Kissing daughters embroidering love from generation to generation
The saying “Daughter is my mother’s close-fitting cotton-padded jacket” was originally used to describe her daughter’s meticulous care for her parents, which made people feel tender and warm. When she made a little cotton-padded jacket for her daughter, she was really surprised and surprised, and even lamented for a long time.
The first surprise is that Long Mingfen currently has no daughter, and his son is just over two years old. But she has already dyed and embroidered a series of “daughter dresses” personally, cotton, single, worn, and worn. She naturally introduced to us: “These are the clothes I made for my daughter.”
“Daughter’s?” I couldn’t help confirming it again, because everyone knew she had only one son at the moment.
“Yes.”
“you are pregnant?”
“No, teacher!” (Laughs)
“Where is that daughter?”
“There will be later.”
“How do you know that the future Erbao must be a naughty boy?” I laughed.
“It doesn’t matter, even if I don’t have a daughter, I can give it to my niece.”
“Does any mother make clothes for her daughter, regardless of whether she has a daughter?”
“Yes, teacher. This is what our customs are like.”
“Oh!”
The second surprise is that Long Mingfen personally dyed and embroidered the “future daughter clothes”, so unexpectedly so meticulous! Especially the little cotton-padded jacket, the color, embroidery, and silver jewelry are all very elegant. The needlework shows that the mother is very attentive when sewing. In fact, these are all done by Mingfen at work, pregnancy, baby-sitting, and housework.
Needlework female red is necessary to adapt to life, beautify life and social development. The hands of a loving mother, the children’s tops, and needlework are the compulsory homework for women of all generations to change their roles from young girls to wives and mothers. But making clothes for “imaginary daughters” is both a Miao custom and an artistic creation. Imagination and association are important psychological mechanisms in artistic creation. The difference is that in this custom, in addition to the aesthetics of clothing, maternal love always runs through. Emotions are the life of creation. How can the Miao costumes with their emotional colors shine? This custom also plays a role in promoting the generational transmission of human culture. The superb and complicated Miao family’s dyeing, weaving and embroidering skills are inseparable from this unique life replacement cultural ecology. The organic integration of the two makes the Miao nationality’s clothing culture spread from generation to generation and will never stop. In the cultural heritage, the roles of women and mothers are extremely important. And when our cultural heritage and generations are seamlessly integrated, the meaning of costume culture goes far beyond the costume itself, and the cultural heritage seems to have no worries. No wonder Miao costumes are hailed by scholars as the “gene library of apparel craftsmanship”. This gene bank contains not only craft genes but also more cultural implications.
Long Mingfen had a slim figure and a smile on his face. It is a gratifying thing to see such a young Miao Xiu successor.
“At a young age, embroiderers are so good. Who did you learn from?” I asked curiously.
“I was married to Shi Dong, all the girls over there will be ah, teacher!”
It seems that the collectively known “Miao embroidery” still has differences in skills and styles in different regions. More than one non-legacy student told me about “Shi Dong”. Taijiang is the center of Miao embroidery, and Shidong embroidery is also the representative of Taijiang. It is said that Shi Dong Miao embroidery has the highest originality and artistic achievements in Guizhou’s national folk embroidery, as well as the richest cultural connotation and the most representative. It is known as “Shi Dong Miao embroidery”. The Shidong Miao embroidery perfectly combines the history and culture that bears the Miao nationality with the clothing pattern decoration to achieve the perfect unity of the content and form of the pattern. The content of the pattern complements the history and culture of the Miao nationality, and the form of the pattern interprets “beauty” vividly. From the perspective of patterning, form and content are interdependent, and ordinary subjects can reflect the beauty of content with the help of form beauty.
Long Mingfen was the first young student I met during my return visit. It was also the first student I encountered who returned to his hometown after research and training but did not engage in direct and non-legacy related work. When I first heard it, I felt a little surprised or even lost, but it was normal to think again. The so-called “non-heritage transformation”, “non-heritage cultural tourism”, “non-heritage industry” and “non-heritage poverty alleviation” are all “non-heritage” “extracurricular homework”. The “Long Mingfen phenomenon” is actually true to a certain extent. It reproduces the daily attributes of “non-legacy”: it is a part of people’s lives, and it seems to have normal ecology, normal inheritance and normal development. No special emphasis or reminders are needed. People naturally “inherit” and they are not necessarily endangered and do not need to worry. Isn’t it right? Shouldn’t it exist and pass on in people’s lives like this?
