At the mention of Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) costumes, the first image that comes into people's mind is men's long 
robes and mandarin jackets as well as women's gowns - with loose-bodied waistline in early time and then gradually tight waistline matched with a waistcoat outside becoming more popular. In fact, these impressions are not sufficient enough to represent the costume image of the Qing Dynasty, which spans nearly three hundred years in Chinese history.
Manchu people's life environment, production mode and life style had changed dramatically since they crossed the Great Wall from Northeast, settled in the middle land of China, took control of the national power and founded the Qing Dynasty. Manchu traditional costumes, which are designed to facilitate riding and shooting, are very different from the Han nationality's costumes. In order to exterminate the Han people's national consciousness, the rulers of the Qing Dynast forbid the Hah people to wear Han costumes with strict order and forced them to take off their dajin (a style of clothes which button to the left and with overlapping front garment pieces) coats and put on Manchu collarless duijin (a style of clothes with buttons in the middle) coats.
One thing that irritated the Han people the most was the order to shave the forehead and leave a big pigtail at the back of the head according to the Manchu' tradition. Many Hah people who insisted on the Ming's customs of wearing square scarf and refused to shave their hair were killed. And this arouse great discontentment among the Hans, so rebellions took place in some places. This situation of severe rivalry forced the Qing government to adopt some relevant transient policies to ease up the governing crisis caused by the hair shaving and costumes change. Costumes of men, government officials, adults, Confucian scholars, prostitutes must follow the Manchu tradition; while women, yanmen runners, youngsters, children, monks, Taoists, and the costumes used in theater, funeral, wedding might follow the Han tradition. As a result, from the beginning to the midterm years of the Qing Dynasty, Manchu women differed greatly from the Han women in hairstyles, clothes and shoes.
