Before the ao dai, what did Vietnamese woman wear to make themselves beautiful ?
A Vietnamese folk verse tells us: Three young girls carry baskets of rice on their heads to the pagoda, But the girl wearing the beautiful yem bra charms the monk. Another folk verse tells of a girl who nourishes the following hope: If only the river could be as wide as the span of my hand And my yem’s ribbon, a bridge for you to come see me. The wood carvings at some communal houses built during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries show young female dancers wearing Vietnamese yem that vaguely show the outline of their surging, beautiful breasts. In a traditional cheo opera, Thi Mau likes to flirt with men. One day after returning from the village pagoda, she gives her servant a provocative “No:” The spring wind has lifted my peach yem, You saw the rice-cake cones beneath, Why not come light the incense? In the old days, when a boy fell in love with a girl and wanted her to consider his love, he would touch her hand. She communicated acceptance of his love by allowing him to touch
