Monday, 29 July 2013
Wanderer.Settler: The Wandering Migrants.
Wanderer.Settler: The Wandering Migrants.: Left : My paternal grand father and grandmother Right : My maternal grandfather and grandmother The first record of travel from Chin...
The Wandering Migrants.
Left : My paternal grand father and grandmother
Right : My maternal grandfather and grandmother
The first record of travel from China is provided in the travelogue of
Fa0hien who visited Tamluk in the 5th cent. BC. Fa-Hien was a Chinese Buddhist
monk who travelled to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka to acquire Buddhist manuscripts
between 399 to 412 BC. His work is a travel book filled with accounts of early
Buddhism and history of numerous countries along the Silk road at the turn of
the 5th century. records of immigration for the next 16 century are not
reliable.
The first person to come to India and settle down was Yang Tai Chow in
1778 during the British Rule when Calcutta was the capital of the British
India. Most of the immigrants from China found a foothold in Calcutta and
started working at the Calcutta port. Calcutta because it was the easiest
accessible metropolitan area from China by land. Most of them even started
their own business of carpentry, tanning and shoe making.
My family’s story of migration is quite different. My Great
grandparents decided to leave China and settle down in India due to political
and social unrest.
The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, followed the Ming
Dynasty in Chinese history, and was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling
from 1644 to 1912. It was overthrown following the Xinhai Revolution. Due to
this there was major political and economic struggle for the people of China.
During the war people were being killed if they opposed the new
Government.
Children and women were being murdered. For the protection of their
families my great grandfather along with his family escaped to Rangoon.
In order to save the children from any harm they were carried from one
place to the other in tin boxes and food baskets.
My maternal grandmother was born in Rangoon. (a lot of story telling and source of information for us is she.)
When my grandmother turned five, the family decided to move back to
China.
After spending a few years there, my great grand father passed away and
my great grand mother along with the children returned back to India for a
safer peaceful life in Calcutta. In the year 1962 during the Indo China war my
family migrated to India for the second time and have been staying here ever
since.
Though we’ve made India our homeland, no Chinese leaves his home not
intending to return. His hope is always to come back rich, to die and be buried
where his ancestors are buried.
This is where it all began. The Lee family belongs to the Central
province of the Republic of China - Hupeh or Hubei province, Wuhan being the
capital. The name Hubei means “north of the lake”, referring to Hubei’s
position, north of Dongting Lake.
My grandfather
hasn’t been to china after migrating to India decades ago. Though it’s a life long
wish of every Chinese living in India that one day we might be able to visit
our origin nation.
Through out my 27 years of life I’ve been asked many times where am I
from and from which part of China do i belong to.
Now I know exactly where it is on the map
*Written by Lisa Lee
Monday, 22 July 2013
Chapter 1
~ a person without the knowledge of their past history, origin &
culture is like a tree without roots ~ Marcus Garvey
History determines the present as well as the future. It shapes the
character of a man, a family, a community, a state and a nation. The world is
getting smaller day-by-day & has turned into a global village where all of
us have become the Citizens of the World. Today all of us are struggling
desperately to keep our legacy & our heritage alive & breathing in this
world. People of different races & castes are coming together to raise a
new future in this melting hot pot. Thus, reviving lost folk art & culture
has become more important than ever. This is my journey to reconnect with my
roots & concretize my past & my history. This is just another drop in
the ocean.
Being a Chinese Indian, growing up amidst different cultures was not
that easy. Even though my parents tried their best to bring us up like normal
Chinese kids, influence of the Indian culture always remained dominant. Though
everything was not lost. I was forever asked to question and prove my
genuineness to others. After a point when embarrassment gave way to curiosity,
I began digging into the history and connecting it to the present.
Chinese generation, who have become distant from their roots and
motivates them to look into their own family history and take it forward.
Introduction
My mom has always and always will influence my sense in fashion and the way I carry myself today. My next story in wanderer.settler would be about my family and there relationship with fashion in midst of stories about partition, the indo -china war and the fleeing of my grandparents from the Red army some 100 years back. 2 world wars and many conflicts later, I will try my best to document and connect the dots through my eyes...
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Wandering in the Streets of China
This is in Shanghai in 2009, where designer clothes, shoes and bags are the rage. Every woman in China metropolis loves to look like a model from a glossy magazine, head to toe in designer garb.
The mother and child duo was totally contrasting from everyone around them. The child was tied to her waist with a hand woven cloth (very traditional to the way 'primitive' tribes and villagers carry there child around). She briefly stopped in front of this man made fountain, had a conversation with her child and then moved on....