But Long Mingfen is a real heir. She said that because she was a newly-wife-in-law and worked outside, she was not completely familiar with the local area. It was difficult for a while to organize women in her village to set up cooperatives or something, but her craft did not dare to be abandoned. Moreover, after marrying Mingfen, not only did he busy with embroidery and sewing, he also learned weaving and dyeing from his mother-in-law, and not many Miao women could master the skills of dyeing, weaving and embroidering at the same time. Miaobu is also a national non-legacy list project. Mingfen said that special dyeing and weaving techniques and processing methods must be used to make it look satin-like luster and full of nobleness, and then embroidered with embroidery and silver ornaments. Highlight the rich tone of Miao costumes. Mingfen’s life is everyday, but full of beauty.
Before going to Donghua University, Long Mingfen was a kindergarten teacher. He was lively by nature and loved to sing and dance. When we visited more than a year later, she had already worked in an insurance company. This age is exactly when the family is working hard, and it is completely understandable to run around for life. But compared with others, Mingfen is commendable: no matter how busy or tired, still concentrate on embroidering and dyeing fabrics.
“Why learn to weave and dye cloth again?” I asked curiously.
“I am a wife-in-law, dyeing cloth is a very tiring job, and my mother-in-law is getting older. I should help her pass on this skill.”
The intergenerational inheritance of nature and the simple emotions of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are important guarantees that the Miao costume culture and craftsmanship can be passed to this day. Long Mingfen ’s home is located on a high slope in the middle of the field. Therefore, the car can only be parked on the road in Tiantou, and you need to cross the Tiangeni Road to get there. When we got off the car, Ming Fen just ran to the side of the road. He smiled and said hello that the weather was hotter. In this way, I really took a good look at her: the hat is actually a silver-encrusted headband, and it is also equipped with a pair of long silver earrings, a black sleeveless T-shirt on the top, and a big flower short on the bottom Culottes look both traditional and fashionable.
The country road was covered with greetings from the teachers and students of Donghua. On the way, an old lady was carrying a large basket of fruits and vegetables. Ming Fen introduced that this was her grandmother. Hearing that Fen’s Shanghai teacher was coming, he specially picked fresh melons in the field and sent them. The old man was so spirited that when asked, he was already 86 years old! Labor may be the most effective health care remedy. The old man wears glasses and cannot understand Mandarin, but smiles at us very cheerfully, and there are two pairs of embroidered shoes in the basket.
“Is it possible to embroider at such an advanced age?” I asked casually.
Ming Fen took the basket from his grandmother and replied, “Yes! My grandmother can still embroider while wearing glasses.”
Some people say that embroidering hurts my eyes, but in Guizhou, I often meet the elders who have embroidered flowers for a lifetime. The eyes are still bright, and the needles are not bad! Like other craftsmanship, these skilled craftsmen seem to be using their hands, but they are actually working hard, because their fingers are connected and their hearts are at their fingertips, they are easy to work in, they are happy, and their minds are bright.
Mingfen’s home is much like a country house, with three floors up and down, front and back balconies, and a wide view. There are fields in front of the window, mountains in the distance, and green eyes. We admire Mingfen’s embroidery works, and the accompanying professional teachers greatly appreciate her color matching design, and proudly wear a small plaid shirt made by Mingfen, and embroidered sleeves. I have experienced the enthusiasm of the Miao family’s “singing wine continuously” more than once before. The lunch of the Mingfen family is becoming more and more lively. The aunts come, the children come, and the big round table can’t sit down. Everyone has a bright personality and a bright voice, and the taste of home-brewed wine is naturally more mellow.
My mother-in-law showed me her circle of friends in the song. It turned out that my mother-in-law also loved to sing and dance, and she also loved the show and the show was generous. She admired her photo of her dress, and I joked that her hairstyle resembled Japanese. The mother-in-law said, “Really! Japanese friends see that we feel particularly kind!”
“Oh my God!” Perhaps this is the biggest feedback that in-depth visits bring to college teachers. Not only did we understand the learning situation of non-legacy students, and the local ecology of non-legacy, we inadvertently have unexpected gains.
Regarding the relationship between Japan and the southwestern Miao nationality, cultural anthropology has been heard from time to time. For example, the ancestors of the Japanese have many similarities with the Miao people in Guizhou, including some everyday phenomena in life. In the past, there were also some Japanese scholars who specifically visited Miao areas such as Southeast Guizhou, and some even concluded that the ancestors of the Japanese were Guizhou Miao. In terms of language, there are many similarities in the pronunciation of Hmong and Japanese. It is said that in Mengzheng Miao, the words including “face, nose, eyes, mouth, stomach, shoes” are almost the same. From the perspective of traditional dress culture, Japanese women wear kimonos by age and fancy to distinguish age or married or unmarried. Southwestern Miao people also have a similar dress phenomenon. Others think that the shape and hairstyle of the Japanese are very similar to the Miao people. Are these inextricably linked cultures exactly the cultural foundations that build the community of human destiny? Such research itself is also a very meaningful subject.
