Ed van der Elsken

"A very nice, nice-looking young woman in the typical local costume, the cheong-san, with that great side split. Everyone wears it, from little girls to grandmothers. I followed this babe around for a while. She knew I was doing it, and didn't like it one bit. Oh well. Gerda discovered (someone told her) that the higher the stiffly starched collar, the more elevated the social position of the wearer - the bluer her blood or the richer her papa. While I'm on the subject of the Cheong-san: the second day we were in Hong Kong, still green as grass, I nearly popped my eyes out looking at those skirts. Had never seen anything like them. So I started taking pictures like crazy of all the women and girls. I was out at the race track, and there they sat in the grandstand, a sight for sore eyes, especially from below, and I was in seventh heaven snapping shots, when all at once a hulk of a man - a flatfoot - loomed up beside me and said in an exceedingly superior English, "You are disturbing the ladies, sir . . ." I nearly got tossed out on my ear." From: Elsken, Ed van der. Sweet Life, Amsterdam: de Bezige Bij, 1966. "Van der Elsken had been following the 'cheong san' clad young lady for a while, snapping pictures of her, flattering her, also irritating her. She quickly disappeared in a rickshaw, but not before I had taken this picture." From: Elsken, Ed van der. 'Hong Kong', Dewi Lewis Publishing, United Kingdom, 1997 "I saw a girl coming towards me from the docks, off the ferry. She looked gorgeous and sexy, to me too - for I still had to get used to the way they dressed. Their dresses with the split skirt are called "cheong-san". I walked along beside her taking pictures - she was a bit peeved, but still, that's life - until I finally had my picture." From: Elsken, Ed van der. 'Once Upon a Time'. Amsterdam: Fragment Uitgeverij, 1992.