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Marla

Thanks for your helpful information. In Kaili, I was told that a woman might only weave 1 or 2 feet of diamond twill cloth a day. Presumably this would be what could be woven during a woman’s spare time between other chores!

Is the woman below weaving a plain cloth?

Andrew

Andrew,

It’s hard to tell from this photo. The way the harnesses are hanging, I’d guess that it’s a plain weave. But there are four harnesses there, so it could be a twill. (A plain weave can be threaded through four harnesses as easily as through two.) She certainly has a nice, neat roll of cloth on the cloth beam and the selvages are so neat and even that it’s probably a plain weave. Also, since she is weaving up SO close to the beater, I’d be inclined to think it’s a plain weave. It might be too difficult to open a clear shed in that position with a twill.

Your comments about working weaving time into the daily routine of other household chores is right on…That’s why it is difficult to talk about how much might get accomplished in a day’s time. That’s true with weavers anywhere in the world, I think—those who work at home rather than in workshop situations.

Marla

I am pleased that Marla confirmed my own feelings about Andrew's photo.

Andrew, are you aware how the White Collar Miao use the diamond weave in their costume or other material culture? When I was in the Duyun area (Ji Chang township, Duyun city, Guizhou province) in 2001 I visited villages where the White Collar Miao and the Shui lived very closely together. In one village, Wong Jian village, Ji Chang township, the village was predominantly a Shui village but there were also White Collar Miao living there. There were White collar Miao in villages lower into the valley and farming the land around.

There was a Shui woman weaving on a loom in one of the houses that we went into - I attach a photo below. I am sure that she had a piece of diamond weave on her loom because I noted it at the time. I am particularly attracted to the this diamond weave. Also in the room were a couple of women making up some clothing on a sewing machine - from diamond weave fabric. I am posting a photo of a piece of the fabric which I think shows the weave. In the same house were some White Collar Miao women showing us some of their textiles. I think that I saw one of the aprons of the White collar Miao lined with the diamond weave.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Pamela, about the diamond twill cloth used by the Bailing Miao (White Collar Miao), from what I've been able to find out so far, it is a traditional cloth that has been used for a very long time (whatever that means). However, not everyone either had the time or the skill to make it, so plain cloth was/is also made. For those who did make it, the diamond twill cloth was used for all of their textiles, be they jackets, baby carriers or quilt covers etc. and was an added indication of a girls general abilities and therefore desirability as a marriage partner.

I’ve been told that the diamond twill cloth and plain cloth could be made on the same looms, but from the information given by Marla, plain cloth only requires 2 harnesses whilst diamond twill requires 4. Presumably, the most basic looms would only have the 2, and so could not be used to make the diamond twill, would this be the case?

Below is a selection of Bailing Miao quilt covers of various styles, all probably from the first half of the 20th C. (although the second one might have been made by an old woman at a later date). The first is the most simple and therefore probably the oldest, employing 6 small bronze drum motifs surrounded by typical compound patterns that include butterflies, plant and fruit-butterflies and fruit-fish. The bronze drum is a powerful symbol relating to the spirits of the ancestors, and is a traditional pattern found in many Miao group’s embroidery and batik. The second and fourth covers also have 6 bronze drums. The second design also includes compound fish-butterfly patterns, whilst the fourth includes crabs (an unusual pattern), pomegranates (both relating to the wished for birth of many children), fish and butterflies.

Simple, traditional patterns such as the bronze drum are the oldest forms found on quilt covers, seeming to date from before the 20th century. From around the start of the 2nd quarter 20th C. if not earlier in some areas, designs and individual patterns started to move away from these rigid, traditional forms. As the century progressed, and particularly from the 1940s and 50s, lines became more delicate, workmanship more skilled and plants and animals took on a more realistic form. Individuals began to use their quilts as a place to express their own feelings about life and beauty and their desires for their own and their family’s lives to come.

More Bailing Miao quilt covers

Andrew-

Great pieces and great information. Do you have any pictures of the one of the bronze drums? Are the drum designs pictured in the covers the same as on the actual drums. I ask as it would be curious to see the drum comparison between the Bailing drums and the Karen and Dong Son frog drums, which were so influential further south.

Once again your collection bemes even more stunning at your every submission.

