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Cultures & The Chinese Dress.
On the other hand the ideology also directly influenced dress and adornment. During the Warring States period, many vassal states were competing with each other, hence the patterns of dress and adornment became diversified. During the Sui and Tang, the unity of ancient China and the prosperity of economy brought about new thoughts, and the dress became splendid, particularly the decolIetage appeared. Because of the intensity of the feudal ideology, the patterns of dress and adornment gradually became conservative from the Song and Ming Dynasties. Influenced by western cultures, the designs were more fitting and tasteful from late Ming.

 Ancient Dress and Adornment.
Yellow is the most valuable colour as a symbol of centre. Green, red, white and black symbolize the East, the South, the West and the North respectively. Green, red, black, white and yellow are pure colours applied by the emperors and officials. The common people could only apply the secondary colours. With the development of the society, the colours of the dress, which are more harmonious and form a partial contrast, replace that of remote ages, which was very simple. These changes make the dress and adornment splendid.

 CHEONGSAM or QIPAO
The cheongsam is a female dress with distinctive Chinese features and enjoys a growing popularity in the international world of high fashion.The name "cheongsam," meaning simply "long dress," entered the English vocabulary from the dialect of China's Guangdong Province (Cantonese). In other parts of the country including Beijing, however, it is known as "qipao", which has a history behind it.
When the early Manchu rulers came to China proper, they organized certain people, mainly Manchus, into "banners" (qi) and called them "banner people" (qiren), which then became loosely the name of all Manchus. The Manchu women wore normally a one-piece dress which, likewise, came to be called "qipao" or "banner dress." Although the 1911 Revolution toppled the rule of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, the female dress survived the political change and, with later improvements, has become the traditional dress for Chinese women.
Easy to slip on and comfortable to wear, the cheongsam fits well the female Chinese figure. Its neck is high, collar closed, and its sleeves may be either short, medium or full length, depending on season and taste. The dress is buttoned on the right side, with a loose chest, a fitting waist, and slits up from the sides, all of which combine to set off the beauty of the female shape.

Food

The Chinese nation has a civilized history of 5,000 years and has created a splendid traditional culture. Cooking has occupied a lofty position in Chinese culture throughout the history. 

The Chinese culinary culture has a distant source and has been developed for many centuries. The legend has it that the Chinese cooking culture originated with Yi Yin, a virtuous and capable minister of the Shang Dynasty(ca. 15th to 11th century B.C.). It can be seen that China initiated the culinary art as early as the Shang and Zhou (ca. 11th century to 221 B.C.) times. With the growth and development of productivity and economy during various periods, people have been always exploring new cooking techniques ----from brevity to variety, from rudimentary to advanced stage, from day-to-day snacks to feasts, even to palatial dishes and delicacies. During the period from the Spring and Autumn Period(ca. 770-476 B.C.) and the Warring Stated Period(ca. 475-221 B.C.), to the Sui-Tang period, the Chinese dishes began to be separated by Southern and Northern tastes. In general, the southern dishes emphasize freshness and tenderness. While due to the cold weather, northern dishes are relatively oily, and the use of vinegar and garlic tends to be quite popular. 

During the period of the Tang (618-907 A.D.) and the Song(960-1279 A.D.) dynasties, people went in a great deal for nutritional medical value of different plants: fungus, herbs, vegetables. Many varieties of "medicinal food" have been cooked for prevention and cure of diseases, or for health care and recovery. 

As time goes by, distinct local flavours were added to the Chinese dishes, such as the Northern food("Lu" or the Shandong dishes), the Southern food ("Yue" or the Cantonese dishes), the Chuan food (Sichuan dishes), Huai Yang (Yangzhou) and the vegetarian foods and records respecting each kind of dishes have been handed down. There are four oldest types of Chiness food: the Sichuan, Cantonese, Northern(Beijing) and Huaiyang. Later on, eight types gradually evolved after the Tang and Song Dynasties (the Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong, Yangzhou, Beijing, Anhui, Zhejiang and Hunan groups). Each of these groups has its own long history and characteristic traditional techniques. 

Art

China has a wide variety of arts and crafts with exqui-site workmanship. They can be classified into special and folk types. 

Stone carving is created using various rare types of stone, such as the Shoushan Stone and Tianhuang Stone. 

Carved lacquerware, shaped like bottles, pots and large screens, is created out of pure lacquer. Usually bright red, it is classically elegant and beautiful. 

Cloisonne is a kind of handicraft well known at home and abroad. The blue glaze produced during the reign of Emperor Jingtai of the Ming Dynasty is considered the best. Created by mounting copper strips and plating gold and silver on the surface of a copper roughcast, it looks resplendent and magnificent. The products include bottles, bowls, and cups used as prizes, etc. 

Chinese folk arts, with a broad mass foundation as well as a long history, contain profound cultural and historical connotations. They can stimulate people’s aesthetic sense and appreciative taste. Throughout the ages, Chinese folk arts have had a strong local flavour as well as a national style, different in postures and beautiful beyond appreciation. 

In technique, Chinese folk arts fall into the categories of cutting, bundling, plaiting, knitting, embroidering, carving, moulding and painting. 

