Mud Silk and the Chinese Laundress: From the South China Silk Industry to Mud Silk Suits in Maine

Abstract

In 1921, bride Toy Len Goon (1892–1993), a peasant from Guangdong (Canton) South China, emigrated to Portland, Maine, USA where she and her husband ran a suburban laundry. She became a respected member of the community and, in 1952, American ‘Mother of the Year’. This article follows her biography by investigating a group of four recently rediscovered tunic and trouser suits preserved from her trousseau. The suits are made of Guangdong mud silk, a two-colour fabric distinguished by its black upper surface and brown underside. Mud silk is a little recognised, studied or collected South-East Asian textile. By examining mud silk and its manufacture within the context of Guangdong’s rise and decline as a major silk producer and exporter, this article contributes a new perspective to the present limited body of research on this regional textile.

Notes

1 Book of Memories: The Family of Dogan and Toy Len Goon, 2003, 1047, Special Collections and Chinese-American Collection, 1875-2003, Coll. 2080, both Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine, USA.

2 Ibid.

3 Personal communication, Ed Guen (previously Goon), son of Toy Len Goon, and his wife Amy, 10 July 2006 and 22 July 2006, telephone interviews.

4 Ibid.

5 Chinese-American Collection, Maine Historical Society.

6 J. Stockard, Daughters of the Canton Delta (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989), p. 20.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.; M. Topley, ‘Marriage resistance in rural Kwantung’, in M. Wolf and R. Witke eds, Women in Chinese Society (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1975).

9 Ibid.

10 Chinese-American Collection, Maine Historical Society.

11 Ibid.

12 Book of Memories. Conveniently for Chinese immigrants, records were lost in the 1906 San Francisco fire.

13 G. Libby, ‘Chinese in Maine’ (Online, 2003). Available from: https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/165/page/424/display?use_mmn=1 [Accessed: 7 July 2014]. Chinese were not allowed to become citizens but they could serve in the army.

14 Book of Memories.

15 Ibid.

16 Topley, ‘Marriage resistance in rural Kwantung’, p. 78. During a proxy ceremony a white rooster stood in for the groom, explaining why Toy Len’s family refer to her proxy marriage as ‘by the rooster’.

17 Chinese-American Collection, Maine Historical Society.

18 Personal communication, Ed Guen (previously Goon), son of Toy Len Goon, telephone interview, 10 July 2006.

19 Chinese-American Collection, Maine Historical Society.

20 Libby, ‘Chinese in Maine’.

21 Chinese-American Collection, Maine Historical Society.

22 Personal communication, Doris Wong (previously Goon), daughter of Toy Len Goon, 11 July 2011, conversation.

23 Album Dedicated to the Loving Memory of Toy Len Goon, 1994, 3165, pamphlet, spiral-bound, Maine Historical Society.

24 Toy Len Goon newspaper clippings, 1944–1952, S-54-43, Misc. Box 133/8, Maine Historical Society.

25 Ibid.

26 Personal communication, Ed Guen (previously Goon), son of Toy Len Goon, telephone interview, 10 July 2006.

27 C. W. Howard and K. P. Buswell, A Survey of the Silk Industry of South China (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1925), pp. 157, 186.

28 A. Finnane, Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 116–19.

29 Ibid., p. 119.

30 Ibid.

31 V. M. Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing in Hong Kong and South China 1840–1980 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 6; V. M. Garrett, ‘The Samfu in rural Hong Kong’, Costume, xxv (1991), pp. 89–90.

32 Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing, p. 6.

33 Examples in collections include: mud silk trousers, c. 1905, 1992.0620.09 and tunic with simulated mud silk trim, c. 1905, 1992.0620.23, both Mead Collection in the Division of Home and Community Life, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; gummed or mud silk jacket, 1820–1950, FE. 78-1995, Garret Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

34 Ten items from the Asian Costume Collection, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Manoa, Hawaii, USA: suit jacket, male, early 1900s, China-15-HE; jacket, male, early 1900s, no number; tunic, early 1900s, no number; tunic, female, 1880–1890, no number; tunic, female, early 1900s, no number; tunic, female, early 1900s, tag #1; tunic, female, early 1900s, tag #3; tunic, female, 1915–1925, no. 16; top, female, 1940s, A-2001.16; qipao, 1940s, A-20001.16.1. Five items from the collection at Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA: tunic female, early 1900s, 7971.1; tunic, female, early 1900s, 12863.1; jacket, child’s, 1890–1920, 6147.1; jacket, child’s, 1890–1920, 6148.1; qipao, 1940s, ED 9921.

