A question about qi-loli and showing the proper respect...

I'm sorry if this is a bit of an unusual topic to bring up, but I'm interested in qi-lolita and I'm wondering about showing the proper respect when not only wearing but altering another culture's traditional dress...

I'm going to start by saying I'm sorry if this offends anyone, or if this topic is inappropriate for this community. Mods, please feel free to delete this post if you think it will cause trouble, I do not mind. I'm writing this out of respect, not out of judgement.

I live in a city with a very large chinese population, and many of my friends while growing up were chinese, so I have nothing but the utmost respect for their culture. As a result, I'm a bit wary about sewing and wearing a qi-lolita outfit, being a caucasian woman. I'm not entirely sure if altering a chinese traditional dress and wearing it is going to seem disrespectful, especially since I'd be incorporating it into a Japanese fashion. My boyfriend has spent quite a bit of time in china and his family have strong connections there, and he agrees with me that this is probably something that needs to be dealt with delicately and very respectfully, so I thought I'd pose the discussion here.

I would only wish to wear qi-loli out of my deep respect for thier culture. If I were to attempt it, I'd be sure to do a lot of research into chinese traditional dress and attempt to make all aspects of the outfit show that a lot of time and thought went into making it as genuine as possible while still keeping it lolita. I'd not be wearing it as a costume, but as a part of my daily lolita wardrobe.

I guess my question is, no matter what your background, what is your opinion on altering the traditional dress of another culture, and wearing it when you were not raised in that culture? I suppose this can cover wa-loli as well. Would you personally be offended? Do you think others would? Have you ever had any negative experiences from wearing the traditional clothing of another culture? How about positive experiences?

Thank you to anyone who has some insight or opinions to share on this subject :)