Dragon and phoenix
A dragon and a phoenix shown together: the emblems of the emperor and the empress, and at a Chinese wedding the groom and the bride. The pair is embroidered on the red wedding jacket and skirt, the qun kwa.
Meaning
The pairing began at court. The V&A describes a Ming porcelain jar of the Longqing reign (1567–72), made for the imperial household, painted with pairs of phoenixes and five-clawed dragons, and explains that the phoenix stood for the empress and the five-clawed dragon for the emperor. At a wedding the bride was “empress of the day”, the V&A notes, and the dragon and phoenix on her clothes stand for the male and female sides of the marriage. Singapore’s National Heritage Board records the belief that the phoenix and dragon are the perfect couple, yin and yang, and that together they stand for success, prosperity and a happy marriage. A Hong Kong wedding costume of 1964 in the V&A recalls the greeting long feng ji xiang (龍鳳吉祥), “dragons and phoenixes bring auspicious favours”. The pair is worn at Chinese weddings today.
Origin and history
The wedding of the Guangxu emperor in 1889 was painted in an album, The Grand Wedding of the Guangxu Emperor, now in the Palace Museum. On the wedding day the envoys left by the Gate of Supreme Harmony followed by the Dragon Pavilion, which carried the gold album and gold seal for the bride’s appointment as empress, and the empress came to the palace in the Phoenix Palanquin, borne by sixteen men. Brides outside the palace took up the emblems. The V&A’s bridal jacket and skirt of the 1930s, a qun gua, carry a dragon and a phoenix in raised gold embroidery padded with cotton, a technique the museum calls unique to Chaozhou in Guangdong, where it was used for bridal clothes and theatre costumes.
Empress for a day
On a bride’s clothes the phoenix often outnumbers the dragon. A Singapore wedding top of 1959 in the National Heritage Board’s collection has phoenixes predominating, “because it symbolises empress, as the bride is considered the empress on her wedding day”. The jacket of a qun gua was once black, the record notes, but by the mid-twentieth century it was also made red to match the skirt, and so the outfit was also called hong gua, “red jacket”; after the wedding it could be worn again at Chinese New Year.
The kwa in Hong Kong and Singapore
In Hong Kong and Singapore the wedding outfit is called the kwa or kwan kwa. In 1953, the National Heritage Board records, a Singapore bride, Chia Wai Ching, flew to Hong Kong to have her kwa made, embroidered with the dragon and phoenix, and paid HK$800, because tailors in Singapore could not yet make such work. Hong Kong put the sewing techniques of the kwan kwa wedding costume on its first list of intangible cultural heritage in 2017. White wedding dresses are popular now, the V&A notes, but traditional bridal clothes are still worn for the rites before parents and ancestors and at the banquet.
Pearl, double happiness and lotus
The pair is seldom alone. On a bride’s shoes from Hong Kong in the V&A the dragon and phoenix chase a pearl, and the 1964 Hong Kong costume adds the lotus, often a symbol of a new marriage. The character Double happiness (囍) is the other sign of a Chinese wedding.
Read next
- Next in Chinese mythology and symbolsDouble happiness (囍)囍, the character 喜 (xǐ, joy) written twice and joined into one sign, read shuangxi, “double happiness”. It is the sign of a Chinese wedding, pasted on the door and worked into the couple’s gifts and furnishings.
- The same shape in Christmas symbolsSt Nicholas and Santa ClausNicholas, a fourth-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, is the patron saint of children who brings them gifts on his feast, 6 December, as Sinterklaas does in the Netherlands. In New York he became Santa Claus, who brings presents on Christmas Eve.
See also
Flaming pearl, Fenghuang (Chinese phoenix), Qilin, Chinese dragon (long), Guardian lions (foo dogs), Pixiu (bixie).
Sources
- Jar with phoenix and dragons (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, jar painted in underglaze blue with phoenixes and five-clawed dragons, Longqing reign (1567–72), Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
- Bridal ensemble (qun gua) (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, bridal ensemble (qun gua), jacket and skirt, China, 1930s, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
- Wedding outfit, Hong Kong, 1964 (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, wedding outfit for a woman, embroidered silk jacket and skirt, Hong Kong, 1964, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
- A wedding top embroidered with dragon and phoenix motifs (National Heritage Board, Singapore), National Heritage Board, Singapore, Roots.gov.sg collection record 1242573, “A wedding top embroidered with dragon and phoenix motifs”, National Heritage Board, Singapore, object description
- Red phoenix sequin embroidery top worn during wedding dinner, 1959 (National Heritage Board, Singapore), National Heritage Board, Singapore, Roots.gov.sg collection record 1237741, “Red phoenix sequin embroidery top that comes with a skirt worn during wedding dinner”, National Heritage Board, Singapore, object description
- Kwa wedding gown bottom, 1953–54 (National Heritage Board, Singapore), National Heritage Board, Singapore, Roots.gov.sg collection record 1105273, bottom half of a kwa wedding gown made in Hong Kong, 2005-01246, National Heritage Board, Singapore, object description
- First Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Hong Kong announced (Hong Kong Government), Hong Kong SAR Government press release, “First Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Hong Kong announced”, 14 August 2017, Government of the Hong Kong SAR, press release text
- Attend the Grand Wedding of the Guangxu Emperor (The Palace Museum), The Palace Museum, Beijing, “Attend The Grand Wedding of the Guangxu Emperor”, Google Arts & Culture, The Palace Museum, album leaves and captions
- Pair of court shoes for a bride (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, pair of court shoes for a bride, embroidered with a dragon and phoenix, Sun Sun Shoes Factory, Hong Kong, 1940–70, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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