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Description

Long bundle of braided stem-like material; unbraided, flaring and slightly blackened at bottom. Bound in six places with twine. Twine loop for hanging at top.

Specific Techniques

After vines had been gathered, they were dried and then braided, combined, and bound to form the brush.

History Of Use

In the past, until about 1960, every family had several of these brushes, as they were needed to clean out the big woks used to cook rice, food for pigs, and other foods. Two would be worn out in the course of a year. Although the vines were readily available, women always went to gather them on the morning of the Dragon Boats Festival. They dried the vines, and then braided and bound them. The brushes are very tough. In 1976, when this brush was donated, people in Kwan Mun Hau village no longer raised pigs, and rice was generally not cooked in woks, so the brushes were used only on the occasions of festivals and banquets, when big woks were used to cook large quantities of food.

Narrative

Mrs. Yau Chan, Shek-ying gave this wok brush that she had made to Elizabeth Johnson to add to the Chinese collections of the Museum of Anthropology. She understood the importance of preserving objects that provided evidence of the local history that she had experienced, and she gave significant support to the collection and documentation of many objects in the Museum of Anthropology’s Hong Kong collections.
Mrs. Yau made this wok brush when she was pregnant with her fifth child.