July Program with China Society of Southern California

Where are the hairpins that your grandmother and great grandmother used and loved? They might be in our speaker’s virtual museum collection of over a thousand pins. Through the efforts of Cheri Hunter of Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, we have a summer bonus program.

Often it takes an enthusiastic collector who takes the next step to do research and then write and publish. During the second half of the twentieth century, Lilla Perry (snuff bottles), Raymond Bushell (neutske), and Beverly Jackson (Kingfisher feather, Chinese slippers, and rank badges) were enthusiastic collectors who did research, and wrote books which brought attention to these minor arts and revolutionized the collection of them.

Our speaker, Yi Shiuan Wu, is such an enthusiastic collector. She has and is doing research on hairpins. However, she is in the digital world of the 21th Century. Instead of writing books and exhibiting in museums, she has created a virtual museum, www.hairpinmuseum.org, to spread knowledge of her love of hairpins. Her program will cover not just hairpins and ornaments, but how they were used. How they were used has been a real mystery to me over the years. Those shaped like a foot long ruler or like a squat, flatten archer’s bow have always stumped me.

Optional no host dinner on Saturday July 16 @6:30 at the Golden Dragon, then to Jin Hing Co. (412 Bamboo Lane) one block away, to see a display of hairpins.

If you are interested in attending the dinner please e-mail yvonnechang8@gmail.com. If you want to see the exhibit of pins but not attend the dinner, please also let her know.