In the year 1920 in China, women still bound their breasts and those who wore low-cut clothing revealing even the slightest bit of skin risked being arrested by outraged authorities. But only seven years later, the Chinese government outlawed breast binding and the natural breast movement was well on its way.
The China of 1927 was seeing women embark on a journey from breast binding to bikinis.
Led by the upper class circle and the famous movie stars of the day, first Western-style bras and then Hollywood-style swimsuits swept China, bringing Chinese women into a new era of modernity and freedom.
Early Underwear Styles
Traditional Chinese women's underwear: the bellyband (U) and the small vest (L). Chinese women typically wore these as undergarments during the early years of the Republic of China (1912-1949) [baike.baidu.com]
During the early years of the Republic of China (1912-1949), Chinese women wore a type of long vest that covered the knees when they slept. During the day, they would wear the long vest and a cape inside their cheongsam or dresses as undergarments.
The small vest pictured above was developed from a kind of underwear called body-binding, which was popular amongst Chinese women. They were mostly made of silk but less well-off families also used cloth. Unlike the sleeveless vest that women typically wore as an outer garment, the small vest was shorter, smaller and had a line of tight buttons that were meant to de-emphasize breasts.
Dong Zhujun, founder of the 80-year-old Shanghai Jin Jiang Hotel, one of the most prestigious five-star hotels in downtown Shanghai, wrote in her book My Century that when she was 16 years old she wore 'a gray silken fur-lined jacket, a tight cloth vest (girls at the time all had to bind their breasts), and a pair of satin pants, shoes, and white tight ankle socks made of machine-made cloth.'
A few of the more daring women would wear a light weight small vest made of tulle and pair it with a thin grenadine top, baring their arms. But conservative public figures were outraged and condemned the practice.
Shanghai senator Jiang Quesheng wrote a letter to the Jiangsu Provincial Government office in the summer of 1918, saying that 'this popular dressing style for young women is indecent and obscene. It shows at least 33 centimeters of the arm. And they wear trousers at least more than 30 centimeters higher than usual, exposing too much skin'.
Senator Jiang certainly had cause to worry as these daring styles, initially only popular amongst prostitutes, soon became widespread and common. Believing that so much exposure of female skin would incite wantonness and lead to moral decay and degradation, he demanded that the Jiangsu Province and the Shanghai County and foreign settlements ban the practice.
In 1920, the Shanghai government issued a public notice prohibiting dressing styles that revealed the arms and legs, calling it shameful. Women who wore revealing clothing would be arrested.
However, no one can stop the tides of progress and in time, Western concepts came to China. The country was bathed in the ideological trend 'The West Wind Gradually Blows to the East'. Jiang's denouncement didn't hold much water against the natural breast movement that was brewing and would eventually free women from the restrictive practice of breast binding.
Natural Breast Movement
An advertisement for a milk product during the early Republic of China. Breast binding was considered beautiful at the time. [history.stnn.cc]
In 1924, 15-year-old Wei Qingfen was already a physically well-developed young lady. Her mother had to bind her breasts with a band of white cloth wrapped repeatedly around her growing chest and torso, a practice that was common then. While foot binding may be one of the most recognizable features of Chinese cultural history, breast binding was no less of a shackle on women's freedom and health.
After she got married, the job of binding Wei's breasts fell on her husband. Wei's father-in-law, a feudal conservative, was very strict about the issue and often reminded his son to follow the practice.
However, at the time, some progressive thinking women were already beginning to support the natural breast movement which called on women to abandon the practice of breast binding and allow the chest to develop naturally.
One of the fiercest opponents of breast binding was Zhang Jingsheng, who held a doctor's degree in sexology. In his article 'Research on Nudity' published in the New Culture magazine in December 1926, Zhang emphasized that the practice of binding women's breasts was an ugly expression of the formalism that dominated Chinese traditional culture then.
"Women who use a piece of narrow cloth to flatten their breasts are denying their own beauty. Even worse, the practice is harmful to women's health, impairing their ability to breathe normally and eventually leading to lung diseases or even premature death. Moreover, bound breasts are unable to produce breast milk normally, affecting our children and the nation's next generation," he wrote.
At a Guangdong government committee meeting in on June 7, 1927, government official Zhu Jia raised a proposal to ban breast binding. He argued that there were two outdated customs that had ruined the bodies of Chinese women: foot binding, which was banned over twenty years ago, and breast binding.
