Listening to the Voice of Our Ancestors: a Tin Embroidery Cultural Study by Teachers and Students in an Ethnic Miao Area in China
YongLiLu, Evergreen Education Foundation and Kaili No. 1 High School
Elaine Dong, Evergreen Education Foundation and Florida International University
LinCai, XiaoYanYang, Evergreen Education Foundation and Kaili No. 1 High School
Abstract
The paper explores the development of an oral history project, tin embroidery cultural study, conducted by a team of teachers and students from the Kaili No. 1 High School, Guizhou, China. The project, sponsored by the Evergreen Education Foundation, studied aunique traditional handicraft of the Miao ethnic group. Team members visited a Miao village, interviewed two tin embroidery masters and villagers, and recorded the production process of tin embroidery. During the process, they not only learned about the culture and history of the Miao community around them, but also developed skills of interviewing and using documentary media, as well as analytical abilities and historical awareness and understandings. For these adolescents, the strengthened connection with theethnic communities around themwill also make a positive impact on their social and emotional growth.
Keywords: Tin Embroidery, Miao Cultural Study, Oral History Project, Secondary Education in China
1.Introduction
At the beginning of the 21st century, China began its eighth round of curricular reforms in basic education. The reforms were designed to move from lecture and rote learning to student-centered teaching methods, includingcollaborative learning, discovery investigations, and project-based learning activities.Research-based study courses were added to secondary schools to help students develop research skills. (Wang and Chen, 2012)In response to the reforms, several of us history teachers in Kaili No. 1 High School initiated the studies of costumes, cuisine, music,and customs of Miao and Dong ethnic minorities. After obtaining the support and funding from the Evergreen Education Foundation, in 2012we started an oral history project on tin embroidery culture in Nanzhai, a Miao country.Nanzhaiis located in the southeast of the mountainous Guizhou Province, one of the most underdeveloped provinces in China. The goal of the project was to engage students in collaborative research activities, and to enhance their awareness and knowledge of the ethnic communities around them.
2.Methodology
Eight students volunteered for the project. First they did background researches on the subject using library and online resources. Based on the information found and the recommendation from the County Heritage Registration Office, we chose two tin embroidery masters Dragon Lady 39 from Zhanliu Village and Wang Hengshi from Bailu Village asour first interviewees.
Based on background research, students developed a list of interview questions organized into three categories: 1) tin embroidery culture, 2) historical and cultural values of tin embroidery, 3) preservationstatus under the impact of modern civilization. Two students were assigned to do audio recording, two were in charge of video recording, two were interviewers,and the other two to produce transcripts. To prepare for interviews, all of us were trained on related interviewing and media skills, and practiced interviews with each other.
For the first two interviews to the embroidery masters, their work studios in the county were chosen as the interview locations for the following reasons: 1) The studios are their workplace that they are familiar with and can be relaxed; 2)The studios showcase their finished products, heritage representative certificates, awards from attending various folk arts and crafts competitions, and the complete set of embroidery tools so they can give us a comprehensive introduction to the working process and the final products.
To observe tin embroidery culture in its natural environment and the villagers’ daily lives, and understand its original ecology, we decided to go to the Zhanliu Village where Dragon Lady came from, reputed to be the village with best preservation of tin embroidery, to interview village women and record the villagers’ lives related to tin embroidery.
When interviewing the two masters, we explained the scope, objectives, and applications of our project, and the release form, and they easily understood and signed the forms. Upon the village visits, first thing we did was to explain our project purpose and release form to the village headman and thevillage sororitydirector. The village sorority director then accompanied us all the way during our interviews, explained our project to the villagers and helped us get their signed forms. We found that once the trust relationship was built though the intermediary, the villagers showed us the warmest welcome.
The interviews in Zhanliu Villagetook place in the villagers’ living environment, in their houses, courtyards, or public areas in the village.To prepare for interviews, we walked around the village to observe their daily lives. Language was an issue. The villagers speak Miao, the native tongue. Often villagers have problem understanding questions in Mandarin that are not completely colloquial. Worse yet, the elderly people in the village do not speak Mandarin at all. The village sorority directoraccompanying us all the way did the translation. By joining the chat of women’s embroidery groups in the courtyards after lunch, we managed to make our interview questions more relevant and informal, resulting in a smooth flow.
Interestingly enough, we found as an interviewee Dragon Lady’s mannerin her work studio was very different from her state in the village. In the studio, she was more formal and a bit tense while in the village, she was more relax and able to be herself. The latter helped her life stories and reflections come out.
