The Manchu Dragon : Costumes of the Ch’ing Dynasty 1644-1912

In the land of jade, everything seems possible and, in many ways, more vivid than life—the sky bluer, the air stronger with contrasts from poetry to violence. China: a vast land of orchids, Mongolian tigers, gardens, palaces, dazzling smiles, and raucous laughter, forests of camellias, birds of every color, wide seas of ponds filled with lotus petals. From the towns and villages, copper chimes and bronze bells ring out across the extraordinary landscapes.

We show here in our exhibition magnificent embroideries from the Ch’ing dynasty (1644–1912). This is the period when the Manchus ruled China. They swept down from Manchuria in what is now northern China in the seventeenth century and toppled the native Chinese dynasty, the Ming. They were outsiders, but quickly took up the customs and styles of the people they had conquered, never losing their own freshness and energy, which sustained them into this century. [This book was originally published in 1980 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]