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Posts from the ‘MCHSL’ Category

Feb 7

Shoulder Bags and Ethnic Identity in Southern Yunnan, China

I am happy to announce the opening of a small exhibition titled Shoulder Bags and Ethnic Identity in Southern Yunnan, China. For such a small exhibition, the project has gathered in a large team of collaborators. Thanks go to all of them!

The exhibition is now open in the Scholars’ Commons at the Wells Library on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. The exhibition presents a purchased collection made by Wuerxiya and I in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Pu’er Prefecture-Level City in Southern Yunnan, China during December 2023. Learn more about the exhibition at: https://libraries.indiana.edu/shoulder-bags-ethnic-identity-southern

The cover of the catalogue, Shoulder Bags and Ethnic Identity in Southern Yunnan, China.

Accompanying the exhibition is a thirty-five-page color catalogue co-authored by Wuerxiya, Jackson, and Touhidul Islam and designed by Emily Bryant. Published by the Material Culture and Heritage Studies Laboratory, it can be downloaded for free from the IUScholarWorks Repository: https://hdl.handle.net/2022/33339

At right, a woman walks away from the camera. Seen from the back, she wears the clothing of the Jinuo people, including a white, pink, and orange shoulder bag, which rests on her left hip. At left, also seen from behind, is another women in commercial clothing. The two women are in conversation while walking towards a bamboo grove on a deck.
Wuerxiya (left) and Tang Haiyan (right) discussing Jinuo clothing. Ms. Tang wears a should bag in Jinuo style. Jinuoshan Junuo Ethnic Township, Jinhong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. December 24, 2023.
IU Libraries digital promotion image for the exhibition “Shoulder Bags and Ethnic Identity in Southern Yunnan, China.

The exhibition will close May 19th 2025. Special thanks to IU Libraries for hosting it!

Nov 13

Article: “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China” in Museum Anthropology Review 16(1-2)

I am very happy to note a new co-authored article titled “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.” It was jointly written with Wuerxiya (first author), C. Kurt Dewhurst (third author) and Cuixia Zhang (fourth author) and it appears in Museum Anthropology Review volume 16, numbers 1-2. This is the special double issue published in honor of Daniel C. Swan, as noted in an earlier post on Shreds and Patches. The article is based on work undertaken by a much larger bi-national team within the “Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies” sub-project of the broader “China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project,” a collaboration (2007-present) of the American Folklore Society and the China Folklore Society. In particular, it describes work undertaken through the auspices of, and in partnership with, The Institute of National Culture Research at Dali University. Special thanks go to the Institute and its leadership.

Find the article online at Museum Anthropology Review: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/article/view/34101

In this image is the first page of a journal article as typeset. The article pictured is "A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China." Visible are the names of the authors, the abstract, the key words and the first paragraph of text.
Presented as an image is the first page of the journal article “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.”

Oct 30

Museum Anthropology Review Volume 16: Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan

Social media is changing again and it seems like a good time to give Shreds and Patches more love and attention.

My collaborator and special issue co-editor Michael Paul Jordan and I are very pleased to announce the publication of a new double-issue of Museum Anthropology Review titled Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan

Find the new collection in honor of Dan in Museum Anthropology Review online here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/issue/view/2153 Thanks to all of the authors, production staff, publishers, peer-reviewers, and helpers who made this collection possible.

Daniel C. Swan pictured wearing glasses and holding a water bottle while standing in front of a large building and a plaza filled with many tourists. He wears a plaid button-down shirt in blue and white and he looks towards the camera while the other people in the scene face away from the camera as they move into the plaza and the building beyond. The sky is vivid blue with streaks of high white clouds. The tile roofs of the buildings behind the subject are orange.
The above image appears in the introduction to the special collection “Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan” with the following camption. “In the days following the Seventh Forum on China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage and on the eve of the global COVID pandemic, Daniel C. Swan was one of 19.3 million reported visitors to the Forbidden City (a.k.a Palace Museum) in 2019. May 21, 2019. Photograph by Michael Paul Jordan.”

Sep 29

3-2-1 Launch! Material Culture and Heritage Studies Laboratory

The pandemic slows all work beyond bare necessity, but good things can happen amid the difficulties of the present. Over the summer, with a small but mighty crew and some generous grants-in-hand, I did what the sailors call a shakedown cruise for the new Material Culture and Heritage Studies Laboratory that I founded at summer’s start. With great helpers, it was fun to return to research that had been set aside in 2012 when my MMWC era began. I am thankful for those organizations investing in this new work and for those colleagues and friends encouraging and participating in it. Last Friday the lab’s website launched bringing the quiet phase to an end. Check out the new website here: https://mchslab.folklore.indiana.edu/index.html  

A screenshot from the MSHSL website. The image is of Tongle as viewed across a rice paddy from Zhiacong Village in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Thanks to all who have helped!