This hip-length, sleeveless jacket with a stand-up collar and deep armholes (kanjian) would have been worn over a long robe. This garment style is also known as beixin or jinshen (‘close-fitting), and was popular for men and women from the mid-19th to the early 20th century.
The decoration on this striking example exemplifies the fashion for applied edgings. The bright pink silk is smothered with broad black satin bands, embroidered with fluttering butterflies, and wide turquoise silk ribbons with magenta edges and woven patterns in gold and silver. These embellishments have been laid on the surface with meticulous precision, and secured with tiny, almost invisible stitches.
The gilt brass buttons adorning this jacket were mass-produced in China by the ‘Shunxing Foreign Company’ (順興洋行). Like many of their counterparts, the company was strategic in its domestic production and marketing, having learnt the importance of incorporating designs that reflected traditional Chinese culture.
Gilt metal buttons often featured auspicious motifs that convey a wish for happiness, longevity or fertility. Here, the button depicts five bats encircling the character for longevity (shou). The bat, pronounced fu in Chinese, is a homophone for ‘blessings’, and symbolises the ‘Five Blessings’: long life, wealth, health, love of virtue, and a peaceful death, here with an emphasis on longevity.