Rainy Day Fun

By Amanda Lensch
UNL Graduate Student

Today was a calm day. It was the first time we didn’t rush off right away and bounce from one thing to the next all day long. And I think we all appreciated the little bit of downtime to simply regroup from our whirlwind adventure.

Although, Marin and Dr. Crews couldn’t rest much since they each gave a presentation this afternoon at the American Exchange Center at Jaiotong University! Both were well attended and Marin and Dr. Crews did a fantastic job. Of course we would expect nothing less!

Marin spoke about what we do at the IQSCM, and Dr. Crews gave a lecture on Nebraska Quilts and Quiltmakers. Each lecture was translated into Chinese so our friends could easily understand. They had some extremely insightful questions about quilts as well as the work we do at the end of each one. All in all, I would say a very successful day!

As it rained all day today, we were extremely thankful for this relatively tranquil day as tomorrow will be another story.

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.

A Budding Alliance

The ancient history exhibition.

By Cindy DeLong
UNL Graduate Student

One of my favorites from the folk art exhibition.

Last Monday, soon after we arrived, Dr. Crews, Marin, Amanda and I met Professor Li, Vice Director of the Xi'an Jiaotong University Art Museum. He introduced us to some of his graduate students and gave us a tour of the museum.

We finished the tour yesterday. We were all quite impressed. The museum building is new and beautifully done. There is lots of exhibition space and a wide variety of different subjects are on display. 

The upper level of the museum has a large exhibit of calligraphy. Huge displays cover the walls. It is elegant! We toured the permanent exhibit of ancient historic objects including urns, figurines and tools. A very exciting and colorful Chinese Folk Art exhibit is also permanent. It was flat out fun! A new opera exhibit displayed exotic costumes, puppets and head pieces among other objects. Still two other galleries exhibited photographs and ceramics by a well known Chinese artist. 

We were given a tour of museum offices, the conservation laboratory, and the photography studio. Then we were treated to a short demonstration of some of the technology they are planning to use for visual presentations. We wore 3D glasses and saw a short movie clip. The basic idea is to take museum visitors to the archeological dig sites through the magic of technology. Although not developed yet, this is an important project to the Jiaotong University Museum.

Aren't we cute in 3D glasses?!?

See why we were impressed? 

After this wonderful tour, Professor Li invited us to a sitting room for an informal meeting. He suggested that his museum and ours form a partnership for research and exhibitions. The idea of trading exhibitions was tossed around and agreed to in general, although many, many details will have to be worked out as well as funding. Supporting and sharing research and possibly hosting scholars was also agreed to in principal, although the details and funding would have to be worked out for that too. 

Professor Li visited our campus in Nebraska in 2007 and toured the International Quilt Study Center then. Now we have visited his museum. Also, Marin has exchanged emails with Jack, Professor Li's assistant for a long time. We've developed a good relationship for many years and now with our visit to Xi'an, it seems everyone is comfortable with each other and would like to build a more formal relationship. It is an exciting and a wonderful outcome from this long-anticipated visit!


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.

A Wonderful Partnership

By Marin Hanson
Curator of Exhibitions

We spent the morning at Xi'an Jiaotong University Art Museum, going on a tour of their beautiful new facility and having a meeting with the staff about possible future collaborations. At the meeting, we gave Vice Director Li a gift for their museum's collections: a nineteenth-century American Log Cabin quilt.

They reciprocated with a quilt for our collections: a thirty-year-old bai jia bei, or "One Hundred Families Quilt."

It was made by a woman in Gansu Province for her son, who was once a student at XJTU and is now an art professor specializing in Chinese calligraphy. This was a really exciting moment for me, because although I had heard about a bai jia bei tradition, and we had seen new ones being made at the village we visited yesterday, I had never seen an old one. This is the confirmation I've been looking for that this is a tradition that has been around a long time.

It is a small, fairly plain quilt, but it is wonderful to me because it was made especially for a child's everyday use. It is evidence of an embedded tradition, proof that patchwork bedcovers are not simply a tourist market craft. Even if we find nothing else in our remaining days, I'm feeling like we've had some true success on this research trip.

It was a really good day, and I am so grateful to our XJTU Art Museum partners -- they've been wonderful collaborators on this project.

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.

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.