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Description

Cylindrical woven band with spiral pattern in red, yellow, blue, white, and green. Tassels, predominantly red, at each end. Brown plastic buttons sewed at the top of each tassel.

Specific Techniques

Woven on a simple backstrap loom with a continuous circular warp. The weaver first set up the warp by winding a series of circles in the order of the colours in which she wanted them to appear in the finished band. They were wound between a finger of her left hand and the corner of a stool that held them taut. She then tied the ends of the threads so that a continuous circle was formed, and inserted a chopstick through the end of the circle and tucked into a belt tied around her waist to keep the warp tau and her hands free. She then created a shed by taking a piece of bamboo about 10 cm long and 1 cm in diameter and winding the warp threads alternately around it above and below. The centre warp threads were wound in pairs and those on the edges singly, as the pattern would be picked only in the centre panel, which the edges often were striped. She then made a bar heddle, using a dagger-shaped beater made from a smooth piece of wood, often from a broken carrying pole. The purpose of the heddle was to raise the lower warp threads. She used the beater to raise these threads and hold them, while a loop of strong thread was made between each pair of threads and the weaver’s hand. When all the loops had been made they were secured with a piece of strong grass that served as a handle. She then wove four lengths of strong grass (lease rods) near the end of the warp nearest to her body, to prevent the warp from being tangled. She then made one or more tassels from equal lengths of thread, knotted in the centre, and passed them through the warp, secured with rows of weaving on each side. She then wove the band, weaving the edges in plain weave and using the beater to pick any of various complex patterns in the centre of the band. The band was finished with the insertion of another set of tassels, and about one quarter of the total length was left unwoven to add more bulk to the tassels. The band was cut in the centre of the unwoven part.

Narrative

This object is one of a number of old and no longer used objects collected from relatives of Mrs. Yau Chan, Shek –ying. She understood the purpose of the museum and of developing its collections, and encouraged her relatives to donate them. She also documented the objects for MOA based on her remarkable memory because, like most women her age, she had no opportunity to go to school. According to Tsang, Kiu, she had made this band about 50 years prior to the date when it was collected, which was in January 1980. In 1980, Chik Wai Koon Village was about to be destroyed to make way for the development of Shatin new town, and its residents moved to new housing. They would then have to give up agriculture. Hakka people are one of the two original land-dwelling groups that settled the area that became the New Territories of Hong Kong. Their spoken language, and some customs, differed from those of the other original group, the Cantonese or Punti. The Cantonese arrived first and settled on the best rice-growing lands, while the Hakka began to arrive after the late 17th century and settled the more hilly lands.

History Of Use

Hakka women were known for their ability to do heavy labouring work outdoors. Their clothing in general was plain, decorated only with the hand-woven bands worn on their aprons, head cloths, and hats. Cylindrical patterned bands were made only by women who lived in Shatin District, and only for the purpose of fastening their aprons across the back. They were worn only in hot weather. After the mid-twentieth century the New Territories of Hong Kong began to undergo fundamental changes. The people who had been settled there before 1898, when the British colonizers claimed the area, began to give up rice agriculture and coastal fishing, turning instead to wage labour and increased employment overseas. By the end of the century, educational opportunities leading to the possibility of white-collar work also increased, together with western influences. These changes meant that objects and clothing once useful and appropriate were no longer needed and generally were discarded. Some were saved by their owners, who sometimes were willing to donate them to museums, sharing, also, their knowledge of how they were made and used. By the late 1960s, women were giving up traditional Chinese-style clothing in favour of western-influenced blouses and pants. It is quite certain that no one in the New Territories of Hong Kong knows how to do this weaving any more.

Iconographic Meaning

The fact that the band is cylindrical showed that the wearer was from Shatin, and the fact that the pattern includes red indicated that she was married.