This turquoise cheongsam belongs to Karen Dar Woon, a third-generation Chinese Canadian from Vancouver. From 1978-79, Karen participated in Vancouver Chinatown’s beauty pageant competition with twelve other Chinese Canadian girls. She wore this cheongsam for an evening gown competition in the pageant. Growing up at the tail of the Vietnam war with influences of hippie culture, Karen adopted Western fashion with a slight subculture touch. The beauty pageant was her first time to wear a cheongsam and experience immersive Chinese culture. Like Karen, the postwar generation of Chinese Canadian women often tried on ethnic clothing for the first time on travels, weddings, or other life-changing events. It took lots of courage to wear the cheongsam because the dress declares one’s ethnic identity to the outside world. Thus, the dress became a site for Chinese Canadian women to explore complicated and intangible issues of ethnicity, cultural belonging and representation in the Canadian context.