Hey I'm half Chinese and half Vietnamese and I absolutely adore ao dai, cheongsam, and qipao. My mother and I are going to visit Vietnam over the summer and I'm hoping to get a bunch of these but I'm really hesitant. I feel like I would never be able to wear them because I live in the states. Plus I believe my boyfriend(Russian) kinda fetishsizes the thought of my wearing formal Asian wear and it makes me kind of uncomfortable sometimes. He says he's only appreciating the beauty of our culture.
Basically I was asking what I should do, sorry it couldn't fit on the other question thingy ^^;
jsyk, cheongsam and qipao are two terms for the same thing. but if you want any of your traditional dresses, you should feel free to get one. you don't have to wear it in any capacity that makes you feel uncomfortable, however, and if your boyfriend asks you to do so just tell him you don't want to. it doesn't matter if he's "appreciating the beauty of our culture" or whatever, if you're uncomfortable with the idea, you shouldn't feel pressured to do it, and if he's a good person, then he'll respect your decision. as for where you'd wear it, i struggle with this as well, because i'm not comfortable wearing qipao somewhere that's not majority sino, but it's often fun just to put it on or look at it, and it's a nice option for when there's a semiformal to formal event going on.
- a
