Embroidered Identities 針情線韻

This publication accompanies the University Museum and Art Gallery’s exhibition of traditional Chinese costumes, baby carriers and silver ornaments drawn from the collection of Mei-yin Lee. Elaborately embroidered costumes and baby carriers, most of which originate with the Miao, Dong, Shui and Zhuang ethnic tribes of the south-western Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi are decorated with richly coloured, stitched and sewn ornamentations—and sometimes silver applications—indigenous to the particular culture and long-lived traditions they derive from. As some ethnic minorities lack a written script, the symbolism and colour-coding found in their textiles form a visual language that presents an important cultural and anthropological development and heritage still in practice today.

香港大學美術博物館展出李美賢庋藏的中國傳統服飾、銀飾及背帶。展覽配以此精美圖錄。苗、侗、水、壯這些源自貴州、雲南和廣西等中國西南省的少數民族，其服裝和背帶均繡以色彩絢爛、針工細膩的刺繡，有時甚至附以銀飾點綴，反映出當地悠久而別具特色的傳統文化。由於部份少數民族缺乏文字記錄，其織品展示的象徵涵義和色彩寓意，形成一種視覺語言，使之成為人類文化和文物遺產發展至今的重要基礎。