silk museum

I went to the China National Silk Museum in May. The museum was so interesting, I had been wanting to visit since last December when I started researching Hangzhou. Hangzhou is one of China's largest (if not the largest) silk producing city. The ground floor had scientific and historical exhibits.

For textile geeks: The silkworm's life is very simple: eat bushels of mulberry leaves. After 3-4 molting molting periods, they begin to produce silk, wrapping themselves in a chrysalis. In the cocoon they become moths within 3-10 days. To retrieve perfect, unbroken silken threads, the cocoons are boiled in hot water before the moths hatch (killing the worm inside). Some animal rights activists view this as unkind and allow worms to mature and break the cocoon. Silk can still be made from the broken cocoons, but I believe it has to be spun with cotton or another fiber to allow a continuous strand (this also makes the fabric different in texture and warmth because it is a spun fiber, not continuous thread). This is "peace silk" or vegetarian silk because moths are allowed to live, not die in a hot bath..ouch.

Upon walking into the museum I held in a scream because they had REAL silkworms in a shallow, open basket. Posted above the basket: "do not touch". First instinct: hold a bombyx mori. Probably the gooiest, softest, friendliest worm I have ever held.

The historical exhibit explained the importance of silk to the Chinese culture and the progression of the Silk Road. Silk was one of the desired products from the East and the fabric of emperors. Each dynasty had distinct colors and styles of dress, for each dynasty was from a different part of China. Silk stayed the main fabric of choice due to the time consuming process and luxurious feel. The exhibit had each dynasty's garment style for both emperor and empress on 12 inch dolls accompanied by real garments from the time period. My favorite were the accessories: They included heart-shaped earmuffs (which were forbidden for common people during the Ming dynasty), lotus shoes for women during the Song dynasty & onward, it was considered beautiful to have small, lotus blossom shaped feet, which was attained by a continual breaking, bending, and binding of the toes underneath the foot. The most desired size was 3-inch golden lotus. The other item in this photo is meile, a headdress worn by women to protect against the cold. I also enjoyed seeing the emperor's longpao or dragon robe. The robes on display were from the Qing dynasty and each color and motif was special to different occasions. The emperor's color is yellow, and one of the reasons for the wideness of the garments and long sleeves was to show the extreme wealth, "I am emperor, therefore I can afford to buy a lot of silk".

The second floor exhibits had modern silk information and focused on the popular motifs which were influenced by China's social events. The introduction of Communism and Mao was seen in silk motifs with the incorporation of Chairman Mao's face or little red books:

Indian culture also affected silk motifs including the popularity of the paisley in 1970's (it was also called the "ham" pattern!): 1977 silk depicting the dragon palace: 1970s printed silk with exotic geometric motif:1960s-70s Printed silk with dancing Tibetan girls: In the basement, there was a fashion show with models wearing all silk products:

These are different typed of silk cocoons, dried and on display in the museum gift shop. Out of the museums visited in HZ, this is probably my favorite.