Zhu said that breast binding was, in a way, even worse than foot binding as it weakened the entire body.
"Breast binding hurts the heart, lungs, and stomach and affects breathing and blood circulation. It impairs the body's development, making women frail and thin. And it has a negative impact on girls," Zhu stated.
Zhu's ban was very strict. It stated that if a woman had not stopped the practice within three months after the ban was imposed, she would be charged with a fine of 50 yuan (a great sum of money at the time), and that if the woman was under 20 years old, her whole family would be punished.
Zhu believed that his ban would abolish the practice in Guangdong Province and eventually, the whole nation. He claimed that the ban was 'not specifically for the happiness of women but actually based on the spirit of patriotism and for the improvement of our nation'.
A cigarette advertisement on The Shenbao, one of the first modern Chinese newspapers published from 1872 to 1949 in Shanghai. Influenced by the natural breast movement, people began to regard breast binding as outdated.
Thus, patriotism became a driving force of the natural breast movement. Little by little, Chinese women's freedom began to be reflective of the progress of society and politics.
In an article published on August 10, 1927 in the Guomin Daily (a newspaper in Shaanxi Province of the time), literary scholar and reformer Hu Shi [*note] was mentioned as a leading advocate of the new movement. The article states that Hu spoke at a girl's private school graduation ceremony about the issue. The next day, an article was published in Jing Bao (a newspaper of the time) in which Hu told the author that Chinese female students were not qualified to be mothers because of the whole breast binding issue and that this was a big problem for the nation.
Zhang Jingsheng also furthered the issue in articles that he wrote and published in the magazine he founded, New Culture. In an article titled 'Sexual Beauty', Zhang wrote: 'The female posture that pushes the chest forward emphasizes the graceful curves of the female body. This is the beauty of a woman.'
In 1927, the government officially banned breast binding. Those who went against the policy would be fined.
An article published in August 1927 in the Shanghai edition of the Minguo Daily provided some insight into how the movement proceeded. Government leaders decided that to maximize the ban's effectiveness, they would go right to the source: girl's schools. They set up rules in schools everywhere that banned female students from binding their breasts and required teachers to supervise the implementation of the rule.
Thus it was that Wei Qingfen decided one day to bravely ditch her breast binding cloth. However, because there were no bras at the time, she simply went commando under her outer garments. Her father-in-law was outraged at the indecency and immediately summoned his son to rebuke him.
Due to his opposition, Wei had to re-instate the much-hated breast binding cloth. One day, she was walking on the street when a policewoman spotted her and fined her 50 yuan for going against government orders.
Wei and her husband handed over the fine notice to her father-in-law. He said: "Let them fine us as much as they like. I can afford it!"
He also told his son to forbid Wei from leaving the house.
But a few days later, a women's organization called on Wei and her family and discovered that she was still binding her breasts. Once again, they fined the family 50 yuan.
Her father-in-law gave up opposing the issue and never mentioned it again.
In pursuit of ideological emancipation, more and more women began to throw away their breast binding cloths. The phenomenon was recorded in many novels written at the time. For instance, in writer Mao Dun's [*note] novel Erode, Shake, the female character Sun Wuyang smilingly pulls her breast binding cloth out of her shirt, throws it on the ground, and says "Annoying thing. I can't breathe with it wrapping around me. I don't want it anymore."
In January 1928, the Guangzhou Minguo Daily published an essay by Jiang Xue titled 'Measuring Breast Circumference'. In it, Jiang describes going to a tailor's shop and seeing the tailor measure 'breast circumference' for the first time. The tailor also told Jiang that breast measurements have to be accurate so that the clothes will fit right.
The Advent of the Bra
Around the same time, the iconic traditional Chinese cheongsam became very popular. The key to wearing this style well was to have curves. Accordingly, some women sought to augment their figures by stuffing cotton down their chests or even making fake padding by cutting a rubber ball in half. However, none of these offered a permanent and aesthetically pleasing solution.
In the late 1920s, the bra was introduced to China from overseas. Caresse Crosby, an American poet, publisher, peace activist and patron of the arts, had invented the first modern brassiere with two handkerchiefs and a narrow ribbon in 1914. Its initial function was to provide support for women dancers.
For Chinese women, it was a struggle to accept it at first. Although they needed the support, many Chinese women could not get used to it after generations of using the traditional bellyband and breast binding.
