The Beautiful Needlwork of the Miao

I have selected just a few of the 500 some photos I took while on a trip to China in 1996. I tried to capture needlework, children and faces most of all, as well as people at work. Today I will begin sharing some of the needlework and folkart I photographed.



Mother and child from Dragon Back Village on the outskirts of Guiyang. Hats have a very special meaning among the Miao, especially the hats the babies wear for their hats are for protection from bad spirits as well as to bring them good luck.

Of the three spring festivals that we "attended", only the 3rd one (the Sister's Meal Festival in Shidong) was actually taking place in "real" time. The other two had already had their spring festivals and were simply being paid to "re-enact' parts of it for us.

It was at the 2nd village (Langde) that I actually saw a number of women standing around the edge of the crowd with needlework in their hands stitching away. This was very exciting indeed! It was also in Langde that my photos of my pregnant daughter-in-law and my daughter in her bridal dress created such a stir among the women.
(Click on the photo to enlarge it so that you can see the details on their clothing and the scarves on their heads. These are what I came to call the "towel" scarves.)


I will share the photos of the women of Langde stitching as well as the costumes of that particular Miao people in my next report.

Meanwhile, I have given you some reading resources at the end of this blog if you are interested in learning more about the Hmong and Miao people as well as other minority groups in that area of the world. They seem to do a precarious balancing act of maintaining their own ways within the larger Han culture of China. It also should be noted that, according to Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD, Director, Hmong Resource Center, Saint Paul, MN, "studies of Miao in China sometimes but do not always refer to Hmong. Hmong are one of at least four major ethnic groups classified as Miao in China. Others groups include the Kho Xiong, the Hmu and the A Hmao."


I have only read reviews of the books listed below, not the actual books themselves, although I now have three on order. The last two books on the list have some very interesting comments by Hmong people now living in the USA. You can see by their comments that even among themselves, they do not agree on what the name "Hmong" means. Some even resent the use of the word "Miao". Trying to study another culture, especially one that has undergone as much disruption as the ethnic minorities of Southeast Asia and Southwestern and Northwestern China is always a very complex challenge.


In one article I read George J. Leonard writes that the Chinese created some 55-70 categories for the Hmong/Miao people and required them to wear certain costumes so as to segregate them and easily tell them apart. There are many sub-groups generally named after hair styles or their regional costumes.

According to Leonard, the Hmong still use this system today. Here is a short list from a couple different sources: Blue Hmong, White Hmong, Striped Hmong, the Four Seals Miao, Flower Miao, the Side-Comb Miao, Short Skirt Miao, Wengxian Miao (well known for their decorated pieces of folded ribbon), the Biasha Miao. I recommend this link to Leonard's long article on the Hmong Story Cloths as well as his other articles on various aspects of Chinese culture.







It is a tradtion to take a sip of rice wine before entering the village at festival time. If you don't really want to partake, then you extend a simple courtesy bow and move on. However, I figured nothing could survive in alchohol so potent, so I took a little tiny sip. Whew! Potent stuff indeed!














Their pleated skirts are perfect for dancing!






This one is now missing a few stitches. It sure would be interesting to have been able to ask more detailed questions, but with only one translator available, it was hard to get much information.







The color contrast is brilliant.





(Click on a photograph and you can enjoy more detail.)
























While taking the train from Guiyang to Kaili the next day, our group encountered two Miao women headed for Kaili also. We were drawn to their hair-do and head bands and asked to take photos.









Within minutes, they left and came hurrying back with two huge backpacks full of antique textiles. These were the first we had seen and we all got very excited. Bargaining began in ernest.



Then a conductor discovered what the two entrepreneurs were up to and put a stop to it. We had not realized that buying and selling was not allowed on the trains!


Apparently everything about the way the Miao dress, wear their hair or wrap a scarf has meaning and helps identify which village or tribe each belongs to. These two particular women are wearing what I perceived as more traidtional head wraps. However, in some villages the women appear to now be using colorful factory made terrycloth towels in the place of their traditional handwoven or handworked scarves.




Here are a couple of the baby hats they had in their stash.













BABY HATS


The various hats we saw in all villages have special meaning. I wish I could explain each one to you, but that is a daunting task to research. I do know it is especially important that babies wear certain types of hats to protect them from bad spirits or to bring them good luck. Here is one website where you will find interesting information about the Miao needlework. How reliable the information is, I do not know. I have discovered in my short exploration of this subject that there are many conflicting opinions within this field.



















This is the antique textile market our two new friends from the train were hurrying to once they got off the train. We accidentally stumbled upon the market later in the day and were thrilled to have the opportunity to browse and shop more... At least we women were.










