We were delighted to take part in the inaugural Sudbury Silk Festival this weekend, showing a short film about our research and development trip to China last year. You can read a review of the festival at the East Anglian Daily Times and see our short film below.
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Shanghai: melting pot of old and new, east and west, departure point for the silk sea trading route.27/10/2018 With all of the main silk destinations visited, Shanghai was the conclusion to our trip and to catch our flight home. Obviously we'd given ourselves some time to have a look round and we were interested in it as it does form part of the eastern silk route, as a major port, both historically and as part of the new Belt and Road Initiative. Shanghai is huge, which you already know, but a look at the Metro map will help your mind to adjust to the scale of Chinese cities. We came across it only in Chinese to get our first tickets on the Metro and went in search of a machine that also had English in order to understand our route across the city. Daunting at first, but after a few journeys it soon became familiar and accessible. We stayed in an Airbnb situated in the French concession, a leafy and low rise area that has for the most part escaped huge redevelopment. In 1849 Shanghai ceded an area for French settlement to the french consul and still retains a lot of charm created by the colonial buildings and streets lined with imported plane trees. The first thing we noticed is that Shanghai has embraced coffee culture and for the first time in a long while we were able to get a decent brew. Afterwards we headed to Tianzifang, a labyrinth of alleyways between interesting traditional buildings redeveloped with boutique shops and cafes. It was packed and unlike in other areas on our trip, we encountered a lot of western tourists. We spent a while window shopping, getting lost in a twee world of pink, toys and trinkets. Walking around the tree lined streets in a colonial district we passed hotels with people enjoying cream teas outside! Nearby was the residence of Sun Yatsen the first president of the Chinese Republic and buildings in early 20th century Art Deco and French Renaissance style. Silk and chi-paos were very evident in boutique shops, we also unusually came across some graffiti and a common event on our trip, a man who wanted to take our picture. We headed to Xintiandi, essentially a shopping mall based around two blocks of Shikumen (stone gatehouses) with outside dining and high end shopping, where we sampled the local Pale Ale, before heading back to the French concession to enjoy a meal in a small local restaurant. Chinese menus are certainly something to behold, especially when the dishes have been translated in to English. 'Hand Bag Food' or 'Hot hair and hot blood' anyone? On our last day we travelled to a new district near the river to the Powerstation of Art to see the David Shrigley exhibition 'Lose Your Mind'. There were the obvious comparisons with Tate Modern, with its size, previous function, architecture and that fact that it offered a great view over the Huangpu River, plus it also had a wide selection of national and international artists' work on display. There wasn't the historical content though that we'd seen in the other museums. We thought we'd be proper tourists and headed to East Nangjing Lu, or the Oxford Street of Shanghai, in search of the old Shanghai Silk Commercial Building which we discovered is now occupied by Zara. This led us to The Bund, with views over the river and the sky scrapers of Pudong reflecting back the setting sun, which was a rather magical moment. We stayed until the buildings started to come alive with their neon and LED light shows, before continuing our search for silk in the Silk Market of old town. Fangbang Road was a highlight here with its hustle and bustle, traditional arts, crafts, tat stores and street food.
In all our time was limited but provided a good punctuation point for the trip before we headed home the following day. We were sad to wave good bye to Hangzhou but our next destination was meant to just as interesting with a long history of silk. Suzhou is often called the 'Venice of China' because of its many waterways and we stayed near to one of these in a small traditional guest house down a tiny alley in the old city near to Guanqian Street. It had the feel of the Orient but with a colonialist flavour with a lot of dark woodwork, two open courtyards from which we could see the evening moon, high ceilings and period wooden furniture. After settling in we went for a walk nearby exploring the canals and eventually found our way on to Pingjiang Road with its myriad of small stalls, vegetable shops, street food, arcade, rickshaws and silent (except for their horn) electric scooters. There were small boats taking people for trips on the waterways with one of the lady punters singing to her passengers. We spent the evening walking and exploring before getting some beers from the supermarket (there aren't many bars or pubs and restaurants won't serve you beer unless you buy food) before heading back. In the morning we walked to Suzhou Silk Museum which was vast and we spent several hours learning about the history of silk from ancient times to the present day, viewing lots of originals but also reproductions of very early pieces of silk such as 3rd C BC tabby weaves and 1-3rd C Jin weaves. The earliest actual silk was a complex gauze 168BC from Changsha. Displays also included costumes from different periods, robes, pouches, shoes, collars, and the development of Suzhou specific patterns, its speciality of brocade, and the highs and lows of the industry from the beginning to contemporary times. They had several rooms dedicated to housing a working version of the production process including silk moth eggs, cocoons, and silkworms munching on mulberry leaves which gave us a chance to listen to them more, and see closely their development into cocoons. Lots had made their cocoons in the rafters and on the walls while some had a hole in the top where the moth had hatched and flown away. Outside there was a mulberry garden with several different cultivars of tree. One area inside displayed new development in uses of silk and leaves for science including treatments for cancer, chemotherapy and wound dressings. They had recreated weavers cottage interiors with artefacts and lifesize models of people working there. They also had machines from all of the processes and a magnificent room dedicated to velvet. Ruth found one of the most interesting items a sketch book showing the design processes of silk designer Qian Xiaoping, founder of the museum, with collection of her designs on brocade. There was also a large museum shop selling a large range of clothing, bedspreads and scarves. Throughout our trip we have tried many different modes of transport and it was here that we tried another ... a pedal powered rickshaw who took us Dongbei Street near to the main Suzhou Museum. Our late breakfast/early lunch consisted of three skewers of deer meat (we thought they might be lamb when we ordered them) and a flatbread with spicy filling. We also saw some dumplings in the shapes of penguins and ducks. Suzhou is famous for its gardens and we visited the Humble Administrators Garden, which is a large series of interconnecting gardens, waterways, pool, paths, bridges, hills and pagodas. It was a tranquil spot despite the hordes of visitors. There were a multitude of different plants and trees and we recommend a visit here for any gardener or horticulturalist. We took a boat ride down the canal with a young Chinese couple eating crisps, but unfortunately we didn't have the singing lady as our punter, but a slightly grumpy man who looked like he'd been driving this same boat for many years. We did however pass the singing lady on a boat heading the other way. On the way back we explored the bird and flower market, which was also full to the brim with dogs, cats, terrapins (painted or unpainted), tortoises and insects (some individually packaged in tiny plastic tubs) as well as succulents, budgerigars and finches. It was certainly an olfactory experience! For dinner that night we found a great restaurant with only three things on the menu: buns, soup and something else, probably tea. We had fried buns, which were delicious. In the morning we went on the hunt for No.1 Silk Factory and and the former site of another silk factory, just to the south of the Waicheng River. We still hadn't really got the hang of the scale of Chinese cities so it took us a while to find them but we enjoyed discovering the spice and fish market on the way which had bags full of Sichuan peppers, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, fungus and orange peel, amongst other things. Eventually we found some refurbished buildings that looked like they could have been silk factory buildings and also a large new development modelled on the shape of traditional factory buildings that was eerily quiet as no one had moved in yet. Again it took us a while but eventually we found No.1 Silk Factory which was full with bus loads of tourists, both Chinese and western. Inside we again saw silk worms, cocoons, floss for quilts (made from rejected or incomplete cocoons), extraction of silk from cocoons, a long history of the mill which included the 'Rui Feng Silk Reeling Mill' in 1926. There was also a huge shop selling lots of silk wares, hence the bus loads of tourists. We enjoyed our time in Suzhou and would recommend a visit there. Staying in the old centre gives you an insight into how life in China used to be, although now the city has grown to over 10 million and has a vast newly developed quarter.
Today we travelled further east to Hangzhou, and as the train sped through the countryside you started to notice different kinds of terrain. After a series of tunnels through large hills the landscape flattened out again and became more verdant and watery which would set the scene for the next few cities we were to visit. Hangzhou is a city of nearly 8 million people, and capital of Zejiang Province, built next to the large West Lake which is now a UNESCO heritage site. Many historical place names are poetic and enchanting, such as 'Orioles singing in the willows' and 'Heavenly wind over Wu Mountain' and you almost expect to meet a magical landscape. To the west of the lake are steep hills, which we would explore later on, the Botanical Gardens, and a complex of low rise home stays and restaurants, where we would stay for our time here. The main street of this holiday area was lively and bustling every day and with plenty of places to choose from, we ate there most nights. Our place was very hard to find though and it took three 'policemen' and 20 minutes to find our home stay. The next morning we set off early for the China National Silk Museum, which when we found it had a small frontage but is actually very big with many galleries inside. The exhibits included silk cocoons, silk making tools and fragments of silk dating back to the Neolithic period. According to a Song Dynasty text Leizu, also called Xi Lingshi, wife of the Yellow Emperor, was the first person to cultivate silk in the 27th Century BC! An altar for the worship of the inventor of silk was built on the outskirts of the capital in the Northern Xi dynasty 550-570. The museum had an encyclopaedia of silk which was organised using the the various dynasties throughout Chinese history. The first evidence of silk being traded long distances is along the Prairie Road through Russia, sometimes called the 'road through the clouds'. Zhang Qian, a 2nd Century Chinese official and diplomat was the first reliable source of information brought back from the western states and helped to realise the importance of trade routes between China and the rest of the world. Around this time the Romans learned of a silk producing country to the east and called it Seres. Ptolemy's 2nd Century book Geography inspired the Nicolaus Germanus's 15th century map which includes Sinae as a land beyond India and Sri Lanka. In order to develop, then control the developing route China built military outposts at Hexi, Jinguan, Zhangye and Dunhuang. In the collections of archaeology are Neolithic whorls, a shuttle made from an antler and a model of a loom found in a Han Dynasty tomb. Grave goods included a pot found with a child's skeleton inside, all wrapped in silk, dating from 5000 years ago. There were also very old silk fragments from 200 BC during the Warring States period. Overwhelmed by stories of silk, on the way back we took a slow stroll back around West Lake and across the long Causeway among many other Chinese tourists and tried to avoid being run over by the electric buses zooming between the pedestrians. On Saturday, as with most days in Hangzhou we had breakfast on the move, sampling a variety of buns, cakes and dried fruits each day. We took a bus across the city as we wanted to visit Silk City, a few pedestrianised historic streets lined with a myriad of small shops selling silk of all kinds including many variations of the Chi-pao, curtains and bed spreads. The Grand Canal is one of China's largest and most impressive engineering projects, started in the 5th century BC and completed in 1633. We spent a while watching the large barges navigate a few bridges on a tight section of the canal. They carry a lot of different kinds of aggregates, and in huge quantities (a draft of 3.2m) and most of them were loaded to the gunnels in one direction and empty in the other. We then made our way to the river ferry to visit the Gongshu area and found an incredible Chinese pharmacy with special water that people were collecting in bottles, consultation booths, a plethora of ingredients and piles of bags which looked like prescriptions ready to be collected. There was also a huge selection, literally hundreds of herbs and plants, including ginseng, complete with the whole root system individually heat wrapped with certificates of authenticity. We also saw signs to the fan, scissor and knife museums. On Sunday we experienced rain for the first time in China, but in such a picturesque landscape, heading into the hills around Longjing village. The main reason for visiting was to see the tea plantations and drink some tea, especially Green Dragon Well Tea, the local speciality. The village had the feeling of a hill station in India, with home stays and restaurants, street vendors selling local tea which they were roasting outside. We went to a small house and drank tea with an old lady who spoke no English, and we communicated with her using Google Translate, but she wrote Chinese on a piece of paper using a pen. We managed to deduce though that her tea had been picked on 23rd of March, which is before the traditional tomb sweeping day, meaning it had less chance of insects being present. We climbed one of the hills to make some recordings of the tea plantations and got swept up in lots of people on a 20k sponsored walk and saw several couples all dressed up and having their pre wedding photos taken, something that we saw in nearly every scenic location. The Tea Museum further up the hill road, was set in beautiful gardens on the hillside and we walked to the tea altar on top of the hill which afforded magnificent views. As we descended the rain started so we headed for the road to get the bus back. The buses are cheap in China, ¥2 or 3 for each journey, and if you can connect to the internet you can eventually work things out. Other things that we noticed here were fruit sellers on the road side and plenty of artificial rocks playing back traditional music. Our last day was still a bit grey and threatening rain but we set out for the northern lake shore looking for the Brocade Museum and taking in the sights on the way, including lots of strolling tourists, the shorter causeway, large houses on Beishan Street and a couple of buskers. Our maps were giving us conflicting locations for the museum so it took a while to find it. It was closed, but we could hear the sound of looms working in the building opposite. There was no one in the Police box outside and the door was wide open, so we went in and were welcomed by the man inside. There were about 6 looms of 20 looms being operated by women and when we approached them to record, they stopped them and asked us to look at the cloth, a very fine traditional scene on sumptuous and heavyweight silk. There were a colourful selection of silk hanks on a rail and several small machines for winding and warping.
A lady in the company shop along the street said that the museum opened at 1pm so after looking at their bed spreads, ties and chi-paos, we headed there. The story and artefacts charted the history of Mr Du Jingshen, the silk business he set up in 1922 and how it had survived until today, which was very interesting, especially through out the years of war and reform. We headed back to the lake and heard many street buskers including a pensioners playing traditional tunes with a trance beat and synth sounds, a large choir singing passionate and rousing songs with a small ensemble of traditional instruments. We found our way to the Academy of Art, had a coffee in its bookshop, and had a look around the show. For dinner we tried 'Beggars Chicken' at a restaurant on Gaoyin Street, a local dish where the whole chicken is cooked wrapped in a lotus leaf encased in mud. We also visited Renhe Road night market and picked up a bargain. One of the jewels in the crown of our trip was to be a visit to a sericulture plant and we learnt early in our planning with Jade, of Jiangsu Artall Cultural Industries, that the company owned a sericulture business near Haian, in the east of Jiangsu Province. It was a three hour drive from Nanjing, but Jade kindly organised transport and after an easy journey we arrived in the small town of Fu'anzhen in time for lunch at a little family fish restaurant. The meal was a real treat with fish soup and scorpion fish. Afterwards we arrived at the Jiangsu Fuan Cocoon & Silk Co Ltd where we were ushered into a large reception room and met the director Mr Lu. After a conversation with him and Jade we saw a promotional film about the company before proceeding on a whistle stop tour, spread across 5 different sites in the area around Fu'anzhen. One of the things we really wanted to see was the silkworms themselves and we’d heard that the noise of them munching on mulberry leaves could make quite a racket, something that Stuart was looking forward to recording! First we visited the main site which focused on the spinning and weaving. There were countless machines and with several of the manufacturing processes being undertaken, including silk extraction, sorting, spinning and reeling. Each area was very loud with its own sounds of industry which we documented as we walked around. Most of the mechanised jobs were done by women with manual jobs being shared by women and men. The looms were highly mechanised, modern and mostly rapier looms, some making fabric double the width of any we had seen before. Operators were responsible for working rows of looms working simultaneously rather than just one machine. The company were producing a range of cloth, some with traditional motifs and some with modern abstracted Chinese patterns, possibly for high-end furnishing fabrics. The second site was between the villages where we saw fields of Mulberry trees in different stages of growth. With the climate in Hai'an, plants and trees can be at any stage of the four seasons. We saw one field lush and green and ready to pick whilst an adjacent one had yellowing leaves as it was going into autumn. All were grown in quite close rows and pollarded with a row of lime trees at the edge of the fields as a shelter belt. Nearby were the silk worm breeding sheds. Mr Lu had explained that the choice of species of silkworm and trees was very scientific having been highly developed over a long time. So when we saw the open shed with silk worms on tiered trestles covered with woven bamboo it seem quite low tech. It was fascinating to behold and you could hear the silkworms eating the mulberry leaves and see them at different stages of becoming pupae, on their way to developing cocoons. The process was all done by hand, no mechanisation in sight. As we drove to the next site it was great to see the area's rural ways of life with many people working the fields and going about their daily business. We arrived at a large warehouse with huge piles of baskets and sacks of cocoons where they were being dried and stored. Once dried they were then ready for the process of extracting the silk from the cocoon.
We really appreciated the visit, it was an enlightening experience for our project and our understanding of sericulture and silk production. It was an early start for our Day travelling to Nanjing, as we were going by train and had been advised that the stations are more like airports. Xi'an North Station is about the size and shape of Stansted, with boarding gates and baggage scanners. It also didn't seemingly have any coffee outlets, much like everywhere we've been so far in China. The trains themselves are super smooth and very fast, clocking up to 303km/h on our 1100km journey east to Nanjing. We really enjoyed seeing the development of towns and cities, infrastructure projects that have been and are being built, and also the rural areas in between, with many people working the fields by hand and only being assisted occasionally by machinery. We were met in Nanjing by Jade, a representative of Jiangsu Artall Cultural Industries Co.Ltd, our partners for the project, who kindly took us to our hotel and made sure we we settled in. Nanjing is a much more western feeling city, and reminded Stuart somewhat of Melbourne, it was markedly different to Xi'an. A problem that arose in the first evening was that most food outlets, especially small shops and street vendors only take digital payments, through WeChat or AliPay, and won't take cash. We use WeChat to keep in contact with our Chinese friends and the artists who were in Yantai, but were unable to add any financial function to our accounts as we don't have a Chinese mobile number or Bank card. So we could only eat in places that accept hard cash. On our first full day we walked to Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum, which was designed by an architect that works for Artall. It has connecting courtyard, pools and gardens and many different galleries. We watched a film documenting the development of the Chi-pao, one style of traditional women's clothing, and the way that the styles have developed with western influences. The brocade exhibition was also very interesting and highlighted the importance of the Nanjing cloud patten which forms part of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is so named because it is as 'beautiful as the cloud'. Downstairs there are also two large brocade Jacquard looms made from wood and bamboo, one of which was being operated by two women. One of the women was sitting by the beam threading the weft colours and one was sitting up high pulling combinations of pulleys to control the weft. Both were working in synchronisation with each other and were working the complex procedures from memory, which captivated a small audience and we recorded this. This method of weaving cannot be replaced by machines and the operators can only produce 5-6cm in one day, giving rise to the quote 'an inch of brocade, an inch of gold'. We also visited the museum shop selling contemporary silk including garments particularly from Suzhou. In the afternoon we made our way to the Confucius Temple, purposely walking down a few of the back streets in the Wuyi District of Nanjing to observe daily life. We saw many people making the most of the last day of Golden Week, playing chess and Ma Jong, resting on benches or shopping in the Temple Market near Wuyi Alley. The temple itself was positioned next to the Qinhuai River and Wende Bridge and was a popular spot for an evening perambulation with many Chinese tourists sampling the restaurants, rickshaws and entertainment. There was a lot of red in the temple with the women performing a ceremony dressed in red silk robes, red lanterns and red carpets, symbolising good luck and happiness. One of the main reasons for coming to Nanjing was to meet our partners from Jiangsu Artall Cultural Industries Co. Ltd, who have supported the project from the beginning and helped us to make it happen. Our main contact Jade suggested that we meet them on at their gallery on Aitao Road, for the opening ceremony of their show 'Encounter Indigo Dyeing'. As well as meeting some professors and artists, we were able to see a great range of work that offered a fascinating insight into traditional and contemporary use of indigo dyeing in China. Pieces included stitched printed embroidered cloth, shorts, dresses, books and even coffee cup holders. Jade then gave us a guided tour of Artall Arts and Crafts Collection, which included some impressive carved rosewood and Jade pieces, lacquer work, a teapot collection, calligraphy, Chinese painting and embroidery. We were fortunate to meet with contemporary silk designer Mr Ye in his studio, take tea and to see and talk about his work. He had a display including an Emperor's robe and other pieces for inspiration. He told us that he buys silk made in Suzhou and focuses on colour and repetition based on traditional motifs. We also, visited the studio of a painter, where we saw a series of dreamy watercolour paintings reminiscent of the view of the river from the window. Later we enjoyed a fabulous fish lunch nearby with Mr Ye, Miss Du and Jade, giving us much needed time to talk about the future of the project and our partnership, which all made significant and positive progress. On Wednesday after buying some figs from a street seller with a yoke we took the Metro to the Nanjing Museum. Like most of the museums, the building is of national and regional importance with a collection of many different things relating to the Province of Jiangsu. This collection goes as far back as 350,000 years with the appearance of Nanjing ape man and rice cultivation c. 6000BC marking the beginning of China's agricultural revolution. Early silk finds included several simple neolithic pottery spinning wheels. The museum charts silk development through the Zhang and Zhou Dynasties, Wu and Yue Warring States period, Hang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Quin Dynasties each with their developing technology, cultural significance, changing styles and influences. Particular importance was placed on examples of local Yunjin brocade silk, which was included on the representative list of 'Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity' by UNESCO in 2009. Other intangible crafts playing an important role in the areas heritage included folk literature, dance, music and plays. There were a lot of examples of silk garments from throughout these periods plus other accessories such as fans and parasols.
After a long time exploring the gallery we caught the Metro south to Wudingmen Station and took a slow stroll around the narrow alleys which were full of street sellers, artist studios and shops. Jianzi Alley and Santiaoying were particularly interesting, with contrasting architecture, soundscapes and social activities. We couldn't find this in our guide books or maps but it's well worth a visit. We were up early on Sunday morning to catch a flight to Xi’an at the eastern end of the Silk Road. It was sad to say farewell to Wen and Yantai, as we had been made to feel so welcome and had a great introduction to the Chinese people and culture. Ruth hopes that she can return to swim in the Yellow Sea and maybe bring our Silk Road exhibition, together with paintings and sound works back to Yantai in the future. The flight took us across the plains and mountains inland to Xi’an, the furthest point west on our journey, but the accepted easterly point of the ancient Silk Road, even though silk and other commodities would have travelled much further east across China and to Korea and Japan. The patterns of the mountains are reminiscent of Chinese landscape painting and it was interesting to see the variously coloured blues of the roofs of buildings which could be mistaken for pools of water. We shared a very fast taxi from the airport (Stuart thought he had bought a bus ticket) with some locals which dropped us near the south gate. This was still a reasonable distance from our Airbnb so we halted a green and orange taxi, which took us to the destination, a large complex of high rise apartment blocks of 33 storeys, bringing us much closer to the towers that you can see in abundance from the sky. The city is ancient and has many impressive buildings, including the drum tower, bell tower, south gate, and the huge wall that encompasses the whole 5 square miles of the old city. We had read a lot of advice that said to avoid China, and in particular Xi'an during Golden Week (a national holiday with 700 million people (!) travelling to visit family or going on vacation), as it would be very crowded and full of queues for everything. But we're glad we did as there were amazing light shows from the city walls, buildings were lit up with light displays, there were live music performances and dancing in the street, with a festival feeling all week long, especially in the evenings and everyone was friendly! Throughout the week we braved the queues and made visits to culturally significant places, especially those with connections to silk and the Silk Road. We patiently queued for four hours to visit the Shaanxi Museum but there wasn’t as much evidence of silk in the collection as we had anticipated. The first thing we encountered in connection with silk was a gilded bronze silkworm - small, but used as something of an emblem for the museum. The collections had some early fragments of silk from the Tang Dynasty, some plain and lightweight, others woven cream and brown, a little heavier but all were very fragile. We also saw pottery camels laden with silk, reaffirming this city as the main trading point at the eastern end of the Silk Road. A trip to Xi'an wouldn't be complete without visiting the Terracotta Army, and we booked with the taxi driver we had used previously, which was a rather fast and exhilarating ride, especially in the vast amount of traffic heading to Lintong. We made it in one piece and were greeted by an artist, friend of another artist in Xi'an who we'd been in touch with, who had kindly arranged tickets for us, which helped a lot as we didn't have to queue for them. We arranged a guide, Mountain, who expertly took us round which proved very helpful to navigate the huge 'people waves' (as Wen described them). At the other end of the scale was the 'world of decorative cloth' which was a building we had passed on several evenings on our way home, which almost looked derelict. But by day it is a bustling market of stalls and traders dealing in textiles and fabrics for the domestic market, with plenty of curtains and furnishings and about ten people, women and men, working treadle sewing machines. A trip to Xi'an wouldn't be complete without visiting the Terracotta Army, and we booked with the taxi driver we had used previously, which was a rather fast and exhilerating ride, especially in the vast amount of traffic heading to Lintong. We made it in one piece and were greeted by an artist, friend of another artist in Xi'an who we'd been in touch with, who had kindly arranged tickets for us, which helped a lot as we didn't have to queue for them. We arranged a guide, Mountain, who expertly took us round which proved very helpful to navigate the huge 'people waves' (as Wen described them). At the other end of the scale was the 'world of decorative cloth' which was a building we had passed on several evenings on our way home, which almost looked derelict. But by day it is a bustling market of stalls and traders dealing in textiles and fabrics for the domestic market, with plenty of curtains and furnishings and about ten people, women and men, working treadle sewing machines. There were plenty of shops around the city selling silk and other fabrics. Silk was also visible across the city with lanterns and silk knots, symbolic of friendship decorating entrances to buildings and the streets themselves. We saw less evidence of silk manufacturing in Xi'an but as we'll see in the next leg of the journey, much of that happens further east where the conditions for sericulture are much more favourable.
The first leg of our research trip to China with our visit to Yantai to take part in the first Biennale of the Sino-British Contemporary Art Exhibition has been completed. Our time in Yantai has been a great introduction to the Chinese people and culture. Yantai Art Museum, their director and their curator Wen Wang were fantastic hosts and we thank them for inviting Ruth to undertake an artist residency there with Contemporary British Painting and for showing our film The River Runs Through Us. We hope to return to YAM again in the future. During our time there we visited the artist studio of Zu Zuejie, an exhibition of the calligraphy of Pan Yingqi and saw the stone carving on Yunfeng mountain. We made field recordings in east port fishing port and market and explored Yantaishan Park with its steep hill, twisting paths and former consulate buildings where we saw evidence of silk including threads, a loom, silk shoes and boots. Ruth's first glimpse of silk was at Yantai Folk Museum, on the day of the Moon Festival where the temple and trees were decorated with silk ribbons, and there are a small number of silk artefacts in their collection. A particular highlight for FSR was a visit to Yantai Museum where we had an interesting tour by the director, Felipe Lee. The collections there contain early evidence of spinning from the Neolithic age, with spinning whorls, early hand tools, a bone needle, silk waving shuttle, spindle, loom. We heard about the role of the trading routes during the Sui and Tang Dynasties when Yantai was a departure port and played an active role in trade and cultural communication with Silla (now on the Korean Peninsula) and then Japan. We saw booklets documenting import tariffs and sale of silk clothing, old silk clothing, cocaine, cinnabar, cinnamon, cochineal, coffins with corpses, cloves, cornelians, corals, cotton fluff, copperas, amongst other things! Documents included the trade mark of the Yantai Changsheng Silk Factory, and information on the textiles trade, showing increase or decrease of articles exported in 1885. Figures showed that silk pongees had increased, raw silk decreased. Lace making was also important for them.
The museum has a very interesting collection of silk garments, with many wall hangings, shoes and other artefacts. Much of the silk was lightweight and had been embroidered. Now we have travelled over 1300km west to the very important silk trading city of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, to begin the next part of our research. It's great news that next year in 2019 Sudbury will have a new Silk Festival happening on Saturday 7th September to coincide with Heritage Open Weekend.
Ruth is pleased to be helping with the co-ordination of the festival. Events include displays by silk mills, silk weaving history and memorabilia, weaving and dyeing demonstations, stands by contemporary textiles artists, a textiles supplies stand, a film and weaving workshops in St Peter's Church. Specialist talks on silk, textiles and literature connected with the silk industry, its Huguenot originals and links with Spitalfields will take place in the Town Hall. There will also be silk walks and architectural silk heritage walks looking at weavers cottages, merchants houses, sites of silk mills and the current silk mills around the town. We're pleased to announce that we have been granted a British Council Artist International Development Fund grant (Yay!) and can now start putting in to action our plans for Phase One of the project.
During the summer we will be visiting silk mills in Sudbury to document the processes that go into the manufacture of silk and speak to the people that continue the long history of the town's silk heritage. Later in the year we will be travelling to China during September and October to visit silk mills, museums, sericulture plants and museum spaces, with the help of our partners Jiangsu Artall Cultural Industries Ltd, and Yantai Art Museum to learn, document, photograph and record sound and look at potential venues for the exhibitions in 2020/21. Keep an eye on this blog, and our social media feeds, for updates as the project progresses. |
AuthorProject updates from Ruth and Stuart. Archive
September 2019
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