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WANRONG at Japanese Embassy after expulsion from Forbidden City, with a Caucasian and Japanese woman. Courtesy of Prof. Wang, JSSI. Forbi ty I Adjacent: CHANGYI, late Qing, richly embroidered with figural ribbons.ural Below: FEMALE STUDENT wearing man's long scholar's robe, circa 1921. Illustration by famed artist Cheng Shifa. Both images courtesy of Nadidongtang, San Francisco. ra rbboo s.. be, circ all rib ns. robe ess courte rca r sy of f Britain and the Qing dynasty of China. China was forced to open five treaty ports for trading: Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai. Hence this ended China's isolation from the rest of the world and allowed for the flood of Western textiles into China. This included everything from woolen broadcloths to fancy silk braids. Towards the late nineteenth century, both Chinese and Manchu women's gowns were lavishly decorated on the main body of the garment as well as on the trimmings. An impressive example of this is a late Qing dynasty (before 1911) Manchu woman's domestic semiformal robe or changyi (long robe) in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Here the side vents end with a ruyi head at the waist which allows the contrasting colors of the undergarments to show. Another richly embroidered example is an informal robe in the Naidongtang Collection of San Francisco with elaborate figural ribbons. Garments applied with trimmings that were richly embellished with embroidery of various width and silk figural ribbons could reach up to eighteen rows. During the 1911 revolution to overthrow imperial rule, there was enough anti- Manchu violence to convince the Manchus to start dressing themselves in the same way as the Han Chinese. It would be the democratic revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen which would bring the end to the Qing dynasty. Revolutionaries, Western missionaries and businesses began to establish schools for girls to provide an educational and unprecedented opportunity for women. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 sparked a higher calling among China's new generation of the intellectual elite to 'save' China by strengthening and reviving the country. In the early 1920s, under the influence of female students from overseas as well as those from local missionary schools, urban women began to accept the so-called wen ming xin zhuang or civilized new attire which generally constituted a black ankle length skirt or long vest and a hip length top with trumpet-shaped sleeves. In 1924, two years after their wedding, Puyi and Wanrong were expelled from the Forbidden City. A photograph of Wanrong taken at the Japanese Embassy after she was expelled from the Forbidden City exemplified an example of this style. After Puyi was forced out of the Forbidden City by the warlord Feng Yuxiang in 1924, he fled with Wanrong and the remaining imperial court to Tientsin (the modern-day Tianjin), southeast of Peiping or known today as Beijing. Located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and Peiho River connecting Beijing to the Bohai Bay, Tianjin is one of the premier ports of northern China. Between 1895 to 1900, the foreign presence of international settlements from Great Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium, and the United States played a major influence in the modernization of Tientsin. Forb dbiddeb d n CCn ityy, W g,Wanng JSSSS I. 61 ORNAMENT 35.5.2012