The Qing Dynasty costumes and accessories were so elegant with muted colours and lowkey headpieces. The understated costume design was very different to the loud and bright costumes that I’m used to seeing. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some fabulousness but the aesthetic of this show was so calm and refreshing. The desaturated tones really reminded me of Nirvana in Fire! I was so happy to come across this variety show which had a segment where the artisans behind the costumes explained a bit about their craft and how it was used in the drama. By the way, this variety show is worth a watch if you’re a fan of the show because your OTP / CP wishes finally get fulfilled plus at the end there’s a really moving beautifully shot music video type of situation where they act out the Empress and Emperor relationship.
1. Silk velvet flower headpieces
The fuzzy hair accessories in Yanxi Palace have definitely been catching people’s eyes. These velvety artificial flowers are actually made of silk and are very delicate.
Master Zhao Shuxian was the first to speak about his craft. He was introduced as the last remaining artisan of Jiangsu Province’s UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Nanjing silk velvet flower.* Master Zhao seemed so happy to be on the show and proud of his art! I thought he was such a cute and endearing ‘uncle’ haha.
He explained the Empress Fuca’s silk velvet headpieces. The piece on the right is called fushou sanduo (福寿三多) which roughly translates to ‘three blessings’. Each item in the piece actually has a lot of deep meaning and thought behind it. The three blessings are:
The silk velvet flowers are especially characteristic to Empress Fuca because she was an advocate of being frugal and was not extravagant or luxurious so she abandoned pearls and jade to set an example for the harem to economise/cut down on expenditure.
He went on to explain the flower on the left which also has a deeper meaning. Generally, Empress Fuca wears flowers in the peony family because it appears generous and magnanimous, lucky and prosperous. For the concubines, they would generally wear seasonal flowers. The maids would have much simpler and smaller flowers and light colour.
It’s also pointed out that his team has only three people and they made all of these intricate decorations by hand.
He finishes by saying that he hopes that these traditional silk velvet flowers will return to the masses and will become a new folk representative.
I will definitely need to dedicate a whole post just to these silk velvet flowers because they are so beautiful and unique! I’d never seen these before and Master Zhao’s passion and love for his craft really moved me.
- Peaches with a paradise flycatcher (fancy birb) – symbolises long life
- Buddha’s hand fruit (foshou) – a homophone of good fortune and long life
- Pomegrante – symbolise fertility because they have full and plump seeds
The silk velvet flowers are especially characteristic to Empress Fuca because she was an advocate of being frugal and was not extravagant or luxurious so she abandoned pearls and jade to set an example for the harem to economise/cut down on expenditure.
He went on to explain the flower on the left which also has a deeper meaning. Generally, Empress Fuca wears flowers in the peony family because it appears generous and magnanimous, lucky and prosperous. For the concubines, they would generally wear seasonal flowers. The maids would have much simpler and smaller flowers and light colour.
It’s also pointed out that his team has only three people and they made all of these intricate decorations by hand.
He finishes by saying that he hopes that these traditional silk velvet flowers will return to the masses and will become a new folk representative.
I will definitely need to dedicate a whole post just to these silk velvet flowers because they are so beautiful and unique! I’d never seen these before and Master Zhao’s passion and love for his craft really moved me.
2. Jing embroidery
Next we have Master Zhang Hongye, an artisan of the national-level UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage ‘Jing embroidery’ and group leader of the embroidery team. The artisans in the embroidery team had been part of a restoration and renovation project for the Palace Museum before so they were experienced in replicating the traditional embroidery. When the film crew approached her to work on this project, they requested the embroidery to be as historically accurate as possible, with no caveats. Each costume took months to to complete and they used a lot of effort of this show.
All the decorations on the Emperor’s robes were hand embroidered by Master Zhang and her team. The emperor’s suit took a team of eight workers half a year to make due to the difficulty of the complex techniques involved. Apparently the Emperor has a 154,000 yuan suit!
Master Zhang introduces three embroidery techniques that were used on the Emperor’s robe.
They created a 3D effect using bead embroidery. Because each bead needs to be threaded and organised in sequence, it’s a very fiddly and skilled technique.Traditionally, this stitch is called zhi zhu xiu.
For the two dragons inside the motifs, they used ‘seed embroidery’ which is when knots are tied to create the patterns. This is another difficult stitch because the the tension and pressure of the knots need to be consistent and evenly distributed, otherwise the fabric may pucker and will be uneven and may even affect the colours.
Plate gold embroidery – this stitch wasn’t covered in this segment but I found a screenshot of it on a Chinese blog and it is still worth mentioning! I believe they attached gold metal thread by sewing around the metal in a matching colour thread to keep it in place (but not sure if they were real gold or not!)
3. Silk woven fans
World/Global UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Master Gu Jiandong of silk tapestry weaving.
The fans in the drama were all completely made from mulberry silk. The silk of the fan doesn’t have bumps because the design is weaved in by with each individual silk thread so the design is threaded in at the same time as the material is weaved instead of being embroidered.
Concubine Gao’s fan is a replica from the museum consulted from the museum. Actually, the original fan from the Palace Museum was not made completely with the kesi silk tapestry because it had some embroidered elements but the replica for Yanxi Palace was totally weaved. With silk tapestry, you will never get two of the same because each is made individually by hand so each piece will be unique.
Final thoughts
This mini documentary gives you a greater appreciation of the handiwork that goes on behind these beautiful costumes and props which we see only for a few seconds but took so much effort and time and skill to create.
*A different source says the application for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage was actually rejected in 2008 because he was the only person left doing this craft but I guess despite its UNESCO status, I think we can all agree that this craft is at risk of dying out.
Our modern culture of impatience and instant gratification seems to have taken its toll on the number of people that train in these highly skilled and slow crafts. It’s a shame to see these traditional arts dying out. Like they say their goals are to preserve their craft and pass it on to future generations, I hope that the show has piqued the public’s interest in these arts and that more people will take up these crafts.
*A different source says the application for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage was actually rejected in 2008 because he was the only person left doing this craft but I guess despite its UNESCO status, I think we can all agree that this craft is at risk of dying out.
Our modern culture of impatience and instant gratification seems to have taken its toll on the number of people that train in these highly skilled and slow crafts. It’s a shame to see these traditional arts dying out. Like they say their goals are to preserve their craft and pass it on to future generations, I hope that the show has piqued the public’s interest in these arts and that more people will take up these crafts.