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Courtesy APThe Boston Museum of Fine Arts recently stopped visitors from trying on a kimono and posing in front of a painting by Monet of a woman wearing this characteristic Japanese garment. There was also a production of Gilbert & Sulivan's 'Mikado' that was apparently cancelled. Why were people not allowed to wear a kimono? Why was watching the Mikado considered improper? What had the organisors done wrong? Well, they committed the unforgiveable sin of what in Boston was called 'cultural appropriation'. It is about, shock horror, adopting aspects from one culture and incorporating it into your own. It is about a Westerner practising yoga, eating Chinese food, wearing a kimono, watching the Mikado, and, to cap it all, sin of all sins, wearing a sombrero at a party (I am not joking). Perhaps you should look at the photograph of three young women (I think they are Mexican, although wearing very 'Western' style clothing) protesting in the Boston museum against people wearing a kimono. Some of the words they use are Orientalism, Exotification (sic), Dehumanization. And of course, racism is also mentioned.

Actually, the term is used incorrectly. In earlier days the phrase cultural appropriation was used when a certain aspect of a culture is appropriated by another and the origins deliberately obscured or misrepresented. The term was used, for example, for Palestinian garments being sold as 'Israeli'.

But apart from the incorrect application of the word, the events in Boston remain remarkable. It is easy to make jokes about this movement and about the long words that are being used. May Mexicans or Japanese eat a pizza, and if so, are they involved in cultural appropriation? But there is much more than that. I understand that minority groups need, and have every right to fight for their position in society, and use various means to achieve this objective. These means are fortunately often symbolic. In Holland it is the saga of Zwarte Piet; in other cultures it may be a particular statue (in Oxford plans were only recently scrapped to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes), changing a street name, or whatever. In many cases the minority groups are absolutely right in demanding these changes.

But this new wave of denouncing what is called cultural appropriation goes much further than that. It means that people in the Western world (I understand it is only the Western world that is at fault) should distance themselves from other cultures, look at them as strange, not to be touched (literally), and in fact, contrary to what the protesters in Boston want, regard these 'other' cultures as exotic. And what does it mean for those who are born in those 'other' cultures? Do they have to remain there, and retain and defend to the death their inherited culture? Are the three young women in Boston, enjoying no doubt the advantages of Western life, going to tell their Mexican (?) family that they should go on living as they always did? I think the campaign against what is called cultural appropriation leads to something else, namely folklorisation, which, as I interpret it, is the framing of other people and their culture into a romantic mould that clearly separates 'them' from 'us'. 

In a recent article published by the BBC (11 March, "A point of view: When does borrowing from other cultures become ' appropriation'?"), it is clearly explained that the sharing of different aspects of culture helps towards a better understanding of other people and even to celebrate other cultures. At the TRC in Leiden, the visitors enjoy wearing a kimono, a burqa, or a Mexican sombrero, so that they can have the chance to learn about other cultures. Knowledge, and direct experiences with other cultures, stimulate understanding. Creating a distance between cultures leads to ignorance and misunderstanding.

Willem Vogelsang, 13 March 2016

New outfit for Afghan national women's soccer teamWomen want to play football, also in Afghanistan, but what should they wear? Not a simple question in a country that is so deeply conservative and torn apart by more than thirty years of civil war. On the 8th of March, International Women's Day, the national women's team of Afghanistan showed its new hijabi outfit, which covers them from head to toe. The outfit includes a close fitting body shirt with sleeves, a hood and leggings; a jersey; and shorts. The new outfit was designed by the Danish sportswear firm of Hummel. Its owner wrote on the Hummel website: "We don't sponsor the biggest teams in the world, but we make partnerships with teams and clubs with a story to tell, like Afghanistan". Khalida Popal, a former captain of the team, tells that "this new uniform represents the past. This new uniform represents the future." And, as such, Popal tells, this new uniform represents the true makeup and the true objective of her national team.

The home stadium of the Afghan national teams is what is popularly known as the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul, which in the 1990s was the location of public executions, including those of 'adulterous' women, by the then Taliban rulers. Looking at the women's outfit it may look somewhat weird to Westerners, but considering the history of women's position in Afghanistan, this space suit nevertheless shows, I think, enormous progress.

