Covered Beauty (Chinese Women's Handicraft Culture)

Author: Hu Ping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: Chinese needlework holds significant importance in shaping the character of Chinese culture. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the cultural functions, humanistic connotations, cultural types, and artistic characteristics of needlework. Functional theory highlights the "multi-functional nature" of needlework; cultural theory identifies the symbolic characteristics of needlework and proposes the concept of "needlework cultural clusters"; typological theory introduces the concept of "interest-based cultural circles"; and artistic theory analyzes how the spiritual creative motivations of needlework as an art are rooted in "simplicity and goodness" and "aesthetically pleasing beauty," pointing out that needlework art is "poetic imagery." The book discusses the elegant, subtle, and graceful feminine qualities of needlework. It attempts to construct a narrative framework for needlework culture theory using cultural anthropology concepts and methods, presenting and reinforcing this theoretical expression through extensive real and vivid needlework images and fieldwork visual materials.