Two Young Teachers In Wuxi Save Themselves From Han Nationality's Folk Costume

total The measure of area The more than 800 square meter folk costume studio has collected more than 1500 sets of Han costumes since the middle and late Qing Dynasty. These costumes come from Jiangnan Water Village, Southern Fujian, Southern Anhui, Jinzhong, Central Plains, Qinlong and Qilu areas. They include 30 categories: coat, sweater, gown, robe, vest, Qipao, raincoat, skirt, trousers, hat, eyebrow, Baotou, warm ear, powder puff, cloud shoulder, belly pocket, waist bag, purse, leggings, laces, bottom socks, bow shoes, foot shoes and fan sleeves.

On the first floor of the exhibition hall, the "Wu Dong water village dress", which was first collected by the national intangible cultural heritage list, is displayed in a prominent position. This set of Jiangnan women's clothing from top to bottom in turn has Baotou, eyebrow, splicing shirt, skirt, waist waist, big crotch splicing pants, roll binding, and 8 embroidered shoes. Professor Cui Rongrong, the head of the exhibition hall, let reporters pay attention to the embroidered shoes. "These embroidered shoes are for women with big feet. Before the women in the south of the Yangtze River have to work, there are more women in the south." According to Cui Rongrong, the women in Jiangnan Water Village are not only industrious but also frugal. "Look at the clothes on the upper part of this dress, they are spliced with broken cloth heads, which not only saves the cloth, but also sets up some splicing joints in the vulnerable parts of the front and cuffs of the clothes, so that the worn parts can be replaced at the same time, and the beauty of the whole clothes will not be destroyed due to patching."

The same is the work women dress up, South Fujian coastal Huian women dress and Jiangnan Water Village dress is not the same, its characteristic design is also known as "feudal head, democracy belly, save shirt, waste pants". "Feudal head" means that they wear various kinds of decorations. The Democratic belly means that most of the clothes are short, and many girls' belly is exposed. The sweater is similar to the splicing shirt of the south of the Yangtze River, but the Huian is more short and close. The chest and sleeve shrink tightly to the chest arm, the sleeves are only half of the arms, and the clothes are only to the umbilicus. Cui Rongrong said that women's clothing in Southern Fujian obviously showed the way of working for the coastal residents. The generous "waste" trouser legs were designed to cool down in the hot coastal climate.

Speaking of the selected province Culture Hall Cui Rongrong, a research base for the "intangible heritage", is quite impressed. "So many clothes are bought from all over the country by me. One of them is only a part of it. Many of the clothes are still in the warehouse of the school." During the collection of these costumes, he was both touched and fun, but he also experienced many breathtaking moments. "In Hongcun, Anhui, I received a leather jacket in the Republic of China at the villager's home. As a result, there was a heavy rain on the way back. At that time, the borrowed motorcycle was unable to catch fire again, and only a few hours on the mountain road was pushed. It was a big night at the time. If you accidentally slipped down the hillside, it would be a thorough explanation. "

The Han nationality folk clothing studio more than 3000 pieces of clothing, actually from the Jiangnan University clothing and textile school two teachers "self rescue" began. At the end of 2002, Cui Rongrong's 95 year old grandmother died. In the bamboo basket under his grandmother's bed, he found a pale blue jacket worn by her grandmother when she was married, and a pair of spiked shoes that had gone through more than a century. The two costumes were all well preserved. "I suddenly feel that with the departure of a generation of old people, traditional folk costumes will gradually disappear in our life." This sense of urgency to rescue and protect traditional costumes is to enable him to collect and study the origin of Han folk costume.

From 2003 to 2008, more than 5 years after the completion of the biography hall, Cui Rongrong and his partner Zhang Jingqiong have gone through 35 counties and cities in 9 provinces, including Jiangsu, Shanxi and Anhui. They have collected more than 1000 pieces of Han nationality folk costumes and left over 100 valuable pictures.

In order to collect the clothing of Wu Dong water village, they came to Suzhou Pavilion. When they walked into a family to explain their intentions, the news that old clothes could sell money quickly spread around several villages, and the old people went home to find out the embroidered shoes, binding and old clothes at the bottom of the pressure box. What surprised them was that an old man had simply unwrapped them on their waist and sold them to them. "Then I found that there was still a coin in the dark pocket of the waist." Recalling the "adventure" in Suzhou, Cui Rongrong said that dozens of people gathered around their bargaining scenes to make themselves unforgettable.

Two young teachers at their own expense collections have been supported by their universities. Jiangnan University, in the absence of funds, pulled out 2 million yuan of funds, 500 thousand for clothing collection, and 1 million 500 thousand for exhibition hall decoration, so that today's Han nationality folk costume studio.

Why is the name of the museum known as the "biography hall"? Cui Rongrong said that in the tide of modernization, the folk costume has gone away. This should belong to their survival soil. "To protect and inherit these traditional folk costume culture, we should learn and inherit creatively instead of simply copying the predecessors' creation, which is the meaning of passing and learning."