Saturday, August 04, 2012

Guangxi Love Balls & Liu San Jie

The Zhuang peoples have long been famed for their embroidery skills.

These beautiful examples are known as 

XiuQiu

or more commonly Zhuang Love Balls.




 The balls are made of twelve coloured silk cloth segments 
whose pattern indicates the connection of twelve petals or months. 
Each petal (month) has a mascot. 
A mascot could be a plum blossom, bamboo, swallows, dragon, chrysanthemum, orchid or phoenix. 

All these symbols represent reunion and eternal happiness. 
The petals typically are red, yellow and green.
Traditionally  embroidered by hand by young girls 
to give to the man they wished to marry.


Originally love gifts, a Zhuang woman would climb a mountain and sing out to her fiance who she hadn’t yet met face-to-face. He would answer with song. 
If she liked the sound of his song, she would present him with an embroidered ball as a sign of affection
– the bigger the ball the greater the love. 

 An old Zhuang saying that is passed on from mother to daughter.
 “If you don’t embroider, you won’t find a good man.” 
So every Zhuang girl learned to embroider from an early age.



                                                          Liu Sanjie 
was, as the story goes, the third-born daughter of a man surnamed Liu, who lived centuries ago (in the Tang Dynasty: 618–907) in Guangxi Province. She became known for her singing as various dignified local oppressors came to her village and were left speechless and defeated by her tuneful and witty songs.
The legend goes that she was wooed by a boy named A Niu (阿牛 /ah-nyoh/ "Bull"), who sung replies to her songs at the Big Banyan Tree in Yangshuo County. 

As was the custom, Liu Sanjie gave A Niu an embroidered ball 
to signify she liked him and he could pursue her. 
A Niu promptly tossed the ball across the river, high onto a rock the other side, where nobody could reach it 
and it would stay as an everlasting reminder of their Love.


                   The story of Liu San Jie is still enacted for tourists.....

                                           ( ...Iain performing the story with the Zhuang girls
                                                          and receiving his very own!)
 

                             Most dramatically in Yanshou on the river!



Today although they can now be mass produced there are still places where they are hand-made and you can go to watch the ladies at work 


We visited Jiuzhou Old Town in Jingxi, last October with the older Da Mo girls. Although they are from this area, and mainly Miao rather than Zhuang, 
they had never visited here before or seen these balls being made. 
Many of the girls had never been out of their village or explored any of their own beautiful countryside.
So it was quite an experience for us all!









                                       So, how are they made?



Each segment is hand cut in 3 layers, 




with the top layer in silk hand embroidered with one of the lucky mascots

The women work almost without looking,
while taking care of children and selling in their shop.

                             The segments are then sewn together...
                            ..and filled with wood shavings, chaff, cotton seeds

..before being joined together with gold braid
 These ladies work hard, I am sure do not earn a huge living,
 but they keep the Zhuang tradition alive.



 After watching the balls being made, each girl picked one for her self and came home delighted with their experience.




Today Xiu Qiu are given in friendship, as symbols of Love, Blessing, Friendship.

If you would like one, hand-made in Juizhou 
they can be purchased from Hope4China.


These are the colours we have right now.......


red
turquoise
multi-coloured
gold
purple


Small,      £3/4euros/$5

Medium,  £5/6euros/$8

Large     £7/9euros/$11 

  

            100% of the proceeds helps children in China!


                                                       
                                    
               Email to order  : linda@hope4china.com 





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