Impulse Buy of the Day…

By Amanda Lensch
UNL Graduate Student

Don’t worry mom, it was only about $10.

Yesterday we traveled outside of Xi’an to a little village about three hours away (we had no idea it was going to be that far...) to visit women who make textile goods for the tourist market. These women didn’t speak English, but were so hospitable and kind that they made the long ride absolutely worth it!

And then we saw the things they had made…

Anyway, in an effort to keep this brief, I’ll tell you about my favorite lady who prompted the impulse buy. She was our last stop of the day.

Her name is Liaijie, and she is about 80 years old. She has been making things to be sold for so long, and is so good at it that she has received recognition and an award for her work from the Shaanxi Province Ministry of Culture. The award was called the Cultural Heritage Award in honor of her beautiful skill. I’ve included a picture of her holding her award with one of the professors from the local university.

So, because this woman was so adorable and famous for her work, I HAD to have something she'd made! A pair of ducks was my choice, and I think I can find a spot for them in my apartment quite easily. Anyway, I’ve included other pictures of us with Liaijie, and her work.

Amanda Lensch is working on a master’s in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor’s degree in apparel merchandising, design and production with an emphasis in museum studies and a minor in entrepreneurial studies from Iowa State University. She is a graduate assistant working in collections at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum and previously interned at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky., and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Road Trip

By Marin Hanson
Curator of Exhibitions

We started out the day with only a vague idea of how it would go.

Jack Zhang, assistant to the director of the Xi'an Jiaotong University Art Museum (our liaison for this research trip) told us we would be going to Baoji City -- located west of Xi'an -- to see where some local textile handicrafts were made. We thought it would be about a 1.5-hour drive. In the end, just getting out of Xi'an alone took about an hour! After 3.5 hours we got to the village of Dazhai, about half an hour north of Baoji.

Fortunately, it was completely worth the long journey.

We got to meet and spend several hours with the two coordinators of a local, textile-based cottage industry (at the front of this group picture).

These two women, along with over 100 other women from their village, produce a huge array of folk crafts that are eventually sold all over the country. The things they make (all by hand) are based on traditional Shaanxi objects-- things like tiger hats (to protect children from evil spirits), embroidered shoes, and decorative hangings.

But the item we were most interested in was the bai hua zhang, or "hundred flowers banner" (it isn't actually floral in design -- the "hundred flowers" name mostly expresses the concept of abundant imagery). The banner we saw had 104 different squares, each one embroidered by a different woman with scenes from Chinese folk tales and religion.

The squares were then pieced together into a large banner that would traditionally have been used as a hanging in a Buddhist temple. One of the goals of our trip was to see how Chinese textile traditions have evolved, how they are being expressed today. We realize that these traditions survive partly due to their close tie to the tourist market -- so to be able to see where these souvenir objects are actually being made -- by average women from a small village in Shaanxi! -- was informative and gratifying.

We also got to meet a 79 year old woman, Li Ai Jie, from a different village, who has received  many honors from the Shaanxi provincial government for her textile handicrafts.

We are very grateful to Professor Lu Xiaoning (pictured here with her) for introducing us to Mrs Li as well as to the women from the handicraft cooperative.

Marin Hanson is the Curator of Exhibitions at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds undergraduate degrees from Grinnell College and Northern Illinois University and earned her MA in museum studies and textile history with a quilt studies emphasis from UNL. She is currently pursuing doctoral research on cross-cultural quiltmaking practices, with particular emphasis on China and the United States.

A Cultural Treasure Trove at the Beijing Antique Market

At the Antique Market in Beijing.

By Amanda Lensch
UNL Graduate Student

Overwhelming.

A musical performance in Xi'an.

The only word needed to describe the Antique Market in Beijing. It is open every day of the week, with hundreds of vendors hawking their wares in row after row of stalls filled with paintings, beads, figurines, textiles, calligraphy supplies, and the list goes on… It is so overwhelming it’s hard to know where to begin! (Think extremely large outdoor quilt show and you get the idea of what we are up against!)

As a habitual people watcher, I found this to be an extremely interesting place. The vendors are insistent in showing you their goods the second you show even the slightest bit of interest in their products. They continue to pull piece after piece out hoping to catch your eye with something. Also, you must be prepared to haggle with them! Something I have learned I am absolutely terrible at… which is why I will never purchase anything without a trusty buddy at my side! Maybe this is a skill I can learn while I’m here (like how to use chopsticks!).

The differences between our culture and theirs are certainly apparent. Waiting in lines is not a Chinese strong point, pushing to get onto the subway is a given, and they are fond of riding bikes or walking down the middle of the street. They haggle, yet are extremely welcoming and helpful. They are wonderful people to interact with.

Eventually, we went on a visual overload as there were so many wonderful textiles and other wares. It was a very cool experience.

Monday we traveled to Xi’an (pronounced she-on) where we are a part of Nebraska Week at Xi'an Jiaotong University. That night we had a banquet and reception to kick it off, with more than 50 people from Nebraska in attendance. I had no idea there would be so many Midwesterners half way around the world at the same time! Anyway, there was wonderful music supplied by both universities, once again showcasing our cultural similarities and differences.

Loving this adventure! Stay tuned…



Amanda Lensch is working on a master’s in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor’s degree in apparel merchandising, design and production with an emphasis in museum studies and a minor in entrepreneurial studies from Iowa State University. She is a graduate assistant working in collections at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum and previously interned at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky., and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Exploring Beijing

Quaint Nan Luogu Xiang Hutong.