Here is a link to a book on textiles of the Miao people.



The study of the origin of the terms "Miao" or "Hmong" can be pretty daunting for the lay person.

According to Yuepheng L. Xiong in Chinese Odyssey: Summer Program Offers Students Rare Opportunity to Learn Hmong History in China


...the term 'Miao" appeared in the Chinese Classics and early historical records such as the 'Zhanguo ce' ("Intrigues of the Warring States") and the "Shiji' ("Records of the Historians).   After the Han Dynasty in 220 A.D., "Miao" disappeared from historical records until the Song Dynasty (A.D. 947-1279). The reason for the mysterious disappearance remains unclear. Scholars seem to agree that the Hmong had gone through numerous dreadful periods in history in which the term 'Miao" also underwent some changes....Whether the ancient Miao are today's Miao is debatable among scholars. How did the term "Miao' or 'Hmong" come into being? Although the term 'Miao" appeared in Chinese historical records, the term 'Hmong' never did. What did they call themselves back then, "Hmong or 'Miao?'. The answer to this question varied from region to region."


Read my first China post below and stay tuned for more photos of the women and their needlework!

Comments or questions? Contact Karen Alexander by clicking here.

Interesting article about Miao immigration patterns within the USA - http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/551-hmong-immigrants.html 

READING LIST:

I have only read reviews of these books not the actual books themselves. The last two books on the list have some very interesting comments by Hmong people now living in the USA. I found all of these titles via amazon.com.

(1) Miao Textiles from China (Fabric Folios)
by Gina Corrigan.
Gina Corrigan has been visting the country regularly since 1973 and during this time has developed a special interest in researching and collecting Miao textiles. She recently organized a fascinating BP showcase exhibition of these with the British Museum. She is author and photographer of the Odyssey Illustrated Guide to Guizhou and lives in Sussex.





(2) Click here to see One Needle, One Thread
by Tomoko Torimaru
Publisher: University of Hawaii Art Gallery; 1st edition (September 1, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1607021730
ISBN-13: 978-1607021735

(3) Minority Rules: The Miao and the Feminine in China’s Cultural Politics (Body, Commodity, Text)
by Louisa Schein
Publisher: Duke University Press (March 2000)
ISBN-10: 082232444X or ISBN-13: 978-0822324447

(4) The Art of Ethnography: A Chinese "Miao Album" (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China)
David Michael Deal (Translator), Laura Hostetler (Introduction)









(One of the pieces someone in our group bought on the train to Kaili.)

(5) Calling In The Soul: Gender And The Cycle Of Life In A Hmong Village
~ Patricia V. Symonds (Author)

(6) The Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities)
By George Leonard

(7) Hmong/Miao in Asia ~ International Workshop on the Hmong (Author), Miao (Author), Nicholas Tapp (Author), Christian Culas (Editor), Gary Yia Lee (Editor)










(Early Miao festival jacket as seen while I was in Southwestern China in 1996.)


(8) Other Chinas: The Yao and the Politics of National Belonging
by Ralph A. Litzinger
Publisher: Duke University Press (November 2000)
ISBN-10: 0822325497 or ISBN-13: 978-0822325499

(9) Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China)
by Stevan Harrell
Publisher: University of Washington Press (April 2002)
ISBN-10: 0295981237 or ISBN-13: 978-0295981239

(10) Hmong in Minnesota (People of Minnesota)
by Chia Vang

(11) For some Hmong Means Free
~ Sucheng Chan (Editor)

(12) Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992
by Jane Hamilton-Merritt's









(Another festival jacket I captured on film in 1996.)

Miscs:

(1) Hmong around the world -
(2) Hmong Textiles, Clothing and Storycloths
Compiled by Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD

(3) Report onConsumers of Hmong Textiles

(4) Michigan State University https://msupress.org/9780944311028/stories-in-thread/ Stories in Thread and A Guide for Teachers

(5) Minnesota State University student newsletter What is Hmong?

(6) Blog post photos from Tongue in Cheek

(7) Ancient Origins pf the Hmong Blog story

(8) added April 2017 - http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/551-hmong-immigrants.html

Grandchildren and Their Quilts

The first grandchild! What a thrill!

Quilt made by his great grandmother, Wini Waters Alexander.

Here I am in a small village near Gui Yang in southwestern China, Guizhou Province, the spring of 1996 sharing a photo of my son and his very pregnant wife Taryn.



We were there to photograph the Spring Festivals of the various Miao people, the 2nd largest ethnic group in the region. Here are two interesting websites. One looks to be an offical Chinese government explanation of the ethnic peoples. The other was created by refugees in the USA. Interesting to compare and contrast their points of view.

