Wedding Photo I: Bride in Cheongsam and Groom in Long Gown and Riding Jacket

This picture was taken in the early period of the Republican China (1911-1949 AD) by a photo studio named Die Lai, literally meaning “butterflies coming”, located in Shanghai. The groom in this picture wears a dark-color long gown covered with a riding jacket, or “magua” in Chinese, a style of jacket for men during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912 AD). With a gauze corsage pinned on his jacket, his hands are hidden inside the super-long sleeves of the gown and only a tip of his black leather shoes is exposed as the most is covered by the long lap of the gown. The bride is in a long cheongsam with light-color floral patterns and narrow piping in the same color. It was a trend for brides to wear long-sleeve cheongsams during that period of time. There are several pairs of frogs on the bride’s cheongsam, with one flower-shaped pair on the upper rim of the collar, one “一”-shaped pair on the lower and one flower-shaped pair in the middle of the diagonal placket. The bride wears a pair of light-color embroidery shoes. Regarding accessories, the lady wears a pair of earrings with pendants, a metal ring around the middle finger of her left hand and a fashion watch on her left wrist, together with a similar gauze corsage pinned on her cheongsam. The corsage, with endless-knot-decorated calyx supporting a corolla of petals, bears a similar design to the hair ornaments worn by Peking Opera actresses.