By Cindy DeLong
UNL Graduate Student

Spectacular Rooftops in the Forbidden City.

Having only three days in Beijing, we didn't waste a minute.

Friday morning we got up and going, first to the Forbidden City. It was probably two or three miles away and could we walk it? Well of course. So we walked and walked and walked and after a few wrong turns and a wild goose chase a local sent us on through a local neighborhood, we made it. 

The Forbidden City, built during the Ming Dynasty, is enchanting. It took a tiny bit of imagination to see the city without the hordes of tourists, but instead with magnificent gates, imperial courtiers, emperors and empresses, government officials scurrying about and of course many were wearing the spectacular robes, gowns, and head pieces we've all seen in museums, books and other places. The city has a few artifacts (mostly reproductions since during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the mid-twentieth century, many were destroyed), but of course most impressive are the palaces, temples, and courtyards. 

We saw the Palace of Heaven and Purity, which was where the emperor and empress lived with their family, the Palace of the Empress which was where her birthday was celebrated, the Palace of Earthly and Tranquility, palaces for the emperors mother and one for his  concubines. After the palaces and courtyard, a fabulous and vast garden seemed to never end. 

To confirm our reservations for a tour of the Great Wall the next day, we went in search of a neighborhood called Nan Luogu Xiang Hutong. Hutongs were built in the early 20th Century, and though most have been torn down to build high-rise apartments, a few, like this one, remain. 

Did we miss our turn?

We walked and walked and walked. Finally we realized we had gone way too far. Thankfully a Westerner on a bicycle saw us pouring over a map and stopped to help. We finally decided we didn't have enough time to walk back and find it so we called a cab who quickly took us where we needed to go.

Thinking ahead, Dr. Crews had printed off a map and directions to Nan Luogu Xiang Hutong (in Chinese) before she left so this cab ride was no problem.

The Hutong was quaint and fun to explore. There were many gardens, hanging lanterns, restaurants, fast food eateries and shops of all kinds -- clothing, handicraft, shawls -- yes several shops that sold only shawls, very expensive shawls. Amanda even tried on a fabulous cashmere shawl that had buttons and was something completely new to us. I think the price was 1,950 RMB. At about 6 RMB to $1 you do the math! 

We had tickets to a Chinese acrobat show that night, so we caught another cab that took us across town and we enjoyed a wonderful show. How do they do one-armed handstands and twirl around on a stack of ten chairs?  I don't know, but it sure felt great to get off our feet. 

Later the three of us all admitted we had trouble staying awake during the show. I myself almost nodded off several times. We had been walking all day long except for our lunch. I think I was asleep that night before my head even hit the pillow!


Cindy DeLong is working on a master's degree in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor of sciences in home economics (clothing and textiles) and journalism from the University of Missouri. She has worked at the New England Quilt Museum as a curatorial intern and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum as a collections intern.

At the Market

By Marin Hanson
IQSCM Curator of Exhibitions 

On Sunday, we went to the Panjiayuan Market. It's the largest "antiques" market in Beijing. Most of the vendors are selling cheap, knock-off souvenirs, but you can find real vintage items as well. The physical layout of the market is huge -- probably 40-50 outdoor rows of stall after stall, plus one large building with two floors of furniture, embroidered screens, early Communist era clothing, etc etc. We decided to skip some whole sections of the market since they were dedicated to books, manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures, and we had ONE single objective: find textiles, preferably patchwork and appliqued pieces.

Initially, it looked as though we weren't going to have much luck. After the first hour or so, we'd only seen one or two stalls with textiles, including some very interesting lotus shoes (tiny embroidered shoes for bound feet). Then, as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours.

In the eastern section of the market we came across a dozen or more stalls with good textiles (not just newly made tourist items), about a half a dozen or so of which had pieces that really interested us. Many of these stalls were run by people of the Miao ethnic minority.

One particularly good stall was run by a man named Lei Hongbin.

He, too, was ethnically Miao and told me that he became interested in selling ethnic minority textiles because he'd seen so many items being sold with improper information or incorrectly identified. (A side note: at ANY market like this, in any country, you need to take everything dealers say with a HUGE grain of salt -- Buyer Beware.) He seemed more credible than other dealers and I chatted with him for quite a while. (Another side note: my rusty Chinese did start to come back to me and although I think I probably only understood about one third of the actual words he spoke, I probably understood about two-thirds of the overall meaning of what he said, if you get the difference).

He told us about what some of the Miao symbolism meant and showed us how Miao skirts would have traditionally been worn. They were usually layered, with up to nine (!) being worn at once, and topped off with jackets (again, layered, with up to six at once) and a decorative apron. He also talked a bit about how a great deal of design and technique crossover occurs between close neighbors, like the Miao and the Buyi people of Guizhou Province.

While the Panjiayuan visit didn't result in any acquisitions, it was a fruitful day in terms of research. We saw several genuine vintage ethnic minority quilt tops and saw just as many recently-made pieces being passed off as the real thing. I can imagine that we might want to return here again some day to purchase a few select pieces for the IQSCM collection (and avoid a whole lot of other ones!)

Marin Hanson is the Curator of Exhibitions at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds undergraduate degrees from Grinnell College and Northern Illinois University and earned her MA in museum studies and textile history with a quilt studies emphasis from UNL. She is currently pursuing doctoral research on cross-cultural quiltmaking practices, with particular emphasis on China and the United States.