On December 22, the Guangdong Provincial Museum hosted the "Their Dresses and Wedding Dresses - Pearl River Basin Women's National Costume Exhibition" on the third floor of the exhibition hall three. The exhibition will run until March 24, 2024.
The exhibition is hosted by the Guangdong Provincial Museum, co-organized by the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities, and co-organized by seven units, including Liuzhou Museum, Guilin Museum, and Youjiang Museum of Nationalities. The exhibition selects the costumes and wedding dresses of 23 ethnic groups living in the Pearl River Basin, interprets the national history and life picture condensed by women's national costumes in southwest and south China, tastes the cultural connotation of women's costumes, and shows the pursuit of a better life by compatriots of all ethnic groups.
The women's national costumes and wedding dresses in the Pearl River Basin not only have strong national characteristics, reflecting the national history, national character, and national aesthetics, but also retain the legacy of many ancient Chinese costumes, and carry out "contact and mixing, connection and integration" between ethnic groups in different historical dimensions, so as to lead the audience to have a deeper understanding of the pattern of cultural diversity and integration of the Chinese nation.
Embroider the "most beautiful national style" with a needle and a thread
The exhibition is divided into three sections: "Why Dress?", "Each Beautiful" and "Fusion and Innovation".
The first part, "How to Dress?", shows all kinds of dress-making tools, raw materials of traditional national costumes, ornaments with different ethnic characteristics, and printing and dyeing, weaving and embroidery, and decoration processes; the second part, "Each Beautiful", exhibits the costumes and wedding dresses of ethnic minority women of Miao, Zhuang, Yi, Yao and other ethnic groups, supplemented by pictures, audio-visual materials, and multimedia interactive equipment; and the third part, "Integration and Innovation", shows the fashion dresses that integrate the elements of national costumes, so as to bring thoughts on the integration and innovation of national costumes.
In the first part of the exhibition area, a variety of raw materials of plants and trees are displayed in glass jars, and colorful strips of cloth flutter on them, showing the effect of dyeing various plants and trees. Duan Xiaohong, the curator of the exhibition, pointed out: "We can see that the raw materials of traditional national costumes often come from the gifts of nature. In addition to the common silk and animal skins, plants such as tree bark, hemp, and kudzu cotton can also be processed into materials for making clothes. Starting from a stitch and a thread, the audience is led to understand how the costumes with unique national characteristics are made. ”
The spinning wheel slowly shakes out the lines, the longitude and weft in the sound of the machine, the jade fingers twist the embroidery needle softly, and the wisps of threads are sewn with splendid beauty. From spinning and weaving to sizing and dyeing, and finally sewing ready-to-wear, every process of dressing and wedding dress production tells the changes in the natural history of various ethnic groups in the Pearl River Basin.
Citizens who came to see the exhibition
Fan Miaomiao, deputy director of the Ethnic Culture Research Department of the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities, said that although there are many kinds of clothing in modern society, ethnic minority costumes still reflect a kind of inheritance and respect on special and important occasions. "We chose to exhibit the costumes and wedding dresses of ethnic minority women, and the rich elements of these costumes have been precipitated by history and still retain the life style of our ancestors. I hope that more young people will pay attention to these national costumes, and I also hope that designers will combine traditional ethnic style with modern design elements. ”
Discover the cultural codes of ethnic minority costumes
Chinese costumes have witnessed the inheritance and replacement of Chinese civilization, and the "beauty of uniforms" lies in the prosperity and beauty, gorgeous and colorful, and the different styles of costumes are usually the beautiful wedding dresses of women of all ethnic groups. A wide variety of styles, special textured fabrics, pleasing colors, mysterious and unique ornamentation, ingenious craftsmanship, simple or gorgeous, dresses and wedding dresses accompany women through the important moments of life.
As an important material carrier of national culture, dresses and wedding dresses entrust the best dreams and expectations of women and their relatives, and also carry the national history and culture accumulated in the rituals and customs that have continued from ancient times to the present.