Willem Vogelsang, 9 March 2016 

A series of silk, 17th century Vrindavani Vastra textiles, now on display in the British Museum, London.Last Thursday, March 3rd, and just before the official book launch that afternoon of Gillian's Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World in the Petrie Museum in London, we went to see a special exhibition in the British Museum about a particular type of figured woven textile from northeastern India. The main exhibit is a truly enormous piece of material of some nine metres long and more than two metres wide. It  is made up of twelve strips that are sewn together and are topped with three bands of Chinese damask and one band of Chinese brocade. The panels are made of silk and ornamented with the most wonderful illustrations, captions and texts, woven into the material. They date back to the late seventeenth century and derive from Assam in northeastern India. The panels were originally used and exhibited independently. but in later years were taken to Tibet, and eventually transported to Britain. This happened in the early 20th century after the march upon Lhasa by Francis Younghusband (1904-1905), which was organised in order to counter the perceived spread of Russian influence in the region. Perceval Landon was the war correspondent of The Times during the expedition. He apparently got hold of the nine metres long piece of material and had it sent and eventually donated to the British Museum. The same man, some years previously and during the Boer War, proudly posed for a photograph in South Africa together with the author and Nobel-Prize winner Rudyard Kipling !

Fragment from the Vrindavani Vastra on display in the British Museum, 2016, showing the snake demon Kaliya being defeated by Krishna.The panels illlustrate the life of Krishna, one of the most popular deities of India and an incarnation of one of the main gods, Vishnu. The type of the illustrated panels is generally called Vrindavani Vastra, or the cloth of Vrindavan, named after the region in northern India where Krishna is thought to have grown up. The panels show various scenes from the life of the young Krishna. As a true Hercules, he defeated a whole series of demons, including a crocodile, a multi-headed serpent (Kaliya) and an ill-tempered crane. But there are also representations of the naughty Krishna dancing with young shepherdesses (the gopis) and hiding their clothes in a tree. Many of these episodes from Krishna's life are still being enacted all over northern India, at places where Krishna is especially venerated. This happens during the Ras Lila festival in late October / early November. It is actually very well possible that the panels of the exhibited Vrindavani Vastra were shown at this festival in Assam. But there are also representations of the other incarnations (avataras) of Vishnu, such as Rama, the hero from the famous epic of the Ramayana; the turtle who carries the world on his shell; the fish (matsya) that saved the first human meaning (Manu) in a true Noah-like fashion, and others. 

The exhibition also includes a beautiful eighteenth century coat from India, on loan from the Chepstow Museum in southeastern Wales. The coat is lined with a Vrindavani Vastra. It also shows scenes from Krishna's life, including his playing with the gopis.

The exhibition in the British Museum can be visited until 15 August. The exhibition is curatored by Richard Blurton, senior curator of the South Asia Collections of the BM, whom, it so happens, I first met, many years ago, at the British excavations of the old town of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Richard also wrote a small booklet to accompany this wonderful exhibition.

Willem Vogelsang, 5 March 2016

Karin Scheper's sample of Palestinian embroidery, made during the TRC workshop and finished at home.In the latest edition of the monthly TRC Wednesday morning workshop series, on the 24th of February, no less than twelve persons attended the workshop on Palestinian embroidery. Gillian (Vogelsang-Eastwood) introduced us to this specific needlework tradition with an informative and well illustrated PowerPoint, which provided a lot of historical background information and gave us insight in the regional varieties. In addition, there were plenty examples of textiles that we could touch and scrutinize, before we started on the making of our own samples. The tables with the laid out pieces of cloth, threads and designs were set amidst dressed mannequins, for further inspiration. As in the other workshops that I attended so far, participants could choose between the levels fairly simple, somewhat experienced and advanced, and all the materials to make our own samples were well prepared. For me, the goal of practicing is to obtain a better understanding of the materials and techniques, to try and learn things I didn’t know before, and quite simply to enjoy the textile artifacts. The easy-going atmosphere makes it all the more enjoyable, and so does the stimulating presence of the real artifacts and the presence of knowledge (and, as a bonus, we had the possibility of a sneak preview of the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World!).

Karin Scheper, 29 February 2016

Women wearing red hakama at Shinto shrineA few days ago the TRC was able to acquire a small collection of Japanese garments that used to belong to Dr Erika de Poorter, who was a specialist of the Japanese Noh theatre at Leiden University. Among the various kimonos, there was a special item, namely a divided skirt (hakama) in dark red silk. Hakama are still worn by men as part of the traditional outfit for special and formal occasions; the red cloth of our hakama, however, suggests that the trousers were made for a woman. Hakama are worn by musicians and stage attendants of the Noh theatre, but this is still very much a man’s world and it is not likely that Erika picked up her hakama in this context.

