Generally speaking, Beijing is a backward-looking metropolis but Shanghai is an open and extraversive one. Since the later period of 19th century, Shanghai has been the fashion center in China.

During the ruling period of Kuomintang, the fashionable dress developed in a more expansive space thanks to the liberalization of thought, disengagement of diversity of feudalistic limitations and the combination of the latter-day technology and traditional techniques. Roughly those women from different walks of life led the trend of fashion in later Qing Dynasty in Shanghai. Subsequently, those fashionable youth studying abroad returned or those students in foreign firms and churches both show more mixture of western style and Chinese style from their garments. During the ruling period of Kuomintang, the costumes of Shanghai paid more attention to the quality and texture of raw materials. The more expensive of the garment material, the more stable and conservative the costume styles were.

The typical instance is cheongsam, and it could well match with variety of garments and accouterment like exquisite and delicate fans. It seems that Chinese culture is closely connected with fans, to some extent; fans could symbolize some parts of Chinese culture in sentiments and temperament. The literators like carrying a fan for releasing his cultivation, education and identity, and it is more obvious in Hangzhou and Suzhou. In latter-day Shanghai, the ladies liked to make use of them to show their elegance, nobleness and mystery under the foil of enchanting cheongsams. The drama, Lady Windermere's Fan written by Oscar Wilde, a well-renowned playwright for his slogan Art for Art’s Sake, was the rage in Shanghai at that time. The whole story centralized a fan all the time. Hence the fans in the hands of ladies became the bridges for the Sino-foreign cultural communications.

The essential things, the noble Mmes of ranks and fashion, carried when they planed to attend for party generally were smelling salts and fans. On the other hand, under the influence of the western thought, a series of fashionable articles for use appeared. In the last century, due to the impact of earlier women’s liberation movement and western culture, the Shanghai’s women began to show their figures in the public and break through the bondage of Chinese convention. Meanwhile, the fashionable dress in Shanghai changed dramatically. They started to wear high-heel shoes and the costumes releasing the legs. Women began to form the consciousness of sexiness, the sexy dress and makeup indicated the rising movement of women liberation. Women were liberated from the trifles of family and dared to cut the bob, and then women wearing high-heel shoes and silk stockings walked out of houses. From the angle of aesthetics, the female fashion is upholding personality but the mainstream of the aesthetics at that time is inclined to similarity or sameness with the typical characteristics of that time.

Owing to the impingement of western culture, The Sino-foreign fashion naturally becomes the pivot of the fad and popularity. The women at that time are brave in pursuing the beauty and daring to try the new-type dress but meanwhile they were also weak in having their own ideas. Whatever it was welcome, and no matter whether it is suitable or not, they also temerariously pursued the beauty by the standard and judgment of the public. In fact this pursuit indeed led lots of pains and negativeness to their health. For instance, picturing the eyebrow with carbon and curling hairs by the clamps with high temperature. Because of the aesthetic similarity and standardization, they pursued the beauty or fashion blindly and irrationally, there was a poet said women just could decorate her brainless head with clamps. Moreover, they adopted to put the powder on the face for so-called beauty just because of their misunderstanding on what is the real beauty.

By contrast, modern women are brilliant to choose those suits their flavors and tastes rather than adopt to the mainstream and others’ introduction. They are wise enough to judge what beauty is. After all, the ladies’ choice and preference in a period is a mirror to release the tendency of fashion. We indeed could find the characteristics of fashion in different time. As for the gentlemen’s choices in clothes, amusements and habits mostly are apt to westernization other than some basic characteristics of Chinese traditions. Moreover, due to the civilians’ different likes and dislikes, we can see the peoples wearing different costumes with diversity of colors, sizes, and baldrics. Shanghai’s fashion from people’s selections totally shows its culture and concinnity.