"You're right. We often have the wives of government officials calling on us," says Chen-kuei Yang, president of the dress company. "As soon as you become the wife of an official, you can't avoid coming to Han Tang to make a few ch'i-p'aos, which will be needed from time to time."

Since the Ching Dynasty, the ch'i-p'ao has been the formal wear of choice in government circles. Up to the present, wives who have to attend formal functions or accompany their husbands on official visits abroad feel compelled to wear clothes representative of China. Today, as the number of women wearing ch'i-p'aos grows ever smaller, a ch'i-p'ao worn by a wife of an official is a real eye-catcher.

Necessary Preparation for a Wife of an Official: Many wives of officials have worn ch'i- p'aos made by Han Tang (formerly Hua Mei). These include such women as the wife of Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Fan-liang; the wife of President Lee Teng-hui, Tseng Wen-hui; the wife of former President Yen Chia-kan; the wife of former Vice President Hsieh Tung-min; the wife of former Premier Yu Kuo-hwa; the wife of Presidential Palace Spokesman Chiu Chin-yi; the Chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development Shirley Kuo; and the wife of the Minister of Interior Wu Pohsiung.

Each of these women has different preferences. Mrs. Yu has a particular fondness for Chinese buttons in the shapes of plum flowers and the Chinese character for life, while Mrs. Wu Po-hsiung, on the other hand, likes semi-traditional ch'i-p'aos that are a bit on the loose side. Yet they still have some things in common. A tailor named Liu at the Han Tang Dress Company points out, "These ladies mostly like traditional ch'i-p'aos and favor silk fabrics."

The owner of Han Tang, Yang Cheng-kuei, is from Chekiang, and his family used to make ch'i- p'aos back in mainland China. After moving to Taiwan, he inherited his father's business and set up shop in the Hsimenting area of Taipei. At that time, with the import of silk from mainland China prohibited, most good ch'i-p'ao fabrics were brought in from Hong Kong and were very dear. "Silk cannot endure unstitching--if you made a mistake, you have to reimburse the customer," he says. At that time the monthly salary of a tailor was not enough to pay for the cloth of one ch'i-p'ao. Everyone was extremely careful, and in such an environment, skills were honed. Business got better and better.

"The 1960s were the golden era for us. On a given day, dozens of clients would come into the shop, and we had close to 40 tailors," recalls Yang some thirty years later with great pride.

It's All in the Measuring: What unique skill does Yang Cheng-kuei possess to be so favored by the wives of officials?

A good ch'i-p'ao must "have a good fit and suit the posture," he reveals. "A good fit" means that it must be fit the person's body and status, whereas "suiting the posture" means that it must allow the body's four limbs to move without being constrained. Hence, "Although making a ch'i-p'ao is not hard, making a good one is not easy."

The procedures for making a ch'i-p'ao can be generally divided into the following steps: measuring the body, cutting, sewing, pulling in at the waist line, putting on the collar and sewing the border. Whether a ch'i-p'ao "has a good fit and suits the body" is largely determined during the measuring.

"Measuring the body is the most important and the most difficult step," says Yang, who began studying how to make ch'i-p'aos when he was in his teens. "In addition to using measuring tape, one has got to assess the posture of the body with one's eyes"--because while you can measure the length and size, one must rely on observation for the different body postures. For example, hollow chests, hunched backs, protruding bellies, protruding buttocks, shoulders and necks that slouch forward or lean back: all of these are different. "When measuring, you've got to find the special characteristics of the posture. Only in that way will the ch'i-p'ao's fit be just right."

The scholarship of making ch'i-p'aos does not stop here. No matter how advanced sewing technology becomes, machines will never be able to substitute for work by hand in certain steps of the process, such as in the attaching of Chinese buttons and the making of borders and ju-yis, etc. These all require sewing a stitch at a time, for which there is no substitute.

The Good Name of the Ch'i-p'ao Spreads in Japan: In the Complete Guide to Making Chinese Clothes, Yang Cheng-kuei goes in to detail about the manufacture of ch'i-p'aos. Because the book was also published in Japan, he has become famous there. For the ch'i-p'ao used by Empress Takamatunomiya Sinnouhi of Japan on her 50th wedding anniversary, Yang went to Japan to measure the empress inside the palace. The ch'i-p'ao took 10 nights to make. Intricate ju-yis were embroidered on that ch'i-p'ao's lapel and hem. Furthermore, not a sewn thread could be seen anywhere on the garment. For the sake of doing fine hand work, Yang had somehow split a single fine thread into three much thinner threads. After receiving this exquisite ch'i-p'ao, the empress wrote a letter to him in thanks. The only thing she couldn't understand was "Why are such beautiful patterns hidden within the clothing? Isn't it a shame that people can't see them." Yang explains, "Normally these patterns can not be seen, but when the ch'i-p'ao is being put on taken off or one is moving, one can get glimpses at them. This reflects the traditional Chinese concept of beauty being within and obscured."

In its 40 years, after a period of extreme popularity, Han Tang has declined along with the ch'i-p'ao. With no thought of turning back the tide, Yang just exclaims, "Today, more than 70 percent of our clients are Japanese. The Japanese value traditional Chinese ch'i-p'aos, regarding them as works of art, whereas our young people don't even cast a glance at the traditional clothing of their own land." Yang wants to find time to make a variety of different kinds of traditional ch'i-p'aos, which he will store away or give to a museum. This kind of workmanship, he reckons, will die out in the not-so-distant future. 

[Picture Caption]

With a history of nearly 40 years, the Han Tang Dress Company is the oldest ch'i-p'ao shop in Taiwan. (Photo by Huang Li-li)