1 Wearing a gendered tree
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Yuhang Li
Abstract
In the late Qing Empire of China (1856–1911), a novel design appeared on robes. Unlike the conventional design of using flowers and plants as a repetitive pattern, in this new style, the shape of a costume was treated as a canvas and a complete single tree or a cluster of assorted plants was arranged on both sides of a full-length garment. The anatomical body of the wearer beneath the attire and the vegetation on the clothing coincided. This new design was widely reproduced through woven and embroidered textiles and was used for both male and female outfits. Accordingly, the image of the plants was also prescribed with a masculine or a feminine attribute. Scholars have addressed the long-established tradition of anthropomorphizing plants in Chinese paintings and decorative arts from social, political and cultural perspectives. However, the allegorical meaning of the embodiment of painting-like vegetation on garments has not been studied. This chapter traces the historical development of this style and then discusses how such a new design intertwined with different notions of body and nature as China transitioned from empire to nation state. In particular, it shows how textiles enabled such a new relationship between body and nature.
Abstract
In the late Qing Empire of China (1856–1911), a novel design appeared on robes. Unlike the conventional design of using flowers and plants as a repetitive pattern, in this new style, the shape of a costume was treated as a canvas and a complete single tree or a cluster of assorted plants was arranged on both sides of a full-length garment. The anatomical body of the wearer beneath the attire and the vegetation on the clothing coincided. This new design was widely reproduced through woven and embroidered textiles and was used for both male and female outfits. Accordingly, the image of the plants was also prescribed with a masculine or a feminine attribute. Scholars have addressed the long-established tradition of anthropomorphizing plants in Chinese paintings and decorative arts from social, political and cultural perspectives. However, the allegorical meaning of the embodiment of painting-like vegetation on garments has not been studied. This chapter traces the historical development of this style and then discusses how such a new design intertwined with different notions of body and nature as China transitioned from empire to nation state. In particular, it shows how textiles enabled such a new relationship between body and nature.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xv
- Introduction 1
- I Fashioning identity 23
- 1 Wearing a gendered tree 25
- 2 Women for cotton and men for wool 47
- 3 Gendered blue 72
- 4 Bhutanese women and the performance of globalization 92
- 5 Weaving and dyeing the ideal of reproduction among Shidong Miao in Guizhou province 113
- II Gendering creative agency 133
- 6 Soft power 135
- 7 Investigating female entrepreneurship in silk weaving in contemporary Cambodia 158
- 8 (Re)crafting distribution networks for contemporary Philippine textiles 180
- 9 Women weaving silken identities and revitalizing various Japanese textile traditions 207
- III Creative voices for change 229
- 10 Entangled histories of craft and conflict 231
- 11 The politics of wastefulness and ‘the poetics of waste’ 258
- 12 Made in Rana Plaza 284
- Index 312
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xv
- Introduction 1
- I Fashioning identity 23
- 1 Wearing a gendered tree 25
- 2 Women for cotton and men for wool 47
- 3 Gendered blue 72
- 4 Bhutanese women and the performance of globalization 92
- 5 Weaving and dyeing the ideal of reproduction among Shidong Miao in Guizhou province 113
- II Gendering creative agency 133
- 6 Soft power 135
- 7 Investigating female entrepreneurship in silk weaving in contemporary Cambodia 158
- 8 (Re)crafting distribution networks for contemporary Philippine textiles 180
- 9 Women weaving silken identities and revitalizing various Japanese textile traditions 207
- III Creative voices for change 229
- 10 Entangled histories of craft and conflict 231
- 11 The politics of wastefulness and ‘the poetics of waste’ 258
- 12 Made in Rana Plaza 284
- Index 312