In the atrium of Room 3, a group of middle-aged Miao women, composed of blouses, front and back skirts, trousers and headscarves, are woven with dragons, fishes, tigers and flowers, and the brocades of various colors are more ornate on dark indigo fabrics. "This Miao costume uses the broken thread embroidery process, local women split a silk thread into 8 or more thinner, and then soak the silk thread in the mucus of soaphorn rice, after soaking, the silk thread is tough and not easy to break, and it can be embroidered into a flat state. Duan Xiaohong, the curator of the exhibition, said that the main picture on the costume tells the story of the Kubo Salon, and the intricate brocade pattern reflects the spirit of craftsmanship.
Miao women dressed up
From Guizhou to Yunnan, to Hunan, Guangxi, and Guangdong, more than 10 groups of Yao people from different provinces and regions dressed up on the stage of the exhibition area. Among them, there are sleeveless collarless tunics with white pants and white pants with a blue pleated skirt, and there are also black cloth base tops with green cloth wax painted indigo dye and openwork skirts.
The costumes of the Yao nationality are rich in color, and the costumes are embroidered with dozens of different traditional Yao patterns such as horse head pattern, lawn pattern, river pattern, crowd pattern, forest pattern, etc. "In traditional Chinese crafts, there must be a picture, and there must be auspiciousness. Whether it is the Han nationality or other ethnic groups, these patterns and ornaments record the history of the nation and also bear the blessings of the ancestors. Duan Xiaohong said.
Yao women in various provinces and regions
The ethnic connection and blending behind the clothes
No man is an island, and neither is clothing. The Pearl River is like a meandering skirt, stringing up these exquisite costumes, and at the same time, it also contains the beauties of the Quartet.
Costume expert Lu Jing pointed out that in the process of more than two years of preparation, the curatorial team found that the Han, Zhuang, Miao, Yao and other ethnic costumes contain their own national characteristics and also reflect certain commonalities. For the first time, this exhibition displays the costumes of 23 ethnic groups living in the Pearl River Basin, and it can be found that most of the costumes are in the form of a right-sided placket. From the earliest Miao people to the surrounding Zhuang, Yao, Li and so on, this reflects the pluralistic and integrated pattern of the Chinese nation mentioned by Mr. Fei Xiaotong, and this exhibition practices the concept of forging the sense of community of the Chinese nation. ”
"All ethnic groups in the Pearl River Basin have been passed down to the present day with the same context, which can be reflected in the costumes, especially the costumes worn during the ceremony, which reflect the common and inclusive national life, and hope to bring the audience an aesthetic journey full of national style in the New Year in the near future. Fan Miaomiao said.
With the advancement of industrialization, some traditional costumes are slowly dying out, and the number of handmade costumes is decreasing. Duan Xiaohong said that in order to connect the exhibition with the present, the curatorial team and the intangible cultural heritage promoters launched a modern fashion that integrates the elements of Yao costumes, and carried out an exploration of the combination of traditional costumes and modern elements of ethnic minorities.
Modern fashion that incorporates elements of Yao costumes
In this exhibition, the Guangdong Provincial Museum plans and implements richer theme guided tours for different groups of people. In the future, various forms of offline educational activities will be launched, such as "Dragon Tour Flower City, Dressed Up and Traveling - Yuebo Bus Art Mass Creation Activity", "Post Road Travel-Qin-Han Ancient Road and Liannan Yao Culture Theme Research", silver handicraft, tie-dyeing craft and other forms of offline education activities.
In addition, around the exhibition, special cultural and creative products with the concept of "clothes and love" were developed, and food cultural and creative products such as eight-pointed star-patterned rice stuffed salty cheesecake and rose rice stuffed latte were launched. As an extension of the fashion exhibition from a visual feast to a taste bloom, it brings the audience a dual experience of vision and taste.
Reporter Liang Shanyin Literature and Art Xi Hong Beijia Correspondent Yue Bo Xuantu | Reporter Liang Shanyin