peculiar Canton fashion, and uses the same
skewers and ornaments which she has been all her life accustomed to.
Compressed feet are not common in the southern parts of China, and I
have seen none in San Francisco. The Chinese baby is quite unchanged
here. Climatic influences do not seem to affect his features, costume,
or language. The fond papa sits at his own door acting the part of
nurse with that well-pleased expression which may be seen anywhere in
the Flowery Kingdom."
From http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/chinese.html
["This article from the Illustrated London News, January 23, 1875,
gives some insight into the emigration process of the Chinese"]
************
I also located various links at the Library of Congress searching
"Chinese immigrants clothes." Those articles may be of help and they
are located at http://search.loc.gov:8765/query.html?col=loc&col=cgi&op0=&fl0=&ty0=w&tx0=chinese+immigrants+clothes&op1=%2B&fl1=&ty1=w&tx1=&op2=-&fl2=&ty2=w&tx2=&nh=10&rf=2&lk=1&charset=utf-8&ht=0&qp=&qt=&qs=&qc=&pw=100%25&la=en&qm=0&st=1&rq=0&si=0&ql=a
I hope my description of the citizen clothes from my book will be of
assistance to you as well as the Internet references I located.
Should you require clarification of any information I have provided,
please request it and I will be happy to respond.
SEARCH STRATEGY:
journalist-ga library
and on Google search
chinese immigrants america clothes
chinese immigrants america clothing
chinese immigrants america attire
chinese immigrants america dress
chinese immigrants america costume
"chinese immigrants" america wore
"chinese immigrants" america pants
"chinese immigrants" america touusers
"chinese immigrants" america coats
"chinese immigrants" america shoes
The URL result that would not open reads:
Rock Lake, Kamiakin and the Chinese Immigrants
... Historian, tells the story of Chinese Immigrants in Whitman County
... in pajama-like clothing, cotton shoes with cotton ... of the
Pacific Coast of America; we cannot ...
http://ceed.wsu.edu/WSU_StudentProjects/
Northern_Borders/rock_lake.htm |
