This major exhibition at the Shanghai museum has been on since late last year. I was lucky enough to finally see it on its last day, on 5th May 2026.
Qipao is the iconic Old Shanghai dress called Qipao / 旗袍 in Mandarin or Cheongsam in Cantonese. An early 20th century dress inspired by traditional Chinese robes, it has become the symbol of the Chinese women dress.
Qipao was worn by 1930s movies stars like Ruan Lingyu. It is also a major point of 1990s Hong Kong movie “In the move for love“. One of the most beautiful qipao picture was taken by Sam Sanzetti in Shanghai in the 1930s. A red qipao is also the center piece of Shanghai based inspector Chen’s novel, Red Mandarin Dress.
A number of rare qipaos were already on display amongst many Old Shanghai items at the 2024 “Resonance Art Deco Paris-Shanghai” exhibition . This Qipao exhibition was solely focused on Qipaos, showing a vast range of pieces and the evolution of the dress from the 1910s until today.
Qiapo disappeared from mainland China in the 1950s, but florished in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other locations. It was brought back to Shanghai in the 90s and has seen a return in fashion from the mid 2010s.
The exhibition included many pieces that were rarely seen before. It also gave background information on the period, through pictures and magazine covers.
It was a great exhibition with no chance for an extension as the Shanghai Museum is now closed for renovation.
This kind of large scale exhibition are a great way to promote Shanghai culture and make Shanghai history more known to the general public. Hopefuly more will come.
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