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ABOVE: Details
of red silk table frontal, with stylized seal script characters reading (from
left to right) yan nian yi
shou (“extending years, adding ages”), fu gui ji
xiang ( “wealth, honor, harmony, luck”), and yi shou da kao (“increasing age, long life”).
Photo copyright V
alerie Hector. All rights reserved.
PHOTO: Larry Sanders, Visual
Images
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RIGHT:
Three of a set of eight |
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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 copyright Valerie Hector.
All rights reserved.
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.
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Bead-embroidered slipper panels
bearing what are (probably) commercial product names or logos, first half
of the 20th century.
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RIGHT: Red silk and cotton table frontal, ca. 1885-1900, embroidered with European glass beads. App. 35” x 33”. Photo copyright Valerie Hector. All rights reserved. PHOTO: Larry Sanders Visual Images |
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Researching
Chinese Beadwork
For years I was advised by
many people that "there is no beadwork in China." Since I
grew up in a house filled with modest examples of Chinese decorative art worked
in materials including cinnabar, jade, mother-of-pearl, cloissone, porcelain,
rosewood, soapstone, bamboo and silk, I found it hard to believe that the
Chinese had never worked in beads.
A fair amount was already known about
Peranakan or Straits Chinese beadwork of Malaysia and Indonesia, but 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 began finding it right away. Eventually I began
finding contemporary Chinese beadworkers too. My goal is to document as many
examples, and learn about the lives of as many contemporary beadworkers, as
possible.
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
significant, and will continue for some time. I would like
to take this opportunity to thank my translators Jeff Keller, Lei Xue,
and Grace Chen McClone, 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 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 .
Valerie
Hector
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LEFT: Beaded door curtain, |