Cloth

Cloth

RECTANGLE CROSS STITCHED CLOTH Made of bast fiber. front middle section is an image of three girls playing the see-saw game. all three girls have black hair and featureless faces stitched in flesh color. girl on left has hair hanging down back and girl on right has long braid swinging away from head. girl on left has red collar pink sleeves and vest blue skirt and yellow apron. girl in middle has yellow and red stripes across shoulders and upside down triangle on chest. skirt is purple. girl on right has yellow sleeves red skirt and black shoes. see- saw is brown w/ black bottom edge. below is yellow sack w/ some brown stitch- es. sack is traditionally filled w/ rice straw. under the sack are green stitches representing the ground. on back are three Chinese characters one in red the other two in blue. the central character in red is the double joy symbol. around the base of the cloth is a key design border of brown and light brown. the see-saw game is thought to have originated when young ladies were not allowed away from home and it gave them a glimpse of the outside world over the top of the yards wall.

1994.021.024