Push the boundaries：The Evolution of China's Handbags in 1925-1937
Keywords:
Handbag, Chinese fashion, Women, Evolution, HistoryAbstract
The woman’s handbag is a symbolic consumer artifact imbued with multiple layers of meaning. This object reflects and intertwines ideologies, economics, culture, social statuses, and personal identities. However, current academic literature lacks a clear focus on this ubiquitous and meaningful artifact. In China, the early 20th century marked an important turn in the history of Chinese women's clothing, with a shift from wide robes with large sleeves to tight-fitting cheongsams. The cheongsams made it impossible to hide women's belongings,and bags and accessories gradually came to the forefront of people's attention. However, several researchers have identified the historical evolution of Chinese handbags during this period of transformation of the dress phenomenon. Therefore, this study applies the historical research method based on the data of Chinese women's magazines during the period of 1925-1937, aims to clarify the development of Chinese bags during the period of 1925-1937, and to analyze the evolution of the appearance of Chinese bags in the early twentieth century. This study contributes to the Chinese bag history by offering a analysis of its evolution. It serves as a valuable reference for future scholars in this field, enhancing our understanding of the cultural and social significance of Chinese bag history.
References
Ahmad, H. (2021). The changes of Malay women’s fashion clothing in relation to socio-cultural context between 1950s- 1990s (Phd, Universiti Teknologi MARA). Universiti Teknologi MARA. Retrieved from https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/53577/
Blumenthal, E. (2011). Handbag Designer 101: Everything you need to know about designing, making, and marketing handbags. Retrieved from http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB19402656
Chen, H. (2005). The changes of women's consciousness from the changes of women's clothing in modern China. Journal of Shiyan Vocational and Technical College, (1), 39–41.
Fashionary. (2016). Fashionary Bag design: A Handbook for Accessories Designers.
Handbag Market Size, Growth & Trends Report 2031. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.skyquestt.com/report/handbag-market.
H, W., MA. (2023). China’s Hidden Century: 1796–1912. Nineteenth-century Art Worldwide, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.29411/ncaw.2023.22.2.19.
Leung, A. S. (2003). Feminism in transition: Chinese culture, ideology and the development of the women’s movement in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 20, 359–374.
Li, X. (2001). The emergence and development of modern luggage accessories. Accessories, (2), 17–20.
Liu, Y. (2020). Study on the New Enlightenment Clothes and the Comparison of Popularity with Qipao during the Republic of China. Decoration, 2020(1), 80-83. http://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.0412-3662.2020.01.018
Ng, S. (2015). Gender in design: cheongsam and society, 1911-1949. Costume, 49(1), 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1179/0590887614Z.00000000063
Ribeiro, L. S., Miguel, R. A. L., Pereira, M. M. R., Lucas, J. M., & Trindade, I. M. G. (2015). Human body as fashion space: Fashion accessories, design and woven fabrics. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 19(3), 249–257. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-07-2013-0088
Rosenberg, L., Turunen, L. L. M., Järvelä, S.-M., & Arnould, E. (2022). The handbag. Consumption Markets & Culture, 25(2), 187–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2020.1756269
Wang, L., Chen, H., & Xie, H. (2006). A study on the development of Chinese and Western luggage in the context of art design (serial one). China Leather, 35(2), 121–125.
Yan, Y., Fang, H., & Yin, A. (2010). Illustrated Dictionary of Qing Dynasty Court Costumes. Beijing: The Forbidden City Publishing House.
Yang, S. (2004). Traditional Chinese clothing: Costumes, adornments & culture (Vol. 1). Long River Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=lang_en|lang_zh-CN&id=nx5JDiacrH4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Chinese+waist +bag&ots=k6HU9gLGU_&sig=nEicWTzvHsY-HdEsHNQ7hifLaHM
Zhang, X. (2012). Clothing reform and social psychological changes from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. Art Hundred Schools, 28(S1), 61-63+74.
Zhang, X. & Yang, X. (2021). The historical pulse and cultural evolution of the relationship between people and clothing: A study on the fashion trends of women in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Guangdong Social Sciences, (2), 138–146.
Zhu, Y., Wu, C., & Tang, X. (2022). Analysis of the May Fourth Movement on the evolution of women's clothing in the Republic of China. Fashion Guide, 11(3), 29–33.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
