By staff reporter ZHANG XUEYING

LIN Hong, a bank clerk, still has her grandmother's qipao -- a snugly-fitting traditional Chinese gown with a high collar and a split skirt. She normally keeps it at the back of her wardrobe, where it stays until summer comes around, when she gives it an annual airing. Now, however, Lin has decided to make a few alterations to up-date her qipao and actually wear it. This feminine garment from the old world has the bewitching effect of softening her voice, refining her demeanor, and, most important, lifting her spirits. Lin has discovered that the same is true for a good many of her colleagues and other contemporaries.

The fever for traditional-style clothes was given impetus at the Shanghai APEC meeting last year, when the leaders of various countries appeared at the closing ceremony wearing Chinese-style silk jackets. Traditional-style garments subsequently flooded the market, and appeared overnight in shopping malls, boutiques, and clothing wholesale markets. Many small tailor shops also popped up to join in this trend, purveying custom-made traditional-style clothes.

Shan Huifang, vice secretary-general of the China Textiles Industry Association, commented: "The popularity of traditional-style clothes can largely be attributed to their becoming increasingly fashionable."

Traditional Chinese garments are a cultural carryover from China's 2000-year-old agricultural society. In the 1920s and 30s, their design was, under the influence of Western culture, modified to accentuate feminine curves in a subtle way. Having short-sleeves and a thigh-high split, the qipao exposes the forearms and legs, and outlines the curves of the bust, waist and hips. In the process of China's modernization, however, this traditional garment seemed too out of time. Its design, color and incompatibility with the fast tempo of modern life precluded it from being fashionable.

It was Gong Li, world famous actress of the mid-1990s, that helped changed the pervasive old attitudes towards classical Chinese dress. Adorned in her traditional-style gown, her appearance at international film award ceremonies caused great admiration. Although her low-cut, plunging neckline, bare-shouldered, stand-up-collar gowns were an unprecedented variation from the traditionally conservative concept of clothes worn by Chinese women, they were widely applauded in the West, and won Gong Li a place on the list of the world's top 50 beautiful women. In China, however, they triggered off a hot debate on Eastern and Western esthetics, and on attitudes towards tradition.

In recent years, this dispute has subsided, as people now understand that the East and the West are not antipathetic, and that all healthy beauty is acceptable.

Liu Mingyi, social psychologist, explains: "This is one of the key changes in China during its 20 years of opening up and reform. In the mid-1990s, although China had opened its door to the outside world, its economy was still weak. Chinese people were therefore wary of Western mores, fearing they might undermine traditional Chinese culture. Since then, the steady and fast growth of the Chinese economy and its increasing prominence within the world economic framework has given Chinese people more self-confidence and assurance in their traditional culture. They are consequently far more objective about and tolerant of foreign cultures."

According to a survey of September 2001, the per capita disposable income of Chinese residents in cities and towns is 5108.4 yuan, 378.7 yuan of which is spent on clothing, as compared with the respective 1985 figures of 739.1 and 98.04 yuan. This increase in income has made possible an improvement in the quality of life.

"These days, Chinese people have several outfits hanging in their wardrobe," says Liu Min, designer at the China Clothes Design and Research Institute. "They have learnt to wear different clothes to suit various occasions, to match colors and fabrics, and to pay more attention to design. But before 1995, factors such as these were deemed an extravagance by the majority."

People now want clothes that do not merely cover their bodies, but also express their personality, mood, and outlook. They scour shopping centers, boutiques, and wholesale markets, hunting for the right clothes, resisting the impulse to buy until they find exactly what they want.

Kang Wenjun, 39, opened his clothes shop four years ago, after his factory had closed down. Being on good terms with the sales departments of several large garment factories, he can sell clothes at just one third of the prices seen in shopping malls, and make a good living. Kang's stock has always included something for everyone, but recently his sales volume began to slide. "Customers enter my shop in the hope of finding something new. If they cannot find anything out of the ordinary after three or four visits, they won't come again for a long time." To cater to the traditional style trend, therefore, Kang refurbished his shop in a more traditional layout. He also employed a tailor from Shanghai, China's fashion metropolis. Since making these changes, his custom has increased substantially, and he has a thick pad of advance orders.

According to a survey conducted by a popular newspaper, the people that favor traditional-style dresses are mostly of the "Chinese middle class;" well paid, well educated, and with overseas study or work experience, mostly in the 30-40 age range.

"I hungered for the life I saw depicted in Western films when I was a girl. Now I have almost everything I ever dreamed of: a spacious house, quality furniture, and a private lawn. But I am far from content during my leisure time." Wang Xinyi, a 33-year-old senior employee at a foreign company, is troubled by spiritual loss, despite living a lifestyle enviable to most Chinese people. "When I first saw a traditional-style, loosely fitting silk gown, an image of me, in my cozy, spacious sitting-room, wearing this dress while sitting on my comfortable sofa, reading, with a cup of tea at hand, sprang to mind, the whole scenario bathed in a soft orange light of total tranquility. I bought the dress without a second thought."

The design of traditional clothes has been much improved. Yu Chenggen, now aged 70, and son of a tailor famous in Beijing in the 1920-30s, complains that such clothes look better displayed than actually worn. But he also admits that younger designers have given traditional clothes a more refined, elegant image.

Li Dazhi, proprietor of two traditional clothes shops, insists that he started his business out of personal interest, and that he rejects orders for designs that are at odds with his style concept. All the clothes on sale in his shops are designed and made by Li and his friends. As fine arts graduates, they have a deep understanding of traditional Chinese esthetics, and mix skillfully classical and modern elements in their designs. The result is something like the film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; one hundred-percent Chinese in foreigners' eyes, and also exotic to the Chinese, but with a distinct style and taste.

Li Dazhi has a predilection for slender, fine-boned ladies of classical grace. His designs are mostly in bright colors such as red, yellow and pink, rather than the traditionally dark colors. Transparent textiles and pleated materials are applied to add a touch of vogue to his products. Such clothes best suit girls blessed with classical physical characteristics.

In sharp contrast to the up-market clothes it sells, the decor of Li's shop is simple and spartan. In one corner stand two Qing Dynasty wardrobes. Their gilded patterns have faded, but the dark red paint still has a faint sheen. In front of the wardrobes stand a wooden table and chairs in the Qing style. The window display is the proprietor's masterpiece: two traditional ornamental gowns hanging beside a pair of antiquated wooden wheels, beneath two lamps with straw-plaited shades strewn with grass seeds.

Li's business is steady. On a good day he can sell 20 to 30 garments. Most of his customers are foreigners and their Chinese friends and associates. Li is nevertheless troubled that his strongly individualistic designs have been a source of complaint from some customers, who say that in being excessively decorative, his clothes often fail to bring comfort to the wearer. Certain people have asked him to make alterations to suit their particular figures, and some have even come to him with their own designs.

There are still many problems to be addressed regarding traditional-style clothes, including how to adapt them from exclusively formal dress to everyday wear, how to make them fit into the fast tempo of life, and how to mix and match them with other clothes. Such problems will inevitably influence the length of time that traditional clothes remain in vogue.