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Clever Minds And Nimble Hands? Making Embroidery In Late Qing And Republican China, Lu Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The handiwork of embroidery signified gentry lady’s intelligence and refinement in late imperil China. Yet in late Qing and Republican China, embroidery was practised by a wide range of makers – gentry ladies, male professionals, home-based female workers, young students, and peasant women. Why was the exquisite art of embroidery able to be crafted by makers of a diverse backgrounds? My study explores various contexts and investigates the secrets for the maintenance of the technical virtuosity of different embroidery genres and argues that the making of embroidery in late Qing and Republican China was a constantly changing knowledge redistribution process …