3.Summary of Interviews
This section summarizes the findings of our interviews.
3.1Tin Embroidery Culture
Tin embroidery is a vital cultural symbol of the Miao ethnic group inhabiting the Miao-Dong autonomous prefecture in Guizhou Province. It is an ancient artistic technique that has been handed down from generation to generation.
Due to the restrictions of transportation and natural conditions, the Miao people in Zhanliu Villageweave their self-grown cottons to cloths, and dye the cloths with the indigo obtained from plants. Colorful cotton threadsand metal tin were embroidered on the indigo cloths to make them look prettier. Tin embroidered in the cloth and pendant alsosymbolizes the Miao’s worship of water. Dragon Lady 39told us, “Tin is white on the cloth. When swaying in the breeze the embroidery is like water wave. The tin-embroideredpedant symbolizes water flow.” (Dragon Lady 39, age 51, interview 08)[1] She also sang for us an old song her mother taught her, “What is best in the world? Water is best, running day and night; What is best in the world? The sun is best, rising and sinking by itself.”(Dragon Lady 39, age 51, interview 08)Due to the complex techniques required, it takes about one to two years to make a tin embroidery dress, and one to two decades to master a full set of tin embroidery skills.
Tinembroideryis infused with social value, and functioned as an indicator of female industriousness and virtuosity in the past. In traditional Miao communities, girls begin to learn embroidering from their mothers and sometimes grandmothers when they turn seven or eight years old. After reaching the age of marriage, their embroidery skills become the basis of mate selection. After they become mothers, they pass the skills to their daughters or daughters-in-law. Dragon Lady 39 told us, “Usually girls who do better embroidery are more popular and attractive for young men. We minority people need to learn embroidery from an early age. If a girl doesn’t know how to do embroidery, she may be left on the shelf when she grows up. If a girl doesn’t have embroidery clothes to wear, people will look down on her. “(Dragon Lady 39, age 51, interview 02) Wang Hua, a woman married to a man in Zhanliu village told us, “If you don’t know how to do embroidery, your husband and mother-in-law will think this wife is no good.” (Wang Hua, age 38, interview 07) Wang Hengshi only has a son and she said, “I hope my son will find a girl in our hometown, Nanzhai Township, so I can teach her the embroidery skills.” (Wang Hengshi, age 34, interview 05)
Because tin embroidery as a token of female industriousness and virtuosity is passed on from one generation to the next, it is infused with emotional attachment to previous generations and ancestors.Wang hengshi who is now 34 years old started learning embroidery at the age of seven from her mother. The traditional clothes she wore during the interview were homemade through a production process from cotton at the beginning to the final embroidered clothes, “It was made stitch by stitch by my grandmother, who passed it to my mother, then to me.” (Wang Hengshi, age 34,interview 05) Dragon Lady 39 started learning embroidery from her mother and grandmother at the age of eight. Since then, tin embroidery became her line of work all through her life. After moving into the county following her marriage, she won many awards in tin embroidery contests and was entitled by the government as a heritage representative.“I love embroidery. No matter what, I will spend all my life doing it. I treasured up the works made by my mother and mother-in-law. Whenever I have time, I take them out and gaze at them, thinking to myself that instead of losing the treasures of the previous generations, we should pass them on.” (Dragon Lady 39, age 51, interview 03) In the past 33 years almost every week Dragon Lady returns to the village by 3 hours of bus ride and 1 hour walk, to visit her parents and exchange with the elderly and women group on the tin embroidery. The project team witnessed how reluctant Dragon Lady was to part with her mother when we left the village together during our first visit to Zhanliu.
3.2Historical and Cultural Values
Tin embroidery has over a thousand years of history. They are not only beautifulworks of art, but also carriers of Miao history and culture. Without written language, Miao history has been passed along with stories, food, costumes, customs, and festivals. The Miao women have been using needle as pen, thread as ink, and cloth as paper to write their own history. The embroidery works have depicted their living environment, daily activities, totem worships, and have also reflected their thoughts, feelings, and aesthetic values.
Our interviews discovered two features of tin embroidery patterns: 1) Only abstract signs are used. Main signs are used including“×”,“∨”,“ ”,“ ”,“Ⅲ”,“ ”. For examples, “×” symbolizes fields, soil, and fish scales, or mountains and valleys. “∨” symbolizes cow saddle (a working tool). “ ” symbolizes a kid in the house;2) Delicate layout.Tin strips are connected consecutively in a “Z” pattern which looks like seven saddles. It symbolizes that the Miao people have thrived after arduous migration in the past and now live in harmony as a big family.