When we left, Mingfen’s aunt suddenly took out a “goodbye gift”, two towels and a webbing for each person, which is the local custom of sending off guests. Ming Fen said that this has been advancing with the times. In the past, everyone brought a piece of earthen cloth dyed and woven by the host, but now it is changed to a more practical towel and webbing. All the members of the returning team liked it and brought the towels carefully. Many important Chinese etiquettes have been incorporated into non-legacy protection projects, and the sense of ceremony is needed by everyone and is also necessary for cultural heritage. Development and changes are advancing with the times, but the experience of the hospitality etiquette of the Miao family has enabled our return visit to carry more meaning and more reverie and experience.
According to Japan ’s “Yomiuri Shimbun” reported on the 6th, after Abe issued a declaration of emergency, schools and department stores in the relevant areas will be closed for a large area, but supermarkets and gas stations that meet basic daily needs will continue to operate. Tokyo and Osaka have previously announced emergency response policies. Most of the Japanese people expressed their understanding of the new decision of the Abe government, but there are also people who worry that the reduction in income will affect their lives. Abe said on the 6th that it will formulate an economic stimulus plan worth 108 trillion yen (about 7 trillion yuan), and will distribute about 6 trillion yen in cash to low-income families and small and medium-sized enterprises. A senior Japanese government official said that the government will consider providing multiple rounds of subsidies to residents and businesses.
As of the early morning on the 7th, Beijing time, there were 4061 confirmed cases in Japan, plus passengers, crew, and charterers returning from the “Diamond Princess” cruise ship. There were 4,787 cases and 108 deaths. According to media reports such as “Japan Economic News”, the epidemic is most severe in the metropolitan area centered on Tokyo and the Kansai area dominated by Osaka Prefecture. According to data from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on the 6th, the number of confirmed cases in Tokyo reached 1,116 on the day, and 428 cases were confirmed in Osaka. The number of newly confirmed cases in Tokyo on the 4th was 117 in a single day, which was the first time that the number of new cases in the region reached triple digits, and the number on the 5th increased to 143. The Kyodo News said that the Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Association said on the 6th that as the epidemic expanded, the risk of “medical collapse” that could not treat critical patients increased, so it declared a medical emergency. “It will take at least about 6 weeks to reduce the number of newly diagnosed cases until there are no infected people in the area.” Said the president of the association, Masao Ozaki. In addition, the US military headquarters in Japan announced on the 6th that the epidemic situation in the Tokyo metropolitan area had expanded and declared that the bases and facilities in the Kanto region had entered a state of health emergency, which continued until May 5.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun stated that the majority of confirmed cases in Tokyo are young people, and most confirmed cases cannot confirm the route of infection. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that many confirmed cases refused to provide their activities to the relevant departments. According to the “Japan Economic News” report, with the expansion of testing efforts, the number of confirmed cases in Japan will enter a stage of rapid growth. The Global Times reporter learned that Japan can currently test up to 1,200 samples a day.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Japan has not announced measures such as the closure of the city, but the growing epidemic has made the people feel anxious. Japanese TBS TV and other media analyzed that the measures announced by the government in a state of emergency are not mandatory, and this will have a negative impact on the economy, so the Japanese government has been reluctant to declare the state into a state of emergency. However, a recent poll released by the TV station shows that 80% of Japanese believe that the government should issue a declaration of emergency earlier. As early as late March, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Professor Yamanaka Yamanaka, called on the government to take a strong countermeasure.
According to Kyodo News and other media reports on the 6th, Abe believes that if the epidemic continues to expand, Japan will face the risk of a collapse of the medical system, which is one of the reasons he decided to declare a state of emergency. In addition, the development of new coronavirus vaccines and related drugs will take time to postpone the peak period of outbreaks, which will gain more time for drug development. Abe’s latest decision may have a negative impact on the economy. However, according to the “Japan Economic News” report, the Japanese government finally decided to take strong control measures or inject some positive sentiment into the market. On the 6th, the Tokyo stock market finally reversed after consecutive declines, closing at 4.24% and rising to a high of nearly a week.
