Qianjiaxiu: 1,000 families embroidery

Last month I wrote about the East Asian tradition of making robes for children out of 100 pieces of fabric, as referenced in a museum exhibit of antique children's clothing. Like the Good Wishes quilt custom, the Hundred Families Coat tradition incorporates the idea of sewing 100 pieces of fabric together into a lucky item for a child.

I wanted to introduce you to another tradition that overlaps with the ones we have been examining. (What's so exciting to me here is that this time, there is not only a quilt involved in the custom, but also a [general] locale where this custom was practiced, should we feel inclined to search for more information.)

Back in the spring of 2002, an article appeared in "New Internationalist" magazine about a project intended to bring attention to the importance of China’s dying folk art. A teacher and five students traveled along the Yellow River collecting pieces of cloth from farming families in the area. They assembled these pieces, 1,000 altogether, into a 350 meter long patchwork quilt which they termed "Qianjiaxiu," or 1,000 families embroidery. (NB: 350 meters of quilt would be around 230 lap quilts in a row!)

Why did these artists use patchwork to underscore the importance of folk art in the region?

The idea... came from an ancient ritual in the Yellow River Valley, in which local families praying for good harvest and fortune made a quilt out of 100 embroidered pieces to please the deities. The tradition has been dying out as more and more people have left their villages for towns and cities. (Findarticles.com, "Folk fabric: Chinese villages where unsung artists dwell"; originally printed in "New Internationalist," April 2002)

If this Yellow River custom of creating lucky quilts from 100 pieces of fabric is truly "ancient," I wonder if it could possibly be the basis for the Hundred Families Coats (ca. mid-19th-mid-20th centuries), and ultimately, the basis for our 21st century 100 Good Wishes quilts today?(!)