Fisherman's market China, Beijing, 2009
The traditional textile in China is unlike what the world image of it is today. Just type " Indigo dyeing in China" on Google. You will see a whole different china than just the land of population, mass production and designer fakes. :)
qípáo (pronounced as ch'i-p'ao) .
In English it is referred to the traditional Mandarin Gown. The gown is stylish and tight fitting. According to popular belief this is the traditional dress of Chinese women, but infact it was made popular in the 1920's by the socialites and upper class women in Shanghai.
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Wandered into a settlement...
I travel everyday for work, on my way I always see the "Village Expats" as I call them who have wandered into big cities to settle, selling flowers and odd toys made in china and sometimes even begging. I must say sometimes what these women wear makes me envious. I have often wondered how and where do they get these indigenous woven fabrics, prints and embroideries from? I see so much richness hidden in their poverty.
Monday, 1 July 2013
The Red Salvage.
The selvage is the term for the self-finished edges of fabric. The selvages keep the fabric from unravelling or fraying. It is a result of how the fabric is created. One of the main and the most attractive features of the Munda textile is the combination of the Red and the white.
Symbolism of Red and Indigo
Our odyssey led us to discover many insights as to how the rang or colour of the mundari costumes came into existence. History unwinds into many facts and figures or just assumptions. we learnt that the birth of the colour red came into the munda being after an incident which was described to us. Legend says that there seamed to be two Mundari community members who travelled and finally reached the district of maranghada where they wished to settle but were not sure if the gods or nature would be pleased with their decision.
We were told that they prayed and stringed a rooster to the tree as a gesture of their offerings. If the gods were pleased the cock would remain alive till the next morning or else would be eaten by the wild. The wait overnight was worth tithe gods and nature were pleased with their worship and offerings and the animal was found alive. They then slaughtered the rooster as an act of celebration and offered the blood to the mighty, making the red of the blood extremely symbolic. This was as far as the legend narrates. The colour red was then procured from the sal tree seed oil and the palash flower for the purpose of dye stuff, also called as the raanga sali Now a days due to the cost chemical dyes have taken over. The other colour predominantly used was kora or natural tone indicating purity.
The warrior dancers . Jharkhand . 2011
Ranchi, Jharkhand . 2011
The Mundas have always been a shy tribe keeping to themselves in the jungles. They mostly reside near river, waterfalls and near the mountains. They procure there food and shelter from nature itself. Originally they were hunters and gatherers but with time they discovered the science of growing food for themselves and from a gatherer the Mundas became settlers making agriculture their main source of procuring food.
Currently the Mundas reside in villages and towns formed near mountains and jungles. To reach where they reside is still a task in itself. To reach where the tribe resides, rivers and lakes needs to be crossed as they are situated in remote places still untouched by excessive human civilization and technological advancement. But in the past few decades because of the government taking new initiative towards their development the geographical distinction of the tribe is fading away with the growing contact and insurgence of people outside the tribe.
Muranghada Village (Munda Tribe), Ranchi, Jharkhand. 2011. The Brides Mother.
We dived into this one with no prior idea of what we are going to witness...The first night in a abandoned school with a bunch of tribal children we slept under a roof full of fireflies not knowing how dangerous it was. We lay there in awe and wonder looking at those green twinkle on the roof...we met people who were way much wiser and intelligent in there humbleness and kindness than the "modern man"...we walked into the Naxal area lured by the greed of learning more about the Munda's...We were shown a spectacle of dance, music and folklores..
The Mahabharata says that the Mundas were driven away from the from east india by the Aryans and they travelled north west crossing Azamgarh,Bundelkhand and Rohtahsgarh and finally landed in the Chhotanagpur platue.
It is marvellous how not so far from the a city that bustles with life activity of urban India, few people still exist who till date live in close proximity with nature. The Mundas worship nature, they derive their food and shelter from nature and most importantly their lives, traditions and customs are deeply inspired and rooted in nature.
The Mundari tribe do have a lot of stories to narrate. Every description and every discussion starts with a story which are then interlaced and entwined with words of poetry, the notes of their music and the steps of their dance this is their way of life.. Music, dance and poetry are the heart and soul of the Munda being.
Now and when we sit and reflect back on our journey we hear the drum beating we feel the thumping of their feet and the swooping of their gamcha, a blur of red and white circling around the tamarind tree and the smiling strong faces of THE MUNDA
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