Everywhere I shared the photos of my daughter-in-law, the women exclaimed and giggled to one another. They could relate. It was an instant ice-breaker. I also shared photos of my daughter in her wedding dress which they also seemed to understand and get excited about, though none of us could understand the language of the other.

Knowing our first grandhcild would be born while we were in China, we had given our intinerary to our children before we left. But trying to track us down was not easy.

Wednesday May 1, 1996, found us packing to catch a train to Kaili. At 6am when we went downstairis for an early breakfast, we learned we had a fax from our daughter in Seattle. The fax was almost 48 hours old! No one at the hotel had sought us out when it came in. Someone else in our party happened to go to the office looking for a fax she was expecting and saw the fax addressed to us! We had been expecting a phone call, not a fax.

Our daughter-in-law in New Orleans was in labor! Oh my! The baby had surely already been born yet there was no second fax! Someone suggested that perhaps the communication service had sent a second fax to the next hotel. No way could we wait until we reached the next hotel! We tried to call New Orleans for an hour but could not get thru.

Just minutes before we had to leave the hotel for the train station, we got thru to our son and learned the wonderful news! We had a grandson! Gary snapped a photo of me on the phone in the hotel crying while I was talking with our son. Ah, I was now a Grandma! By the time we got on the bus, everyone had heard the news and cheered as we boarded!

A year later after our daughter's son Conner was born in New Orleans, it was time to choose my "grandma name".
I always knew I wanted to select my own grandma name. I wanted it to be easy for them to pronounce and also meaningful and unique to me. It came to me as I was reading a small book.

Written and illustrated with beautiful photographs from the author's trips to China and East Asia, it was a book about mothers from around the world and their small children. The woman author happen to be from Falls Church, Virginia. I lived but 5 miles from her. I cannot remember her name now so I will call her Susan. Her name is probably in my journal from those years but those journals are still packed away since our last move.

A baby was born the night Susan arrived in a rural village in southwestern China. It was a home where she had stayed before and she had become friends with the family. The birth was what we quaintly call a "natural childbirth at home" in our culture. Her friend did not say she was in labor when Susan arrived and, to Susan who was not a mother yet, her friend was not behaving like she imagined a laboring woman would behave.

Exhausted from her travedls, Susan fell asleep in her room and didn't hear a peep throughout the night from the laboring friend. In the morning there sat her friend by the fire with a new baby in her arms.

The name of the grandmother who had come to assist the daughter at the birth was Mingma. I had found my grandma name! Mingma!

What a perfect fit the name was. It was an easy name for a baby to pronounce; I was in China when my first grandchild was born; and I had all three of my children at home by "natural childbirth".

Stay tuned for the story of how I learned what my "grandma name" meant!

Comments or questions? Contact Karen Alexander by clicking here.

Printed Textiles 1740-1890

Studying the fabrics in early cotton clothing is a great way to see what was available for quilting during any given time periods.


Click on the following link Identifying Printed Textiles in Dress 1740-1890. Then click on RESOURCES in the bar at the top of the page that opens. You will be presented with three free booklets to download as pdf files. In addition to the one on Printed Textiles in Dress, there is one on lace and another on woven textiles.


What better way to become familiar with what was available for quilt-making than by studying old sample books and antique clothing costumes from earlier eras. (Click on any photo in my blog to see a larger version.)


Below we are visiting the Museum of Printed Textiles (Musee de L'Impression sur Etoffes) in Mulhouse, France in September 2006 while on one of Deb Robert's fabulous Textile Study Tours.


To read about the birth of European textile design, click here. I highly recommend Deb's tours if you want to study textiles. She has another one to the U.K.coming up next June.





Click here for a new blog site for tracking textile exhibits in the U.K.

Enjoy exploring!

Design Influences Upon Quilts

There are a lot of exicted quilt historians and quilters looking forward to the March 20 -July 4, 2010 quilt exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London! From their PR: The V&A will present its first ever exhibition of British quilts, with examples dating from 1700 to the present day - a unique opportunity to view the V&A's unseen quilt collection as well as key national loans. Click and bookmark this link to keep updated about the details.

The V&A has recently published an extensivie research paper on a particular aspect of patchwork history: DOING TIME: PATCHWORK AS A TOOL OF SOCIAL REHABILITATION IN BRITISH PRISONS by Claire Smith Research Assistant CLICK HERE to read it.


My First Visit to the V&A
in 2007 was an Awesome Experience

I would even say the experience boarded on overwhelming. There was so much to see and absorb just in textiles alone. One of the many things I enjoyed about this visit was seeing examples of ancient designs that appear repeatedly in American quilting but have thier roots in the older Near and Far East.