Bill

Bill

I don't have a photo of a Bailing Miao drum but I do have one in use by a Miao group, also in the South East of Guizhou, in Pintang county (Bai Zhan village, Xin Tang Township). Pintang is about 3 hours drive (on a relatively good newish road) from Duyun which is close to where you can find Bailing Miao. The Miao group I am showing you are sometimes called Crow Miao although the women wear pheasant feathers in their head dresses. These Miao do some wax resist but it is fairly crude - see the man's head cloth around his shoulders. This we think is made not with wax knife but with something like a large wooden comb with a standing up handle and used like a stamp. This group are up on top of a plateau and getting to them when it is raining (as it is a lot of the time in Guizhou) is 'challenging'. I think that they are relatively unexposed to outside influences.

The drum here is being beaten (and lusheng pipes played) for dances. I was fascinated to see what looked so like an old Dong song drum being used. I have no idea if this is an old drum or a much newer one following old designs. The photo was taken in November 2001. I am sorry that it is not possible to see the designs on the drum more clearly. I will have a play with the photo and see if I can get any clearer images. Andrew's 262.1 would appear to have some similarities with the drum in my photo. I would think that the designs on the wax resist covers could well be 'inspired by' but not necessarily direct copies of, the drums.

Andrew

I will come back separately on your stunning Bailing covers as I have not had a chance to study them carefully nor properly absorb your very helpful text. Suffice to say at this stage that I completely endorse Bill's comments on the textiles as am I bowled over by them. As always, thanks SO much for sharing them with us.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

As to the Bronze drum it does look more like a Dong Son drum than a Karen at least in shape. I guess what I would love to see is the images on the respective rings. I guess we Aare not going to see them clearly from this photo. Maybe we can put the word out to our members in case someone has a pic in their archives.

Thanks for the photo Pamela and thanks again for Andrew for this spectacular display.

I don't know if this detail shows any more than the photos above...?

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Bill

I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of a bronze drum that adds anything to the one that Pamela has already posted, however, the pictures below, taken at an Ancestor Worship festival in Xijiang in Leishan county in 1998, shows how similar they are.

Again this does not really add anything to the detail of a Miao brass drum but I remembered that, the day before we had visited the village with the drum shown in my posts above, we had visited another Miao village - 'Red Miao' - which was Kong Wang village, Su Chang township, Pingtang county in Guizhou. It was very remote up on the plateau. In my notes I see that I referred to 'the beat of a gong and a drum'. Looking closely the 'gong' would appear to be a metal drum. See photos below.

I am showing one shot of the Red Miao to link to the costume.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

I am afraid that I let myself be distracted by the drums (a very pleasant diversion!) from much of Andrew’s post above including the very beautiful quilt covers. I hope you will forgive me if I get a bit carried away but I find the these wax resist works of art which Andrew keeps producing out of the proverbial hat quite irresistible. They have rhythm, balance, an endearing quirkiness – especially the later ones – and are executed with such panache that I am continually amazed by them.

If a stranger chanced on this thread of the forum and looked at 237, 262 and 200 they might think that they were looking at a tiled floor. The drum motifs could give that impression.

What I love about most of the covers shown is that they are absolutely crowded with motifs – 237 is somewhat different and has got some dark indigo empty space. This cover has quite a different feel – almost a cross between delft and Jacobean work. In isolation and at first glance I would not have placed it in China. However, with closer examination some of the design shapes start to become recognisable.

Looking at 262 – and how concentrated and crowded this piece is – you can see from the rings on the waxed drum circles that these really are imitating metal with the small balls of metal catching the light as they do on the real metal drums in the following photos. Interesting to see how the stylised fill-in shapes evolve into fish, fowl and bugs as you focus on them and decipher the shapes. Surely this must have been a coverlet for a special event because it clearly took so much time and care to execute and it has obviously been treasured and kept for special occasions. It is a satisfying balance between curves and angles. The greek-key/swastika border is quite unexpected as a frame (a very difficult design to keep flowing around the corners) in contrast to the formal circles and then the whirly in-fill of shapes representing living organisms.

240 is quite, quite different and wonderfully extrovert. I would like to have met the woman who created this one. In one way the design is an amazing jumble of forms and yet it still has balance and the strong centre and quirky, almost regular, border hold it together. Some of the birds have cricks in their necks from fitting around other forms. Her butterflies are completely over the top. The border reminds me rather of a doodle, squeezing new motifs in as someone keeps lecturing on. (I wish that my doodles were of this quality!) This is the piece to put on a nursery wall to keep toddlers amused and as a basis for bed-time stories.

200 again picks up the feel of the metal bell decorations in texture as well as the circles (but with overtones of lace or paper doilies (that shows my age!) The hermit crabs are unexpected as Andrew indicated. I have just noticed that there are butterflies and pomegranates as infill in the circles themselves both recognisable images and possibly more stylised ones.