Tin embroidery is cherished and passed on in historically lonely Miao villages depicted by its traditional designs such as Zhanliu. Dragon Lady told us,“My village is small with few people. So it is tight-knit. We don’t have mixed families, only one single family with surname Dragon (Long in Chinese character). In this family one teaches another about embroidery.” (Dragon Lady 39, age 51, interview 02) At the age of eighteen she married to her cousin on her mother’s side. Marriages between families in the same village which are more or less related arecommon so women can stay in the village to pass on the tin embroidery.
3.3Preservation
In traditional Miao villages, the main places for embroidering are people’s homes and public areas in villages. Embroidery skills are passed on to the next generation by female family members, and exchanged in women groups. In Zhanliu Village, we observed that the Miao women gather in groups at courtyards after their routine farm work and housework, embroidering and learning skills from each other while chatting and singing ancient songs.
By interviewing women in the village we also learn more about the status of tin embroidery preservation. Our interviewees told us that the traditional clothes embroidered are only worn on special occasions such as “festivals, visiting relatives, and weddings” (Wang Hua,age 38, interview 07) by women, or “school activities” by girls (Long Guilan, age 17, interview 04). When asked about the reasons, they mentioned “for farm work, the Miao clothes is not as convenient as the Han one” (Wang Hua, age 38, interview 07) “the Miao clothes does not fit well with the environment when studying or working in the city” (Long Guilan, age 17, interview 04). As we can see, with the impact of modern civilization and changing environment, traditional Miao clothes, designed for life style in the past with limited clothing conditions, have become less functional and practical for the Miao community. The young generation of this community, influenced by the urban migration common even in this remote village, has adapted to life in cities, particularly in clothing habit. Moreover, with money becomes the new yardstick for measuring family wealth and individual capacity, embroidery is no longer the indicator of women’s social worth, especially since it cannot sell for its worth. “It takes me roughly three months to finish this type of embroidery piece. You can calculate its worth. Nowadays a construction worker earns 70, 80 Yuan a day. Summing it up it is more than six thousand Yuan. But currently we can’t sell it for that price. The price is two thousand…so nowadays young women do not want to do this. It takes a lot time, without much return.” (Wang Hengshi, age 34, interview 05).
We also discovered that the modern education system has a great impact on the preservation of tin embroidery. Till this day schools in Miao communities use the national standard curricular without supplementary local focus. The young generation, growing up under the strong influence of mainstream culture, lacks the understanding of native culture. Moreover, girls spend most of their time studying at school and do not have time to learn and practice embroidery. “In our school we don’t have art and craft course. Nor tin embroidery course.” (Long Guilan, age 17, interview 04).“My daughter started learning embroidery from me at the age of ten. But she is too busy with her coursework and does not have much time. But study matters most. If she studies well she can have good development outside. If she really can’t do well in study, she can return home and continue embroider.” (Wang Hua, age 38, interview 07) Not a single girl at school age stayed in the village.
Nevertheless, we found that facing the challenge of losing their ancient embroidery techniques, the Miao people tried to save them in their own ways. The masters opened their studios in the nearby county, attended various arts and crafts competitions, took embroidery orders from tourists and businessmen, and organized women in the village for production. By establishing a cooperative effort for tin embroidery and turning embroidery works into commodities for the market, they have become the link to the outside world and played a crucial role in resurrecting the endangered ancient techniques.Wang Hengshi told us, “I hope by doing the embroidery this way, we can pass on the skills, and lift these women out of poverty. We won’t need to go out to work to make money. We can earn money embroidering at home.” (Wang Hengshi, age 34, interview 05)
4.Reflection: the Role of Oral History Projects in Secondary Education
In secondary education, we have been exploring the education style that is most effective in the development of students' intellectualabilities and moral characters.Based on the idea of "all for students’ lifelong development”, targeting at cultivating"knowledge and skills, process and methodology, as well as emotion, attitude and value”, the new curricularreformin China advocates inquiry-based and collaborative learning,learning by direct experience, and a more democratic, equal, and interactive teacher-student relationship.(Jin, 2003-06) Oral history projects, as we realize, have opened a door to our explorations.
After completing this oral historyproject, we had a better understanding of the arguments of Michael Umphrey, the founder of the Montana Heritage Project, when talking about the power of community-centered education:
1)Community-centered oral history projects connect students with the culture and history of their own communities which will help them grow. (Umphrey, 2007-08)