The wedding costume shop

"There is an interesting story about the origin of the longfeng qungua in Guangdong…"

A few hundred years ago an emperor succeeded the throne at a very young age. Being a mere child, he was held in the arms of a minister named Liang Chu for the coronation. Ever since then, the emperor developed a high regard for Liang Chu. For the wedding ceremony of Liang's daughter, the emperor thus granted the bride special permission to use the Longfeng qungua (wedding costumes with patterns of dragons & phoenixes) that previously had been exclusive to royal weddings. As Liang Chu was from Shunde, Guangdong province, the longfeng qungua became popular in that province, and its popularity later spread to Shanghai and other places in China.

Koon Nam Wah sells and rents out traditional ceremonial costumes . There are two types of traditional ceremonial costumes: changshan magua (long gowns and short jackets) for men, and qungua for women. In the past, people of the middle and upper class often wore these traditional costumes for birthday banquets or on other grand occasions. In recent decades, however, qungua embroidered with the dragon-and-phoenix pattern has been the ceremonial costume for brides. (Gua is the front-opening jacket, and qun is the long skirt.) The wedding costumes are usually embroidered with auspicious patterns such as the dragon and phoenix, mandarin ducks or flowers and plants. Traditional gua have two decorative sashes embroidered at the centre of the lapel. These bands are called zisundai ('offspring' bands), which means "having an abundance of offspring."

In the past, the qungua was worn either as a wedding costume or on a festive occasion and was made up of a black gua and a red qun. It was not expensive and the average person could afford a set, so very few people would rent the costume. Since the early 1980s, however, as prices kept going up, 95 per cent of the customers have preferred to rent the qungua instead, which by then were made entirely in red. More people have been buying qungua in recent years, however, mainly because of the wave of emigrants who often like to bring a set of qungua along with them for future use overseas.

Making qungua is an art, involving over three hundred procedures from pattern-drawing to completion - all done by hand in the past. A customer who wanted to place an order for a set of qungua would first choose the pattern she desired, this pattern would then be outlined by a patterns-master, and the price negotiated according to the complexity of the pattern. The drawn pattern would be sent to Beijing, where the Qiren (Manchu) embroiderers were regarded as exceptionally good at their work. They would embroider the patterns with silk thread onto the various parts of the qungua, and the embroidered fabric would then be sent back to Hong Kong for the local tailor to sew according to the customer's measurements.

Email: enquiry@koonnamwah.com.hk