Miao Embroidery: Collector’s Value
3 min readThe very first Miao embroidery piece my dad bought over 30 years ago was for 2yuan(usd1:2.46)or less than one dollar Today the Miao embroidery piece at the same quality level costs at least 2000 yuan (1: 7 roughly now or 285 dollars. Some of the best is quoted at over ten thousand yuan. A quality costume from Shidong district of Taijiang county is valued over one hundred thousand yuan.
If the full silver decorations added, the whole costume costs over eight hundred thousand yuan or over one hundred and ten thousand US dollars at current exchange rate in 2008. Veteran collectors all know that single piece of collector piece has its value and price. When it relates to a complete set or several related pieces, the price will not be numerical, but probably geometrical. Majority of the collectors treat collection as investment by buying low and selling high or selling through specific channels. The gap between the low and high prices big enough for profits even more to make one rich .Some others go wiser ways to collect and bring more pieces or the complete sets together to fit into one specific category or topic, like ancestral worshiping, wedding ceremony, funeral ceremony etc, and to transfer the collections within this topic all to one institution or to a bigger collector The value of the collections thus added is much more than the previous ways.
But latter requires efforts at research and analysis and the relevant education. So the value added in this way is the value culture and education and cultural value, when in need, will appreciate very much or even priceless. Collection value of the Miao embroidery is reflected in its art, culture, unimitatability and rarity. The rounds of price hikes in recent years of the Miao embroidery clearly indicate that the collectors market accepts its value. I am in the opinion that Miao embroidery today has not reached the price level it is entitled to as the social environment it was created is almost gone for good. So we could not revive traditional Miao embroidery in our daily life in addition to the fact that it is too time consuming with so huge human energy input. For example, an top quality costume from Shidong district, Taijiang county, costing four years or more of hard and dexterous work of embroidering, will cost 87600 yuan on labor only estimated at current salary level of 60 yuan per day for skilled labor( Guizhou level). Other costs and values are not included yet,e.g .historical values, artistic values, values of the materials utilized and rarity etc.In general they are the intangible values in culture So, it is very profitable to buy at current price levels the Miao embroidery works now However if one treats this only from the commercial way, the end might be on the contrary. The more the cultural values and humane values are appreciated, the market accepts the more the Miao embroidery. The past three decades of marketization process actually has infiltrated into the remote Miao country. There are more and more trades on Miao embroideries and the prices levels are increasingly higher. Now with several thousands of RMB you can still get good embroideries in the Miao villages. However that needs the connoisseur ability for the quality. To understand and appreciate the beauty and value of Miao embroidery, one needs to take time and efforts on the special knowledge. No doubt about the collection value of the traditional Miao embroidery Any rare works embodied with human culture will be perfect objects for collection.
Miao embroidery embodies thousands of years of Miao history and culture, folklore. It is the cultural gene of the Miaos on which codes on Miao history, culture, handicrafts, aesthetical tastes, textiles, agriculture, symbols, religion, society, economy and folklore could be cracked. This is the reason why Miao embroidery is listed on the first catalog of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Miao costumes and embroideries have higher cultural value than decoration and aestheticism Technical complexity also increases its uniqueness. So collectors are paying more and more attention to the Miao embroidery works. Nowadays, the works of seventy or eighty years of history witness price hikes and price doublings. No strange, one traded and one less for the Miao villages and Miao country.
