(ran into this issue when trying to tag post #4606065 with Kagura in it.)
We have the China_dress loanword borrowed from Japanese to describe a specific type of Chinese (Manchu-Han hybrid) female garment, specifically either the qipao or cheongsam. Most taggers know how to use this tag, and the Japanese usage of the word "China dress" (チャイナドレス) will usually agree with what Chinese and English-speaking people would call a qipao or cheongsam (or "Chinese dress").
The problem is that qipao/cheongsam aren't limited to just dress-like garments (i.e. the 'classic' knee-high with long side slits one), and can also include those that are unambiguously shirts, which are often worn in combination with a skirt or pants. Examples include the worn by Kagura in like post #4606065, and nearly all of the Hong_Meiling china_dress posts. The Meiling ones are almost always a 'qipao'* vest + skirt combo (with pants and a ruffled Western dress shirt worn underneath).
*Sometimes it's a "magua" jacket/vest, but we currently don't distinguish.
This implication causes all the non-dress examples to be erroneously tagged "dress".
Despite the name, the china_dress tag is often also used for qipao vests and shirts like that worn by Hong Meiling (qipao vest + skirt, worn over a Western dress shirt). This leads to all sorts of things that are not dresses (usually shirt + pants or shirt + skirt combos) to be erroneously tagged dress.
I think it'd be a better idea removing the shirt posts from the china_dress tag and have a new tag to cover the cheongsam-style blouses/shirts instead of making China Dress a catchall tag.
Info from wikipedia on the terminology
As English loanwords, both "cheongsam" and "qipao" describe the same type of tight-fitting Chinese dress worn by women, and the words could be used interchangeably.[3]
The term "cheongsam" is a romanization of Cantonese word chèuhngsāam (長衫; 'long shirt/dress'), which comes from the Shanghainese term zansae. In Cantonese and Shanghainese, the term is used to describe a Chinese dress popularized in Shanghai. However, in Mandarin Chinese and other varieties of Chinese, chángshān (長衫) refers to an exclusively male garment, and the female version is known as the qípáo.
In Hong Kong, where many Shanghainese tailors fled after the communist revolution of 1949, the word chèuhngsāam became gender-neutral, referring to both male or female garments. The word "qipao" (keipo) became a more formal term for the female chèuhngsāam. Usage of the term "cheongsam" in Western countries mostly followed the original Cantonese meaning and applies to the dress worn by women only.
I think it'd be a better idea removing the shirt posts from the china_dress tag and have a new tag to cover the cheongsam-style blouses/shirts instead of making China Dress a catchall tag.
Info from wikipedia on the terminology
As English loanwords, both "cheongsam" and "qipao" describe the same type of tight-fitting Chinese dress worn by women, and the words could be used interchangeably.[3]
The term "cheongsam" is a romanization of Cantonese word chèuhngsāam (長衫; 'long shirt/dress'), which comes from the Shanghainese term zansae. In Cantonese and Shanghainese, the term is used to describe a Chinese dress popularized in Shanghai. However, in Mandarin Chinese and other varieties of Chinese, chángshān (長衫) refers to an exclusively male garment, and the female version is known as the qípáo.
In Hong Kong, where many Shanghainese tailors fled after the communist revolution of 1949, the word chèuhngsāam became gender-neutral, referring to both male or female garments. The word "qipao" (keipo) became a more formal term for the female chèuhngsāam. Usage of the term "cheongsam" in Western countries mostly followed the original Cantonese meaning and applies to the dress worn by women only.
Ideally I would agree. Spin off a new cheongsam_shirt tag. Possibly also alias cheongsam_shirt to "cheongsam_top" to cover weird examples like cut-down qipaos that resemble crop tops and tube tops. But that would require far more effort disambiguating it from china_dress, as well as periodic gardening to remove mistagged examples that look like a "cheongsam-dress"/"china dress" (Meiling's may superficially resemble one if one doesn't notice the waist 'line' or undershirt). Plus stuff that are tagged チャイナドレス on Pixiv/Nico and get autotranslated and suggested when uploading.
So I thought that the simplest way was to just remove the dress implication to reflect current usage (as an unfortunate 'catch-all' tag that includes things that aren't actually dresses). But, ideally, yes, I would rather have a new tag for those instead of lumping everything under china_dress.
Edit: On a side note, after looking around, there is also the related tangzhuang tag, which describes what Saotome Ranma and Miyako Yoshika wears. Though Meiling's default 'jacket' doesn't fit (despite the somewhat similar frogging style on the front) because it doesn't have the straight collar. And things like Kagura's shirt on post #4606065 with the characteristic side-stitching are definitely qipao and not tangzhuang.
Since the vote has been overwhelming negative so far (and unlikely to go through in the near future), I'm going to do a slight edit of the China dress wiki instead to 'band-aid' patch this issue for now.
I would agree it would be better to make something like cheongsam shirt and to reserve China dress for actual dresses. When I think of China dress, I think of the "classic" one-piece qipao/cheongsam-style dress. If it has pants or otherwise isn't a dress, then I would probably just tag it as Chinese clothes, not China dress.
The last time I checked, it was difficult to categorize a lot of Chinese clothes, since "traditional" clothing like the tangzhuang or qipao are really more of a modernized version of traditional clothing. Then it gets reinterpreted by fan artists and made into something even less traditional (see all the china dresses with cleavage cutouts, or Sirius's breast curtains). IIRC the reason we call it a China dress and not a qipao or cheongsam is to include these kinds of modernized dresses that aren't traditional clothing.
