CHINESE BEAD CURTAINS, PAST AND PRESENT Valerie Hector
"But apart from serving the purpose of decorating a home or dividing rooms, beads have a special function which has been described in the FengShui. Having these curtains in your home will spread positive energy in all the rooms and also will make your home lively and cheerful. When people pass through these curtains, it is supposed to give them a soothing effect too. These curtains have their roots back in Asia in the 1960’s, where they first originate. It was common during that time where beads were hung from a rod or a wire and were used as partitions."
http://beadedcurtains.wikidot.com/
CHINESE BEAD CURTAINS, PAST AND PRESENT
Valerie Hector
BEADS 25:40-71 (2013)
"Bead curtains have been made in many cultures. Structurally they tend to be similar, typically consisting of two elements: a horizontal board, bar, or rope at the top which supports a panel of beads below." 40
"bead curtains are not self-supporting. They are generally affixed to architectural structures, often to the frames of doors or windows, where they serve several purposes simultaneously. They embellish openings in the facade of a building, especially doorways and, to a lesser extent, windows. Usually, the bead curtain spans the height of the opening or most of it. Bead curtains also accentuate boundaries, distinguishing public and private realms or defining interior spaces." 40
"Bead curtains also belong to the category of the “screen,” an ancient type of object in China which can be thought of as “a framework whose basic function is to distinguish space” (Wu 1996:10). Like many screens of wood, stone, or cloth, bead curtains generally function as portable space dividers capable of bearing images, geometric designs, or calligraphic inscriptions." 40
"Instructions for making mian guan chui liu appear in the Rites of Zhou (Zhou Li), a text that may date to the 3rd century B.C. (Gao 2001:196). Tassel quantity and length combined with bead material and color to symbolize social rank. Regulations changed over time. Emperors of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) were allotted 12 tassels made of white jade beads at the front and back, while members of the royal family, high officers, low officers, and scholars wore 9, 7, 5, and 3 tassels, respectively." 41
"Glass is sometimes named. The word liuli seems to appear more frequently than its counterpart, boli. Both mean “glass.”4 The transparency and reflectivity of glass are frequent themes: “[The people of ] Wu skillfully made tinkling-jade... weaving a sea of silver with ten thousand strands” (Meng 2003:99, citing “Ode to a Liuli Curtain” [Yong liuli lian] by Ma Zuchang [1279-1338] of the Yuan dynasty [1271-1368])." 44 - 45
"In some cases, liuli curtains, apparently made of glass strips instead of glass beads, are monochrome and blue (or blue-green) in color, or so we are told in Random Jottings of Mt. Yan, a memoir written in 1665 by Sun Tingquan (1613-1674) of the late Ming to early Qing dynasties:A blue curtain {qing lian} was probably the most expensive and noble kind of glass {liuli} product." 45
"Other visual characteristics were also described. An unspecified light source may create reflections within or around beads. Or a particular light source may play across the surface of a curtain, producing other visual effects" 45
"Kinetic qualities sometimes enhance visual qualities while betraying structural particularities. The movements of long vertical strands seem to be described in this 6th-century reference to what might be a multi-strand bead curtain: “enchantingly fluctuating – now clustered, now spread apart, secretly reflecting the person in the window” (Meng 2003:101, citing “Ode to Bead Curtains” [Yongzhulian] by Lu Sidao [531-582] of the Sui dynasty [581-618] )." 45
"In these and other references, verbs in their various forms betray different types of movements. It seems doubtful that multi-strand bead curtains could be rolled up or down while hanging; their very structure prohibits such treatment. Instead, the strands were probably tied to one side or gathered in the middle" 45
"At least one writer of the imperial era commented on the mnemonic potential of bead curtains. Meng (2003, 2004) refers obliquely to this writer by subtitling her articles jishi zhu, which may be translated as “remembering beads,” “memory beads,” or “beads for remembering things.” Meng was probably thinking of Feng Zhi (flourished ca. 907), a late Tang dynasty writer who composed a series of anecdotes under the title Jishi zhu in which he recalls counting “the beads on a bead curtain in his house to keep track of what he learned” while he was a student (Kieschnick 2003:132). The association of beads and memory may not be surprising, given the ancient use in China and elsewhere of rosaries for telling prayers and abacuses for performing calculations. At some point, certainly by the Tang dynasty, the association seems to have crystallized in the term jishi zhu.5" 46
Hector, Valerie (2013). "Chinese Bead Curtains, Past and Present." BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers, vol. 25, no. 1/5, 2013, pp. 40-71. Available at: https://surface.syr.edu/beads/vol25/iss1/5
I can across this article when looking into bead curtains after I had decided what I wanted to do for my final examination installation. I had pitched my idea to my group and they suggested that I don’t install the piece over an entrance so people aren’t walking through something that represents a life. I agreed and started to wonder if what I was making could still be considered a bead curtain. Then I found this: "At least one writer of the imperial era commented on the mnemonic potential of bead curtains. Meng (2003, 2004) refers obliquely to this writer by subtitling her articles jishi zhu, which may be translated as “remembering beads,” “memory beads,” or “beads for remembering things.” Which supports my conceptual reasons behind my art work.
