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Published: December 2nd 2009
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The Silk Museum
The Security Guard that knew more about silk than any sum of the placards inside the silk museum. Strawberry Point, Iowa is home to the world’s largest (and probably only) strawberry statue. New Salem, North Dakota and Arlington, Texas arguably both have the world’s largest fiberglass cow. The largest ball of twine belongs to Darwin, Minnesota, and when passing through Rugby, North Dakota, make sure to note the geographical center of North America. Of all the things Montana can boast, some of the truly remarkable icons/bests would either be how cold it was on a certain day in a certain spot, or the longest, straightest length of highway with absolutely nothing to see…
Everyone everywhere usually has a little something they can claim as uniquely their own and better than anywhere else in the world. In China this similar tradition of local pride exists as well, only with an odd air, perhaps a bit unaware to the rest of the outside world. Many times in the history of this country the culture and people of China closed themselves to the rest of the world; a self-isolation of sorts thanks to reoccurring political moves such as the Great Wall, known to the Chinese as 万里长城,
wan li chang cheng, literally meaning 10,000 village-long castle. Maybe it is this isolation
The Silk Museum
Here is one silk worm cacoon. The guard (see above) slipped one in my pocket after a long pantomime performance as to how the whole silk worm process works. or possibly that we are submerged in a culture completely different from that of our own; either way we have developed an expression we like to call
China famous. Many people will tell you about one famous thing or another in China; an artist, a food, a tea, a particular painting, a historical government figure, etc; all things from a huge and quite linear history of some 5,000 years of civilization. But because of the massive scale of China, geographically, historically, and population-wise, everyone and everything down to a seemingly insignificant extent is quite famous. And if something is not famous here, than for sure it is famous in the next town down the way.
Yangzhou, 扬州, apparently is famous for its beautiful women, men’s hairstyles, and special fried rice (same old rice, same fried eggs, hold the soy-sauce, add chopped veggies) and let us not forget the toys (?!). Zhenjiang, 镇江, down the way from Yangzhou, claims China fame for an extra savory,
China famous vinegar…
Of all the places in China to claim fame or even pseudo-fame, Suzhou does in fact have something to boast - their rich history tied into the silk trades and their
The Silk Museum
More worms snacking on Mulberry leaves amazing public gardens… and, of course, beautiful women.
This past weekend, while in Suzhou we took time to about the silk trade and the entire process involved in the production of silk. Making an afternoon stop at the Suzhou Silk Museum, we had the opportunity to watch a full-sized loom at work as well as the entire process, live, from start to finish. For one to have a truly exceptional museum experience, that is, beyond the normal offerings of an institute of this manner, two elements must present themselves at exactly the same time - an almost entirely empty museum and an overly friendly, quite bored, security guard.
From this man we received the special tour, along with souvenirs, and were allowed to photograph the unphotographable. He showed us the tiny green worms who gorge themselves on mulberry leaves and then when ready, spin a cocoon in a figure-8 pattern with a protein-rich secretion known as silk (thanks, Mr. Security Man, for the cocoon). Once the worms have done their self-sacrificial work, the little white cocoons are heated to kill the worm inside and the cocoon is placed in water where the thread from the worm’s weave can
The Silk Museum
Look at those worms eat! slowly be unraveled. The cocoon, about the size of a large robin’s egg, produces over a mile of thread, and with five or six cocoons unraveling at the same time and their threads then twisted together, a strand strong enough for weaving finds itself in a large, loose loop, not all-too different from that of a wound garden hose, hanging on the wall and drying; soon to be ready for the loom.
After learning about the process of making actual silk threads, we were fortunate enough to watch two women working on an enormous loom. The weaving process, completely tedious in every possible manner, moves at a glacial rate of about 2 ½ inches per day. The head weaver sat directly in front of a large spool holding all the weaving work - a sheet about one meter wide and four meters long. The weaving represented approximately two months of work and was valued at 5,000 元 or $850 per meter . Sitting up high in the loom, a second woman pulled at a closed circuit of strings, first picking a spacer, pulling the strings, and then waiting for the woman below to cast her shuttle of silk thread.
The Silk Museum
An expert weaver, weaving forward at a rate of 2-2.5 inches per day She then set a string spacer before moving on to the next. The person above, pulling on the strings, controlled the raising or lowering of threads in the weave - thus controlling the pattern of the cloth. Every time the person on top pulled a new set of strings, the weaver below would then cast a specifically colored thread through the weaving and pack the finely woven design.
Imagine the very first computer, but instead of multiple punch cards, this computer has one punch card, about forty feet long, and duct-taped together to make a closed loop, spinning forever in the loom. Each full-rotation of the punch card, or in this case large loop of strings, represented one-full iteration of the beautiful pattern slowly presenting itself in the silk cloth below.
From the museum we toured a garden known as the Humber Administrator’s Garden, 拙政园, or
Zhou Zhang Yuan and Tiger Hill, 湖区山, or
Hu Qiu Shan. Every well-thought garden should be capable of beauty through any season - not every single view, of course, but if one thinks in quadrants, mentally dividing up most scenes or views into quarters, each part of the quarter should be in its
The Silk Museum
One silk thread at a time... prime during a different season than its neighbor - never being too brilliant during one season or completely dead during another. Most public gardens are ridden with small pagodas or tea houses and the windows as well as the windows in simple walls, should always be located such that the view through the window acts as a perfect frame for the beautiful scene beyond. Because the gardens were almost always initially designed as private living quarters, most now-public gardens, worth any sort of nod, required an opera house and a respective viewing house - any size will do, just make sure it gets on the check list. Imagine if our picnic shelters back home had this depth of thought and design -
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Jesse
non-member comment
Sweet!
Thanks for the silk lesson. I really enjoyed it. I want a demonstration when you guys get back. cheers, -Jesse