But women do wear hakama on certain occasions. Miko (Shinto shrine maidens) wear the same outfit as their male counterparts, but in different colours. Women who practice traditional martial arts, such as kendo and archery, also wear hakama, but usually in the ‘male’ grey, black or dark blue. Finally, hakama are worn by women at university graduation ceremonies, often with Victorian-style booties. When compulsory education was introduced in Japan at the end of the 19th century, boys were soon required to wear military-style uniforms. Girls, however, still wore kimono. Because this was far from practical, the hakama was introduced for them: it looked like a skirt, but offered pant-like functionality. The graduation hakama is a nostalgic reminder of these early days of female education.Female graduates wearing hakama, Japan

Anna Beerens, 1 February 2016

Murtaza Ahmadi with his Messi T-shirt. Photograph by his brother.Believe it or not, I know just about nothing about football, apart from the scandals surounding this Swiss bloke and his cronies who seem to have made an awful lot of money out of a simple game. But I do follow the news about Afghanistan and this week there was something in the media that was really nice. A young boy in Ghazni province, not exactly the place to go on holiday, was photographed with a plastic bag as a T-shirt with written on it the name of Messi. Because of the Afghan boy I now know that Messi is a famous football player; I have no idea where and how, and when, but that does not matter. For the Afghan lad Messi is a star, and he is very proud of showing Messi's name. I think the boy is the real star. I understand he is only five years old. His 15-year old brother made him the T-shirt with the name of Messi written on it with a marker pen. Then the brother took a photograph and put it on Facebook. That was some two weeks ago. And that photograph went, as it is called, ' viral'. In the end it was the boy's uncle that recognised the boy. The uncle lives in Australia, another reminder of the Afghan diaspora and the fate of the Afghan people. It is a smile, in an otherwise desperate situation.

Willem Vogelsang, 31 January 2016

Embroidered Qing-period curtain, with postage stamp inserted. Taiwan, modern.This morning I had the honour to welcome the new visiting professor in Taiwan Studies to the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden. We had a long chat, and at the end my Taiwanese guest and his wife gave me some little presents. When I opened one of them, it happened to be a booklet with a long and folded sheet of thin, gold painted paper, into which five postage stamps are marked out, dated to 2013. The sheet carries a reproduction of a Qing period curtain that is now housed in the National Museum of History, Taipei. The curtain is decorated with embroidery showing flowers and birds, against a background of rich red silk with more flowers, birds, grass, trees, clouds, rocks and other delicately embroidered motifs. It is regarded, according to the accompanying text, as one of the Qing Dynasty's greatest pieces of embroidered art.

This curtain is in reality almost five metres long. The composition centers on an eye-catching peacock. Called "Ode to the Great Earth", the theme of the curtain offers a colourful and beautiful vista of blooming flowers and brightly coloured birds, heralding the arrival of spring. Indeed, a worthy subject for embroidery, and for stamps!

Willem Vogelsang, 22 January 2016

Chester cathedral, embroidered hearse clothWillem and I are in Chester, England, for a few days and could not resist going to the Cathedral, among others to see if they had any embroideries. They are there, but you need to search for them! There is a late 19th century central altar frontal (high altar) made from a cream damask ground with an art nouveau style design of three trees with intertwining grape vines, leaves and bunches of grapes, flanked by small bushes, possibly olive ones, but that was not clear. Tucked away in one corner (see photograph) is a 19th century hearse cloth with a blue silk damask ground, embroidered with couched gold thread (passings). The design is hard to see, as it has been placed on a wooden roller inside a wooden case, but there are bishop's crosier with what looks like a W alternating with lilies, as well as coats of arms.

In another part of the Cathedral there is an appliqué dedicated to the United Nations that is a commissoned piece dating to AD 2000. For the Christmas period there was an appliqué panel depicting the Chester Mystery Plays, a series of medieval plays based upon the life and death of Jesus Christ. In this case, it was the Chester series, depicted with buildings from the centre of the city. A bit of fun, and nicely done. There were also several large-scale, appliqué banners, depicting Mary and Child, as well as the the Creation (stars, birds and fishes).

Finally, in a chapel dedicated to the Cheshire regiments, there are a number of flags, with regimental honours. Some of the flags look as if they date from the early 19th century and were embroidered with the names of various battles. But they were so high up it was difficult to be sure.

But what about vestments? Alas nothing was on view, the various people we asked said: yes, there are vestments, but they were not sure what, where, or whether they were embroidered. A cathedral with the history of Chester's should have embroideries and vestments dating back several centuries, if not longer. I will be persuing this and trying to find out what they have. My curiosity has been piqued!! Chester beware.

Gillian Vogelsang, 2 January 2016