I have loved ikat since my first visit to Asia when I was a teenager. This piece is not that old but it defintiely reminds me of an American quilt patern. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.



The above piece is a woven cloth patterned by selectively resist-dyeing the yarns before weaving. It is in the V&A collection and is loosley dated about 1850-1900. The pattern emerges as the cloth is woven. This technique is known as kasuri in Japan and ikat in South-East Asia. Does the alternate block resemble the Hole in the Barn quilt pattern to you?

Needlework from a woman's smock about 1630 England. Doesn't this remind you of late 18th century redwork?





Talk about exquisite patchwork! This Chinese garment shimmered.



(Photos are from my visit to the V&A in 2007.)

A Quilt Index Update

PRESS RELEASE

IOWA QUILTS ON QUILT INDEX

DES MOINES, IOWA, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA and EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN -May 8, 2009 - The Quilt Index, a partner project of the Alliance for American Quilts and Michigan State University, announces the public launch of an online resource cataloging nearly 2,300 quilts by 2,100 quiltmakers from Iowa, including quilts and other textiles collected by one of the leaders in quilt documentation.

This is the 8th state or regional documentation project to be added to the Quilt Index, and one of the largest. The Iowa quilts bring the total number of quilt records available at the online archive to more than 21,000, including quilts from museum and private collections. The Iowa quilts are a treasure to everyone from scholars to quiltmakers, covering many familiar patterns like Drunkard’s Path, Log Cabin and Irish Chain, as well as some unusual variations and original designs.

The Iowa Quilt Research Project was established in September 1987 to seek out and register Iowa quilts made prior to 1925 and record their history and makers. More than 500 volunteers staffed Quilt Discovery Days in 13 regions around the state.

While recording information about cultural, historical and ethnic influences on quiltmaking in Iowa, the Iowa Quilt Research Project increased awareness of the value of quilts and encouraged quilt preservation. The resulting body of information was presented to the State Historical Society of Iowa in 1990 for preservation and to make it accessible to a wider audience.

An inductee into The Quilters Hall of Fame, Mary Barton of Ames, Iowa, is recognized as one of the first to document not only finished quilts, but also the methods, manners and social mores of mid-19th century quiltmakers.

Her desire to collect, understand and share has resulted in one of the most comprehensive collections of quilts, quilt blocks, fabric swatches, magazines, fashion plates and costumes ever assembled and donated to public institutions.

Nearly 200 textiles from her collection are recorded in the Quilt Index, including her own Heritage Quilt (pictured below), which was exhibited at the 1999 International Quilt Festival in the “Quilt Show of the Century”.

Within the Index archives, Mary Barton’s collection is filed first and it’s worth browsing through to see what a keen eye she had for quilts. The three quilts shown here are all part of her marvelous collection. Both “Crossed Canoes,” the blue and white quilt (pictured above), and “Spider Web” (pictured below), were produced by unknown quiltmakers, and their beauty reinforces the sadness of lost history. The impressive appliqued Heritage Quilt was both designed and sewn by Mary Barton, completed in 1976. The full documentation for this quilt includes this information about the quiltmaker: “Mary Barton did not actually enjoy quilting - her interest was in the history of creating quilts.”

The State Historical Society of Iowa is pleased to partner with Michigan State University, the Alliance for American Quilts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services on the Quilt Index

“The Quilt Index brings Iowa’s quilting heritage to a national level, as well as allows us to share the wealth of the Mary Barton Collection with the greater quilting community,” said Jodi Evans, project manager and registrar for the State Historical Museum in Iowa.

Iowa’s initial participation in the Quilt Index will be supplemented with the addition of information and images of quilts held in the collection of the State Historical Society of Iowa.

The Quilt Index is run in partnership by the Alliance for American Quilts, Michigan State University Museum, and MATRIX - The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences at Michigan State University. The Quilt Index merges tradition with technology and springs from the work of a unique team of researchers and experts committed to making significant, quilt-related data widely accessible to both scholars and the general public.

Applications to become Quilt Index contributors are now being accepted from institutions or quilt documentation projects, with a deadline of May 31, 2009. Information and application materials can be found at: http://www.quiltindex.org/collections.php.

Contact:
Amy E. Milne, Executive Director
(828) 251-7073
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org

Fabric Acquisition Team

Well, That Explains it!

A recent study has indicted that fabric gives off a certain Pheromones that actually hypnotize women and cause them to purchase ungodly amounts of the stuff. When stored in large quantities in enclosed spaces, the Pheromones (in fabric) cause memory loss and induce the nesting syndrome (similar to the one squirrels have before the onset of winter, i.e. storing food), therefore perpetuating their species, and not having a population loss due to their kind being cut up into pieces and mixed with others.

