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"A number of years ago a Japanese collector offered me a few hundred pounds for the first piece [cushion end No 1 below] which is a bit smaller than it appears here! It's so complex it's almost cosmic! I have drooled over it many times since I bought it."

"Well, the Jianghua Yao have been very difficult to pin down with regard to identifying their 'group' textiles. When I got all my pieces many moons ago most of Hunan was closed to foreigners. I'd originally seen a few pieces in Yangsuo, Guangxi and traced them from there. I had to rent a driver & vehicle and go and meet a 'runner' who I had prearranged to meet on the border.

This is one of the reasons little is known or written about textiles from here. Most of the interesting ones had disappeared by the time the Kaili runners (who are a bit more worldly when it comes to info needed) really got going. The original movement of these textiles came about to satisfy the Chinese (& western) tourist market that developed early on along the Li River and Guilin. I got lucky and recognized it as special then.

The textile styles here are very distinctive and different from other Yao styles in the region. But Yao styles can vary tremendously everywhere. In reality smaller Yao groups are easily influenced by the predominant minority style in their local area. A good example of this is the Yao and Miao styles from the Nandan area.

Some dealers even now see Jianghua Yao as Han influenced (and that counts as a negative), largely I think because they don't understand the subtleties of it. Pan Hu(ng) the dragon dog ancestor is often simply mistaken for a Chinese dragon.

Yao dragon Dog ancestor 'P'an Hung'. Had 12 children-the Yao clans-“The Yao people are linked with the most ancient period in Chinese history. All Chinese scholars, and most people interested in China’s folklore, have read the story of P’an Hu, the Palace dog who married a Chinese Emperor’s daughter. As told in the Chronicles of the Later Han Dynasty, Hou Han Shu, written by Fan Yeh in the Vth Century A.D. The proto-Chinese Emperor Gao Xin [Kao-hsin] (2435-2365 B.C.) had promised to give one of his daughters in marriage to anyone who could rid him of General Wu, the chief of the marauding Chuan Jung (‘Dog Jung’) tribe. A five-coloured dog named P’an Hu, a familiar pet of his Court, succeeded, and brought back General Wu’s head to the Emperor. The dog and the princess were subsequently married and their children (six boys and six girls, who intermarried) becoming the forefathers of the Yao tribes.” The couple, part wild and part imperial, settled down on a mountain in Wuling, where they had 12 children, 6 boys and 6 girls--the origin of the 12 Man/Yao clans. For their support, Emperor Kao-sin issued the Yao people and all their descendants a charter guaranteeing their freedom from taxes, levies and state imposed burdens. The Emperor understood the Yao, as true Tao people, possessed no desire to interfere with affairs of the state if left alone."

This partly explains why the Yao adopted the Chinese script and unlike most other groups in the region have a written history, and so have been widely studied by scholars and researchers.

For me the quality of most of the work is exceptional. That's what drew me to it in the first place-although being Yao made it much more saleable. However, I first had to convince people that it was what I said it was. Very little is available about this area and it's textiles in any books, so in the end being able to identify it through the recognition of it's symbols by Yao collectors is what made it possible.

Guoshan, Gaoshan etc, I'm not sure!

That's just taken me back to about 18-20 years ago when travel and sourcing things was in another era!

All the best,

Martin"

Dear Pamela,
Upon reading the post on the Jinghua Yao and seeing the fine textiles from Martin's collection I recalled the very first Chinese ethnic minority piece that I bought. I am sending JPEGs herewith. The piece, a baby carrier, was purchased from Marla Mallett in 2005 as Miao, Early to mid-20th century. I very much liked the embroidery but hated the blue "denim" border and straps so I removed same and threw them away! I also couldn't understand why anyone would cover all that beautiful embroidery with a tassel so I also removed that (but didn't throw it away). The piece, now framed, hangs in the hallway of my apartment on a black cotton background. Attached are details of the piece and other photos that I think are similar in technique to this "Jianghua Yao" piece.

Jinghua 4 is the full embroidery without the borders and straps. Jinghua 2 is a detail of the bottom section which is not done in Peking stitch, but instead in a braid that I think is called "Dazi". I have a Geyi jacket with "Dazi" embroidery of a mythical bird resembling some of Martin's Jianghua creatures as well as the birds in my baby carrier (although my birds are done in a mixture of Peking, "Dazi", and just plain satin stitch (see Jianghua1). Jianghua 1 and 3 also show a variety of arachnids in Peking stitch bordered by what looks like white horsetail couching similar to the technique used by the Miao and Shui. A coarser version of the arachnids bordered by couching is found in a very old Geyi jacket of mine (note the Miao hidden diamond indigo-dyed fabric that is the body of the jacket, as well as the beautiful ribbon work).

Finally I am attaching a Baibei Miao outfit and a detail from the back of the jacket which shows a bird similar to the bird on Martin's Jianghua purse. The keychain border around the bird is done on a background of diagonal shades of different colors, which can be seen also in Martin's purse.

These textiles represent the variety of minority influences on the Jianghua Yao visual vocabuilary. "

"My very incomplete translation. Its all I can do right now. Ethnic groups are only mentioned on Yao pieces. For the ones in Changde and Yuanling the artists are probably Han. Others may be Han as well, but they do not say. These are from a large geographic area spread all around the western half of Hunan."