Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum

aided fringes. To one of the fringes is attached a short and narrow
band woven with a small floral design. It may have served as
a reinforcing tie or a simple decorative element. The pattern of
the much wider ties, bordered by dark blue bands with minute
dots, is composed of irregular forms—both characters and
symbols—enclosed in interlocking diamond-shaped frames
of different sizes. They are all arranged diagonally, paralleling
one another. Yet in the haphazard positioning of the forms,
they may be represented facing any direction. Appearing
in blue on white, the characters are all constructed as
angular configurations composed of simple straight lines
or straight lines that make right-angle turns. Some of the
Chinese characters can be easily recognized, but many are
so abstracted and fragmented as to make them impossible to
decipher. If a message is embodied in these characters, it is too
cryptic to understand.
Nevertheless, several characters expressing popular auspicious
wishes, such as fu (good fortune), lu (wealth), shou (longevity), and
the twin form of xi (double happiness), are among the recognizable
ones. Symbols that have been mixed in the jumble include the wan
FH or swastika-like sign, the double open cross, double closed cross,
interlocking arcs, and interlocking lozenges. The wan symbol means
ten thousand and, by extension, long life. The symbol made up of two
interlocking lozenges is called fangsheng. It signifies prosperity. The
significance of the rest is ambiguous.
Since the Han dynasty Chinese characters have been woven
into silk, brocade, wool, and cotton.16 Whether they appeared as
single images or as inscriptions, they were always meant to convey
auspicious blessings or admonitions. In the light of this long history,
the jumble of characters we see in the two ties is baffling. Perhaps the
weaver had only minimal education. Yet she saw the attractive potential
in using Chinese characters as a decorative element and the challenge
of using threads to "write" them out in ways that pleased her.
As a rule, such ties are embellished with geometric or
floral motifs.17 This pair, therefore, is quite unique.
THIS SCARF, made of a narrow strip of
unbleached cotton, is woven with sets of three horizontal
lines across the width.18 The sets are spaced
apart at equidistance at both ends, but are spaced
further apart as they progress towards the midsection
to allow for additional bands of patterns.
The patterns are structured by interweaving one
set of ground warp with two sets of wefts—with
the ground weft forming the plain weave while
the blue-coloured weft forms the patterns.
No less than twenty-eight patterns are shown
here and only one pattern—a chain pattern—has been repeated
once (the beginning and ending bands are identical). The repertoire
includes simple patterns made up of repeat crosses, wavy lines,
triangles, meanders, lattices, linking trapeziums, as well as more
complex patterns depicting facing ducks, three variations of single file
of dancers holding hands, double files of them represented back to
back, zigzags, the wan motif, eight-point stars, and densely structured
geometric configurations.
This scarf was created by a girl or woman of the Miao ethnic
nationality. By exhibiting a great variety of patterns in her work, she
succeeds not only in making this humble head piece look attractive,
but also makes known her knowledge and skill in weaving. In fact,
she may well have used it also as a convenient sampler, unraveling
to interested friends the intricacies of some of the more complex
patterns.
8. SCARF, Cotton, 1980s, Miao ethnic group, Kaili, Guizhou province, GiftofDr. Ka
Bo Tsang in memory of Mrs. Tsang Ng Sheung, 2004.68.7, L. 86.5 cm x W. 24.5 cm
19