Cutting includes papercuts, paperengravings, papercut silhouettes, paperfolding, paper sculpture, and leather-silhouettes, all of which evolved from papercuts. 

Bundling includes kites and colour lanterns bundled up with paper, silk or bamboo. 

Plaiting, a popular folk art, includes various straw or thread plaited articles. The products include cloth tigers, cool pillows, cushions, tiny fragrant bags, colour silk balls, shoe-pads, and velvet flowers and birds. 

Knitting, including wax printing, bandhnu, colour printing, drawn work and flower knitting, is created by weaving, knitting or stitching. 

Embroidering includes picture weaving in silk, printing and dyeing. China’s four famous styles of embroidery are those of Suzhou, Hunan, Guangdong and Sichuan. 

Carving includes art depictions of various shapes, such as masks, puppet heads, figures, animals and flowers, which are created with bamboo, wood, jade, or horn. 

Moulding includes dough modelling, clay sculpture, frozen butter sculpture and pottery sculpture. The products serve not only as ornaments but also as children’s toys. 

Painting involves such techniques as hand painting, incision, patchwork, and pyrograph, each having a style of its own. 

China is the home of chinaware, porcelain being produced in both the south and north. Famous porcelain-making centres are Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province and Liling in Hunan Province in the south and Tangshan and Handan in Hebei Province and Zibo in Shandong Province. The long-lost techniques of the celebrated ancient porcelain kilns such as Longquan, Jun, Ru, Guan, Cizhou and Yaozhou have now been recovered, “like old trees putting forth new blossoms” as the saying goes. The purplish brown sandy potteries of Yixing, the noted pottery center in Jiangsu Province, are much sought after for their classic elegance and splendid luster. 

Architecture

Masters of Timber Constructions

Ancient Chinese architecture enjoyed a long history and great achievements, and created many architectural miracles such as the Great Wall. In the process of its development, superior architectural techniques and artistic design were combined to make unique Chinese architecture be one of the three greatest architectural systems.

Ancient Chinese architecture features unique timber framework that clearly identifies supporting structure and bounding structure. The top load of a structure will be transferred to its groundwork through its posts, beams, lintels and joists. Walls bear no load and separate space only so that windows and walls will not be restricted to certain locations on the walls.

Timber framework decides that colour is the main ornament used on ancient Chinese architecture. At the beginning, paint was used on wood for antisepsis while later painting became an architectural ornament. In the feudal society, the use of colour was restricted according to strict social status classification. Since yellow was deemed noblest colour and green the second, they were often applied on palace painting, which was called Hexicaihua (a kind of Chinese colour painting) in Chinese. Usually, dragon or phoenix was painted on green background with mass gold powder or gold foil. The painting will give the structure a clear-cut and a magnificent noble image under the background of white granite basement. It is unique that such sharp colour can achieve artistic effects.

Chinese Opera

In 1790, theatre companies from all over China arrived in Beijing, to perform for the Qing Emperor Qianlong's birthday. Four theatre companies from Anhui arrived, and their fresh styles of music and theatre electrified the capital and eventually came to replace the Kunqu Opera style that had been pre-eminent in the capital for the past two hundred years. Characteristics from other forms of opera, such as Hopeh, Wuhan, and Shansi, were incorporated into the Anhui style. After a while this form of opera became known as Ching Hsi, or 'Capital Play.' Ching Hsi is what we know today as Peking Opera. Because of its long history, Peking Opera encompasses a wide variety of drama, and a wide variety of styles of acting. It emphasizes historical and military plays and can be quite patriotic, and so quite popular. But it is not the only style of opera still extant in China -- many regional Opera styles still exist. Some references list more than 300 regional opera styles in China. Among those still popular are Cantonese Opera, Hebei Clapper Opera, and Yue Opera.

Although there are many different regional styles, they all share many similarities. Each have the same four role types: the female, the male, the painted-face, and the clown. Performances consist of singing, poetry, music, dance, and gesture. Emphasis is on costume and makeup rather than props or scenery. The operas often tell the same stories, though with various regional differences, such as alternate endings or additional characters. The information described within this article will, unless otherwise noted, pertain to Peking Opera specifically, and the regional operas more generally.

Toward the end of the Qing dynasty, tea-houses began to double as theatres. Originally, the acting troupes used the tea houses as a place to rehearse plays, since their homes were too small. Business in the tea-houses carried on as before, except the patrons could enjoy the performance during their drinks and conversations. After a time, patrons began frequenting tea houses specifically to see the theatre, and in some of these establishments the character for 'tea' was dropped from their name. The acting troupes earned their livelihood through performances for the court, though, and not through public performance. At first, actors had to bribe the eunuchs to ensure that word did not get out that they were performing publicly, because the court frowned on such activity. But performance in public tea houses over time became the common and accepted practice.

Beginning in the 1930s, it became acceptable for women to perform in the opera. This led to the gradual disappearance of the female impersonator role, so that now, women almost always play the female roles, even though the mannerisms, vocalisms, and styles of the role were developed when meant to be played by men.

But even today, traditional opera has a place in modern China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It tells the stories common to all the Chinese people: the legend of the Monkey King, the epic tales from The Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the countless fairy tales and ghost stories. These timeless tales still resonate today, and ensure that the traditional opera will continue to have its place in modern life.