Sound tests have also revealed that these fabrics emit a very high-pitched sound, heard only by a select few — a breed of women known as "quilters". When played backward on an LP, the sounds are heard as chants: "Buy me, cut me up, sew me?"

In order to overcome the co-called "feeding" frenzy effect" that these fabrics cause, one must wear a face mask when entering a storage facility and use ear plus to avoid being pulled into their grip.

Studies have also indicated that aliens have inhabited the earth, helping to spread the effect that these fabrics have on their human population. They are called FABRIC STORE CLERKS.





Card by Amy Bradley (2002) Amy Bradley Designs




It's also been my experience that these same Pheromones cause a pathological need to secret these fabric purchases away when taken home (or at least blend them into the existing stash), and when asked by a significant other of the fabric is new, the reply is "I've had it for awhile."

(Originally published in August 1997 in the Western North Carolina Quilters Guild Newsletter.)

I found the above article in my mother-in-law's file after she passed away in 1999. She left all her sewing stuff and quilts to me. Talk about a match made in heaven. I now know I was destined to meet my husband so that I would one day meet his mother. She's the one who taught me needlework and got me into quilting.



June 2012 - I just heard from the author of this article!! wonderful! Now I know who actually wrote it - Kathy Smith Harris! You can read Kathy's story about how she came to write this story on her blog http://www.barkingdogsquilting.com/



My friend Candy Midkiff in her "stash room".






(Photo taken by Karen Alexander)>

Fabric Acquisition Team at International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2005, L-R: Ruth Manny (TX), Lea Manny (TX) and Cecile Manny (OR). What a great excuse for getting sisters together! What a hoot these three were! I just had to stop them and take their picture and get their names.

Virginia Avery's Art Clothing

Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims started filming a series of interviews for TQS of those whom they select as Quilt Legends. Their first two choices (Jinny Avery and Jinny Beyer) also happen to be Honorees of TQHF.

Ricky and Alex go right into the homes of both Jinny Avery and Jinny Beyer and film them on the spot. You will enjoy seeing these two Honorees in their own environment.

Below are a couple of photos of Jinny Avery at her TQHF Induction exhibit walk-thru in July 2006 in Marion, IN.

Photo by Amanda Little














Jinny Avery inspects Come to the Cabaret.




















Right: Bog Coat Goes to a Party

Honoree Bets Ramsey is to the right in blue in the crowd below. Bets just received the Governor's Distinguished Artist Award from the State of Tennessee. See that story here on the hall of fame blog. You'll have to scroll down to see it or select it from the drop down menu under the April post on the TQHF blog.

(page from "Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilts", Feb 1997, article by Jinny Avery)




But back to the TQS Quilt Legends video series.

The Avery interview is included when you purchase Series One from The Quilt Show and the Jinny Beyer interview is included when you purchase Series Three.

These interviews can be viewed by joining TQS or can be purchased as a series by going to the TQS Shoppe website page.

Another wonderful source of video interviews of both Jinny Avery and Jinny Beyer are the interviews conducted by The Alliance for American Quilts Quilt Treasures project. When this page opens, look in the right-hand corner and click on the pull down Portraits menu and select the person whose interview you would like to watch.

Seven other Honorees are also featured in The Alliance for American Quilts Quilt Quilt Treasures: Cuesta Benberry; Joyce Gross; Jean Ray Laury;Bonnie Leman; Yvonne Porcella; Bets Ramsey and Mary Schafer. Do watch all of them! It's great quilt history!

Quilt Treasures is just one of many wonderful projects of The Alliance for American Quilts. Click on any of the links on the left side of their web pages to explore more information about their various projects.

New Series of TQHF Honoree Articles on TQS!

In January The Quilt Show (Alex Anderson/Ricky Tims-TQS) invited The Quilters Hall of Fame to do a series of articles about the Honorees of TQHF and I volunteered to take on the series. They call it their Quilt Pioneers Series. You can always find a link to the series on my blog.

(If you click on the photos, they will open to a larger format.)

Click here to go to TQS, then look in the right hand corner of the page that opens for the box that says "select a category". Click on that. A menu will open and give you a list. Select "Quilting Pioneers" from the menu to see all the articles about the Honorees.

To date I have written about Florence Peto (Jan), Ruth Finley (Feb) and Dr. William R. Dunton (March).

I am very grateful for this opportunity to share the stories of the early pioneers of quilt history with a broader public and hope you will visit the TQS website to check them out.

Until next time, keep thos needles flying!

Karen on the Rock