35 Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing, pp. 16–17.

36 Finnane, Changing Clothes, p. 92.

37 V. Wilson, Chinese Textiles (London: V&A Publications, 2005), p. 84.

38 Ibid.

39 Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing, p. 5.

40 Tunic, 1880–1890s, no number, Asian Costume Collection, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

41 Qipao is a Mandarin word used for the form–fitting style of Chinese dress that developed in China in the late 1920s, afterwards continuing in Hong Kong. In Cantonese it is called a cheongsam. Wilson, Chinese Textiles, p. 84.

42 F. Bray, Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1997), p. 188.

43 Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing, p. 41.

44 Ibid., p. 6; V. M. Garrett, Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide (Hong Kong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 135.

45 Personal communication, Doris Wong (previously Goon), daughter of Toy Len Goon, 11 July 2011, conversation.

46 Bray, Technology and Gender, pp. 264–65.

47 Garrett, Chinese Clothing, p. 137.

48 Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing, p. 6.

49 Bray, Technology and Gender, p. 189.

50 Ibid., p. 188.

51 D. Cardon, Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science (London: Archetype Press, 2007), pp. 475–77.

52 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, p. 158; R. H. M. J. Lemmens and N. Wulijarni-Soetjipto eds, ‘Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour’, Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 3: Dye and tannin-producing plants (Online, 2013). Available from: proseanet.org/prosea/e-prosea_detail.php?frt=&id=1400 [Accessed: 10 May 2013].

53 Cardon, Natural Dyes, pp. 472–74.

54 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, p. 156.

55 Lemmens and Wulijarni-Soetjipto eds, ‘Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour’.

56 Cardon, Natural Dyes, p. 476, fig. 67a.

57 Ibid., p. 476; S. Lin and K. Mammel, ‘Dye for two tones: the story of sustainable mud-coated silk’, Fashion Practice, iv, no. 1 (2012), p. 100.

58 Cardon, Natural Dyes, p. 477. This author observed the process first-hand in Shunde.

59 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, p. 156.

60 One explanation is that a chemical reaction occurs when iron in the mud comes into contact with the tannic acid in the dye plant juice; Lin and Mammel, ‘Dye for two tones’, p. 99.

61 Lemmens and Wulijarni-Soetjipto eds, ‘Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour’.

62 In Europe and the United States, weighting silk with synthetic dyes and metallic salts had the opposite effect, that of reducing silk’s durability.

63 H. A. Frank, Roving through Southern China (New York & London: The Century Co., 1925), p. 336.

64 Garrett, Chinese Clothing, p. 109.

65 Garrett, Traditional Chinese Clothing, p. 72; Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, p. 156.

66 E. C. Bridgman, A Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton Dialect (Macao: S. Wells Williams, 1841), pp. 266–67.

67 Ibid., p. 265.

68 Pongee later came to mean a thin cheap plain weave silk used for blouses and linings.

69 F. M. Montgomery, Textiles in America 1650–1870 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), p. 327.

70 Ibid., p. 327.

71 Ibid.

72 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, p. 158.

73 Catalogue of 700 Cases China Silks for Sale by Auction by John Hone & Sons, Wednesday, April 29, 1829 at their auction room. Corner of Well and Pearl Streets, New York, no date, C 638 C 357, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA.

74 Miss Leslie’s Behaviour Book. A Guide and Manual for Ladies (Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson and Brothers, 1859), p. 94.

75 S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, revised edition, ii (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907), p. 35. The information in this edition is based on earlier editions; the first edition was 1882.

76 Bridgman, A Chinese Chrestomathy, p. 265.

77 I. B. Wingate and J. F. Mohler, Textile Fabrics and Their Selection, 8th edition (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1984), p. 115; I. Emory, The Primary Structure of Fabrics (Washington, DC: The Textile Museum, 1980), pp. 180–82, 189–92; D. Kuhn ed., Chinese Silks (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 521.