246 has a more cartoon-like quality in its images. I am not sure that I would want to meet any of the ‘birds’ with their very heavy necks and beady eyes. The ‘lion’ in detail 246-2 harks back again to Jacobean period embroidery or heraldic designs. In this same detail some of the simple, flowing outlines indicate bugs and other images with deceptive simplicity. I have just realised that Andrew in an email to me when discussing things I should look out for on my up-coming trip, mentioned that this was a 'tiger'! I suppose it does not have a mane! Actually, sharing Andrew's comments on research I might do/questions to ask he said:
Looking back at the first page of this thread when I introduced some coverlets being produced in the early 21st century – albeit by mature ladies – I see that one of them, 0111E35, has echoes of 246 and some of the infill in other ones that Andrew has posted. I suppose it is unfair to compare them too directly since we don’t know how typical the ones that Andrew has collected are of the general coverlets being made contemporary with these examples. Possibly the very best are the ones which have been treasured and then sold. However, one has this feeling that today’s world into which all these groups are emerging so rapidly does not allow the women to spend the huge amounts of time and energy that it takes to produce such fine works of art. The machine made cover is also likely to be valued more!

Just to pick up on Andrew’s question in the text accompanying his post: It would be the same basic wooden loom frame regardless. The harnesses could be added as required for either fabric or, as we saw in some of your earlier photos, a couple tied together and used as one.

I am not sure that I completely follow your explanation of the Bailing Miao and their mixing with the Shui and, am I correct, yet another Miao group? By the way, have you any information about the word ‘Bailing’? Does it relate to a place? Is it a comment on clothing – if so what? Or….?

Thanks once more for sharing these masterpieces of wax resist art with us and for providing your thoughtful words of background. I will never see a bronze drum in the same light ever again!

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Pamela,

You thought it was a lion (Bailing Miao quilt cover no.5 detail), I think it looks more like a lion, but the Bailing’s describe it as a tiger. I suppose it could have originated from an ancient Han motif that was picked up by the Miao from a time when the Han and Miao lived side by side in reasonable peace and harmony (up around the Yellow River/ Yangzi River areas perhaps? The same could be said for some other motifs, such as the Buddhist swastika, that don’t seem to fit in with an animist belief system?). Anyway, regardless of what it actually is, the Bailing Miao’s need to explain its existence in their batik means that it is a tiger, since tigers used to live around this part of China in the fairly recent past.

As for the meaning of Bailing, it literally means “white collar” (bai-white, ling- collar/neckband). Strangely enough, their festival clothes do not have white collars although there is a piece of batik attached around the back of the neck area (see photos below). Perhaps a piece of white cloth like that on the cuffs used to be stitched into the inside of the collar!!

As for confusing you about the relationship between the Miao and the Shui, what I’ve now ascertained is basically that they are Miao, but because some of them have lived amongst the Shui for generations, they feel more Shui than Miao and now elect to call themselves Shui rather than Miao. Simple really!

I’ll try to get some photos of more recent bed covers posted, though non as new as the ones you saw.

Andrew

Before I left for my recent trip to Guizhou and Guangxi provinces in south-west China Andrew charged me with recording carefully any bronze drums which I saw. During the trip I encountered two metal drums – one in a Miao village in Taijiang county and the other in a Shui village in Sandu county both in south-east Guizhou.

I am posting photos below of the drum in Taijiang. This drum was the centre-piece of the amazing welcoming performance which the villagers gave to us. We were reputedly the first visitors to come to their village – Da Zhai village, Taipan township, Taijiang county - since the decision (and investment) had been made to open up the village. The villagers were out in force, groups of young men and women, children, more mature women (many with babies being carried in ornate baby-carriers), old men, old women and musicians in full festival clothing and they circled around the performance ground to the insistent beating of the drum which was suspended from a sturdy wooden frame, rather like a gallows.

It was explained to us that the drum is regarded as the heart of the village. When one of the old women brought a drink of rice wine to the man beating the drum she first poured wine over the face of the drum.

I asked to photograph the drum and the drummers held it whilst I tried to get some details of the design.

The Miao in Da Zhai village wear festival clothing similar to that of Langde village – see Tony Chen’s article on the fertility festival in Langde and his photos. http://www.tribaltextiles.info/articles ... stival.htm

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

The Shui drum I mentioned above was in a room in the Shui head man’s house in Ban Miao (near Miao) village, Zhong He township, Sandu county. I was interested to see the wooden ‘muffler’ being used to reduce the sound of the drum and realise that it was also present in Da Zhai village. The Shui women’s ‘best’ costume was worn for our benefit but I also saw the same dress being worn in Zhong He township later in the afternoon as we walked through a busy market.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource