Miao Textiles from China, and: Clothed to Rule the Universe: Ming to Qing Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago (review)

Historically, textiles and clothing have been an integral component of identity expression in many cultures throughout Asia. Chinese textiles and costume have been used as a pivotal feature of social organization among Han Chinese as well as among the numerous minority groups in China. Although much has been written about textiles and costume among the Han, there is very little in print on the textiles and clothing of China's minority groups. Gina Corrigan's Miao Textiles from China provides interesting photos of the textiles and costume of the Miao from southwest China. It is one of a series of small books (Fabric Folios) on ethnic textiles developed by the University of Washington Press and targeted toward textile designers. Each of these books draws on the collection of textiles at the British Museum, and Gina Corrigan has provided a beautifully photographed volume for the Fabric Folios series.

Festival costumes in China's Guizhou Province are among the most significant forms of visual art for the Miao. Textiles are primarily handwoven using supplementary weft designs and are then elaborated with surface-design techniques such as wax-resist dyes, embroidery, and ribbon work. Miao Textiles from China provides a glimpse into a fascinating world in which the design of textiles and costume are clearly of vast importance to the Miao. In less than fifteen pages of introductory text, Corrigan offers a very brief summary of the use of textiles and costume in Guizhou Province in an attempt to provide a sociocultural context for these elaborate garments. Design features and surface-design techniques are also briefly described in the photo captions. A glossary is provided in simple language.

Corrigan has taken on a huge task; to try to explain Miao textiles and costume adequately in such a small book would be difficult without clearly delimiting its scope, but she manages to touch briefly on a little bit of everything. For instance, Miao women's costume is composed of jackets, skirts, aprons, and gaiters, and Corrigan notes that there are over eighty different costumes that fall into six categories. But she does not develop this information or even explain the basic differences between the categories. The photos clearly indicate that there are other textiles and accessories that are part of Miao costume, but, again, information about this is absent in the text.

Historical information is also missing. From the style of her writing we might presume that the author is describing the contemporary situation of the Miao, but there is no way of knowing this as there are no references to dates anywhere in the book. The photos of people are not dated, nor is there any indication of the approximate dates of the garments in the museum's collection. With so little information, it is impossible to know if the textiles and clothing shown are contemporary or from another era.

Reading Miao Textiles from China might prove to be a frustrating experience for the reader. The book barely touches the surface of important topics related to textile design, and this reader was left with more questions than answers.

Dress includes clothing, adornment, grooming, and care of the body; it is a gestalt from which an image is created. In Chinese society, clothing became integral to the system of social organization in its representation of the social hierarchy. Chinese costume has interested Westerners for some time, as is made clear in the essays in the exhibition catalog Clothed to Rule the Universe: Ming to Qing Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago. Highlighted in this volume is the fine collection of late Ming and Qing dynasty textiles and costume donated to the...