Research
Chinese Beadwork Research
Sometimes the received wisdom on a particular topic is incorrect. For years I was advised by many people, among them curators, scholars, and dealers, that “there is no beadwork in China.” Thanks to my mother and her interest in all things Chinese, I grew up in a house filled with modest examples of Chinese decorative art worked in materials including cinnabar, jade, mother-of-pearl, cloisonné, porcelain, rosewood, soapstone, bamboo and silk. For this reason, I found it hard to believe that the Chinese had never worked in beads. But even my mother had never come across Chinese beadwork.
A fair amount was already known about Peranakan or Straits Chinese beadwork of Malaysia and Indonesia, thanks to the research of Hwei-F’en Cheah (Author of Phoenix Rising) and Ho Wing Meng (Author of Straits Chinese Beadwork and Embroidery), but virtually nothing had been written about mainland Chinese beadwork, and the museums I checked with had few or no examples.
In 1997 I began going to China to look for evidence of beadwork. I found it right away. Eventually I began finding contemporary Chinese beadworkers too. My goal has been and continues to be the documentation of Chinese beadwork’s past through archaeological, textual and pictorial evidence. I’m also interested beadwork’s present, for it is very much a living craft in China today, undergoing something of a renaissance among everyday people. There are even a few Chinese fine artists creating large-scale beaded pieces which transcend the beadwork category altogether; they are more like beaded sculptures.
For the last several years I have been working with several translators of classical and contemporary Chinese to have various beadwork-related texts translated into English. Progress is slow but I think significant, and will continue for some time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my translators Jeff Keller and Lei Xue, who have contributed so much to my understanding of Chinese culture, Chinese art, and Chinese beadwork.
I would also like to thank the organizations that have provided me with research grants: the Portland Bead Society, the Northwest Bead Society, and the Bead Study Trust. Their support and encouragement continues to mean a great deal to me, and I hope my future publications on Chinese beadwork will be worthy of their confidence.
I am especially interested in pieces of Chinese beadwork that bear inscriptions written in Chinese characters, in western Arabic numerals, or in the Latin alphabet, because such inscriptions illuminate fundamental Chinese attitudes and assumptions and attest to shifts in Chinese society over time.
On this page are images from my presentation “Respect and Cherish Written Words: Interpreting Inscriptions in Mainland Chinese Beadwork from the Ming Dynasty to the Present Day.” I gave this presentation at a bead conference in Istanbul on November 24, 2007, and at the Fortnightly Club of Chicago, at the invitation of the Community Associates of the Art Institute of Chicago, on April 9, 2008 .
I welcome your comments and questions. Please feel free to email me through this site.
Valerie Hector
Below are several images from Valerie’s slide lecture: “Respect and Cherish Written Words: Interpreting Inscriptions in Mainland Chinese Beadwork from the Ming Dynasty to the Present Day”
| RIGHT: Table frontal, ca. 1885-1900, in silk and cotton, embroidered with European glass beads. App. 35″ x 33″.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
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| ABOVE: Details of red silk table frontal, with stylized seal script characters reading (from left to right) fu gui ji xiang (“wealth, honor, harmony, luck”), yi shou da kao (“increasing age, long life”), and yan nian yi shou (“extending years, adding ages”).
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. Image © Valerie Hector. All rights reserved. |
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| RIGHT: Three of a set of eight small beaded screen panels, ca. 1910. The panel at the right, inscribed with 6 characters written in what could be interpreted as stylized clerical script, reads da Qing Xuan Tong san nian(“great Qing, Xuan Tong, third year”). 16 ¼” x 6 ¼” each.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
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LEFT: Detail of a beaded baby carrier with two four-character inscriptions, first half of the 20th century. The four seal script characters (shown in black on a yellow ground) read he gui cheng rui (“river turtle brings good fortune”) and the four standard script characters (shown in black on a blue ground) read chu ru ping an (“inside, outside, peace, peace”). The standard script character at the center of the panel reads yue (“moon”). Area of detail: approx. 9″ x 9″.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
| RIGHT: Bead-embroidered slipper panels bearing what are (probably) commercial product names or logos, first half of the 20th century. Top panel: 8 1/8″ w. x 2 ½” h.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
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LEFT: Bead curtain, glass beads, wood, string, second half of the 20th century, bearing a rising run and characters for dong fang hong(“the East is red”) written in imitation of the calligraphy of Mao Zedong.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
| RIGHT: Plastic bead necktie, worked in right angle weave and inscribed in standard script and western Arabic numerals that read xiang gang (“Hong Kong”) and 1997 7.1(the date on which Hong Kong reverted to mainland China). App. 4″ wide.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
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LEFT: Small square cloth, possibly an offering cover or ceremonial gift, inscribed with the characters for ji le shi jie,the heavenly “Pure Land” of Buddhist imagination. Silk, cotton, European glass beads. 20th century. Approx. 1o” w. x 11″ h.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images. |
And here are two further images, from a recent trip to China: |
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| RIGHT: Bead curtain hanging in the courtyard of a tea shop in Beijing’s Dongcheng District, one of a series of similar curtains that taken together spell out two lines from a poem by Su Dongpo of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Wood, plastic beads.
Photo: © Valerie Hector, 2011. All rights reserved. |
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LEFT: Bead curtain in a window of the same tea shop, with characters that spell out the name of the shop, shi ba cha yuan,or “18 Tea Garden.” It is located in the Nanluoguxiang neighborhood, at No. 18 Banchang Hutong.
Photo: © Valerie Hector, 2011. All rights reserved. |
| For more about 18 Tea Garden, visit: 18-tea-garden | |
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