Witness evolving sartorial elegance of Hainan islanders
Traditional brocade of Li ethnic group
More than 100 costumes and accessories with the embroidery of Li ethnic group from coastal Hainan Province are on display at Luxun Memorial Hall.
The exhibition shows the traditional aesthetics of the five dialect areas — Ha, Qi, Run, Sai and Meifu — through their fashion evolution from tree bark clothes, linen to cotton and brocade over the centuries.
One of the highlights are the tree bark clothes the Li ethnic group made in ancient times. According to archeological discoveries, Li people mastered the skills of making clothes and hats from tree in the Neolithic Age.
The Ha dialect is the most-spoken language in the ethnic group, and its people are widely spread over the Yuedong and Dongfang areas in Hainan. Their women’s clothes feature black, collarless, narrow-sleeved, single-layer jackets with buttons down the front, as well as a long, straight skirt.
Qi dialect women’s jackets are mainly black with round collars and narrow sleeves, embroidered with flowers on the back and sides.
The sleeves are normally sewn in red, black and white fabrics. The skirt is often knee-length with big red patterns, while the headwear is a long black cloth or embroidered scarves with hairpins.
The Li’s dragon quilt-making integrates four techniques of spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery. It exhibits an old quilt embroidered with phoenix, fish and dragon patterns, and was once offered to the emperor as a tribute in ancient China.
Li’s traditional brocade is always dominated by black and dark blue. There are two weaving methods — ping weave and yang weave.
The ping weave produces a smooth surface, while the yang weave creates geometric patterns such as rice grains, seeds, arrow ridges and many others, which give a strong three-dimensional effect to the fabric.
Info
Date: Through April 14, 9am-5pm
Tickets: Free
Venue: Luxun Memorial Hall
Address: 200 Tian’ai Road