Movie actresses again became the pioneers of this fashion revolution. Their example led many women to accept the Western-style undergarment and it soon became popular.
Ruan Lingyu, one of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930s, was also one of the earliest Chinese women to wear a bra. Chinese people fell in love with the image of her wearing her cheongsam, made all the more alluring by the curve-shaping bra she wore underneath.
Since then, not only have bras becomes the norm, but China has also come up with many improved designs of the undergarment as well.
A More Daring Attitude
The social atmosphere in 1930s Shanghai was surprisingly open and progressive.
Mao Dun wrote in his novel Midnight: "A fashionable woman wearing a gauzy waistcoat sits in a rickshaw, one naked leg crossed over the other. Although it is only May, the weather is stiflingly hot. She wears a summer dress of light blue that hugs her full curves tightly, her sleeve cuffs drawn up above the elbow."
Trendy women now sought to enhance their female charms. While traditional Chinese women's style was characterized by complete flatness, women now demanded the privilege of flaunting their curves.
In big cities like Shanghai, women gravitated towards ever more daring fashions.
The government's lift on the ban on revealing dressing meant that more and more Chinese women began to dress in new ways to get attention. In the 1940s, Hollywood films came to the big cities of China and young girls began to imitate the styles they saw on the big screen.
Dressing as A Statement
In 1930, Hong Jun, the daughter of the Minister of the Interior Zhu Guishen, holidayed at Beidaihe in Hebei Province dressed in Western-style swimwear. It was a bold move that triggered much controversy. Although the one-piece swimsuit would have been considered conservative in today's culture, in the eyes of the traditionalists, it equaled to nudity.
The stage set of 1937 film Return to Nature with leading actresses dressed in swimsuits. [baike.baidu.com]
Undeterred, the young women of the day who received Western education were constantly one step ahead, challenging the feudal ethics code. At public swimming pools and on beaches, modern women donned daring swimsuits in defiance of traditional norms.
In the 1937 film Return to Nature, actresses Li Lili [*note], Bai Lu [*note], Gong Zhihua, and Xu Jian star as a group of women who are stranded on a barren island because of a yacht accident. The film did a good deal towards making swimsuits acceptable to the public as the four stars showed off their beautiful figures wearing swimsuits during many of the scenes.
Thus it was that film stars and celebrities once again led the fashion pack. Singer and actress Hu Die, movie star Baiyang and other celebrities were spotted relaxing in the sunshine wearing swimsuits. Bai Yang even wore the more revealing two-piece suit, the precursor of the modern-day bikini. It was clear that for these women, it was not just a matter of showing off their figures. They were making a statement.
Aside from celebrities, other prominent women also advocated the emancipation of women's bodies.
Yang Xiuqiong, a swimmer who became famous after risking her life to send a flag of encouragement to the 800 soldiers guarding the Sihang Warehouse during the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945), was also a pioneer of the Western-style swimsuit. In 1935, Zhonghua Magazine published a photo of her wearing a stylish two-piece.
A 1946 Movie Pictorial Magazine issue also published a bra advertisement depicting a woman modeling the undergarment. By the 1940s, bras were widely accepted by the women of the upper class and those working in fashion.
In the women's magazine Linglong, an article introducing the bra called attention to the fact that it enhanced and emphasized women's breasts, mentioning it as a selling point. Clearly, people's concepts about the function of women's underwear were changing rapidly.
From breast binding to two-piece swimsuits, the women of China have seen a great evolution in the way that society and they themselves perceive feminine beauty. No longer feeling the need to hide the natural curves of their own bodies, Chinese women have made great strides in other arenas of their lives, free from the terrible constraints of breast binding.
Note:
Hu Shi (17 December, 1891 — 24 February, 1962) was a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese liberalism and language reform in his advocacy for the use of written vernacular Chinese. He was influential in the May Fourth Movement, one of the leaders of China's New Culture Movement, was a president of Peking University, and in 1939 was nominated for a Nobel Prize in literature. He had a wide range of interests such as literature, history, textual criticism, and pedagogy.
Mao Dun (July 4, 1896–March 27, 1981) was a 20th century Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and journalist. He was also the Chinese Minister of Culture from 1949 to 1965. He is currently renowned as one of the best realist novelists in the history of modern China. His most famous works are Midnight, a grand novel depicting life in cosmopolitan Shanghai, and Spring Silkworms. He also wrote many short stories.
