This photo was taken in the Republican China era (1912-1949 AD) by a photo studio named “You De”, literally meaning “with virtues”, based in Shanghai. This is a photo of a couple of newly-weds with family, probably with the groom’s brother and mother.
The groom wears a lighter-color padded long gown with traces of vertical sewing inside a plain dark-color riding jacket, or “magua” in Chinese, a style of jacket for men during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912 AD), with “一”-shaped frogs and a gauze corsage. The groom also wears a white underwear gown with sleeves long enough to cover the most of hands, only leaving fingers exposed. The shoes the groom is in are very special, much like today’s padded slippers.
The bride is in a light-color cheongsam with embroidered floral patterns, a diagonal placket and a lap long to cover the shoes. In addition to a pair of high-quarter padded shoes, the groom’s mother wears a dark-color jacquard satin cheongsam ornamented with large floral motifs and metal buttons on the collar, coupled with fur lining as indicated by the folded cuff on the left sleeve. The man in the middle of the back row is in a dark-color riding jacket.
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