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China:Two fashionably dressed women wearing qipao dresses (cheongsam) stroll down a Shanghai street, 1948

China:Two fashionably dressed women wearing <i>qipao</i> dresses (<i>cheongsam</i>) stroll down a Shanghai street, 1948

The cheongsam is a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women. It is known in Mandarin Chinese as the qipao, and is also known in English as a mandarin gown.

The stylish and often tight-fitting cheongsam or qipao (chipao) that is most often associated with today was created in the 1920s in Shanghai and was made fashionable by socialites and upperclass women.