78 Emory, The Primary Structure of Fabrics, p. 192.

79 Ibid.

80 In silk textile technology, thread-making differs from other fibres. A single cohesive thread is the result of reeling together a number of continuous filaments. Due to silk’s natural gum they stick together as one single hair-like thread. Silk yarn is the result of grouping such reeled single threads together with or without a twist; see The Silk Book (London: The Silk & Rayon Users Association, 1951), p. 28; D. Kuhn, Textile Technology: Spinning and Reeling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 463; Salvaged from torn, unreelable cocoons broken filaments may be spun into yarns in the same manner as other short fibres such as cotton or wool.

81 The numbers cited in the present publication are approximate, converted from inches to centimeters. S. Lin, A. Lillethun, and M. Ordonez, ‘Identification, characterization and care of mud-coated silks’, Textile Specialty Group Postprints, n.d. v. 19, p. 108.

82 South China’s soft silk was particularly good for crêpe. In the 1920s, when crêpe was very fashionable, American manufacturers worried that the shortage of good quality Guangdong silk would ruin the crêpe market.

83 For pattern examples, see G. Hanyu, Chinese Textile Design, trans. R. Scot and S. Whitefield (London: Viking, 1992), pp. 110, 241 and pl. 91; the Chinese term ruyi is used to describe curvilinear ‘cloud’ patterns that may be composed of curved patterns not joined together, or joined together, or be a series of half patterns of a curved nature. Kuhn, Chinese Silks, pp. 143, 418.

84 Ibid., p. 218, pl. 237; S. Vainker, Chinese Silk; A Cultural History (Brunswick, New Jersey: British Museum with Rutgers University, 2004), p. 84, pl. 50 and p. 97, pl. 63.

85 For further pattern examples, see Hanyu, Chinese Textile Design, p. 91, pl. 67, and p. 218, pl. 239.

86 Ibid., p. 109, pl. 89 and p. 94, pl. 70; Kuhn Chinese Silks, p. 324, pl. 6.66.

87 Kuhn, Chinese Silks, p. 10.

88 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, p. 38.

89 A. Y. So, The South China Silk District: Local Historical Transformation and World System Theory (New York: State University of New York, 1986), p. 77.

90 Ibid., pp. 76–77, 195.

91 Ibid., p. 77.

92 Ibid., p. 80.

93 Vainker, Chinese Silk, p. 192.

94 Topley, ‘Marriage resistance in rural Kwantung’, p. 70. Elderly individuals interviewed by Marjorie Topley in the 1930s remembered some Guangdong sericulturists as newcomers.

95 So, The South China Silk District, p. 83.

96 Ibid., p. 90; S. Min-hsiung, The Silk Industry in Ch’ing China, trans. E-tu-Zen Sun (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1976), p. 6. There was a longstanding tradition of introducing and encouraging sericulture into non-silk growing areas. The Qing government promoted this practice.

97 So, The South China Silk District, p. 77.

98 Min-hsiung, The Silk Industry in Ch’ing China, p. 47.

99 Ibid., p. 66.

100 Ibid., p. 70.

101 So, The South China Silk District, pp. 90–92.

102 Ibid., p. 95.

103 Min-hsiung, The Silk Industry in Ch’ing China, p. 70.

104 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, pp. 116–22.

105 Ibid., p. 119.

106 Ibid., p. 120.

107 Ibid., pp. 153 and 156.

108 Ibid., p. 120.

109 Ibid., pp. 155, 156, 158.

110 Text of a Speech given by Austin Cheney on his Return from the Second Silk Mission to the Orient, 1923, E75, 225 (Ethnology), Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, p. 6.

111 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, pp. 155, 156.

112 Ibid.

113 Ibid., pp. 186, 157.

114 Ibid., p. 155.

115 Ibid., pp. 129, 134, 143–44; Stockard, Daughters of the Canton Delta, p. 154.

116 So, The South China Silk District, p. 113.

117 Howard and Buswell, Survey of the Silk Industry, pp. 167 and 158–59.

118 Ibid., p. 159.

119 A. C. Scott, Chinese Costume in Transition (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1960), p. 9.

120 Ibid.

121 Cited in S. M. Beckow, ‘Culture, history, and artifact’, in T. J. Schlereth ed., Material Culture Studies in America (Nashville, Tennessee: The American Association for State and Local History, 1986), p. 120.

122 Ibid.

123 Chiou-Ling Yeh, ‘A saga of democracy: Toy Len Goon, American Mother of the Year, and the cultural cold war’, Pacific Historical Review, lxxxi, no. 3 (2012), pp. 432–61.