Bracelet

Item number 807/3 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Black coloured circular bracelet joined with elaborate knot of brass wire coated with red paint(?).

History Of Use

According to Mrs. Yau Chan, Shek-Ying, bracelets like this had been worn in the past by Cantonese boat-dwelling women and Cantonese women from Taishan County. The bracelet should be wrapped with four bands of very thin gold. This bracelet would have been given to an adult woman with very small hands when she was married. Her mother would have given her a pair of these bracelets if she could afford them, as well as a pair of gold bracelets. The groom’s family would not have given jewellery but only the bride price of Hong Kong $80-100, which would have been used to pay for the jewellery.

Narrative

This bracelet was collected by James Hayes in about 1975. According to Mrs. Yau Chan, Shek-Ying of Kwan Mun Hau Village, Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, such bracelets were worn by Cantonese boat-dwelling women (known by the rather derogatory term Tanka) and Cantonese women from Taishan County.

Iconographic Meaning

Mrs. Yau’s statements suggest that these bracelets symbolized the fact that a woman was married, and that she was Cantonese from a fishing family or from Taishan County.