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From
Footbinding to Dress-Making, Dorothy Ko Focuses Research on
the Significance of Domestic Lives and Objects
 New
York, NY-- Historian Dorothy Ko believes the everyday lives
of women in China, along with the domestic objects they made
by hand, have much to tell us about the country's cultural,
economic and political development. Approaching China's cultural
history with the eye of an art collector and museum curator,
Ko -- the author of a well-received history of footbinding
-- now is turning her attention to the dress-making tradition
of China's silk industry region. For the next six months,
Ko will be based in Nanjing, where lessons in the ancient
art of silk-weaving will be part of her research.
Ko's book
Every Step A Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet, published in
2001, shattered the popular conception of footbinding as a
tool to oppress women and demonstrated that it was instead
a source of female identity, purpose, pride, and power. Now,
Ko is embarking on a new study of the dress-making tradition
and domestic work culture in China's silk industry region.
Ko has received a fellowship from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center,
which will support six months of research in Nanjing on the
cultural and political significance of clothing and textiles
in China.
Working at the intersections of anthropology, history, and
women's studies, Ko found while researching footbinding that
many things women had made in China were seldom written about.
"While researching women's footbinding and shoe-making
tradition in China, I was inspired by the prospect of growing
my research from feet to the body and from the body to the
different domestic spaces in the house, such as the kitchen,
in order to learn more about women's experiences," Ko
said.
Although she is trained as an historian, Ko approaches her
research much like an archaeologist, anthropologist, art collector
or museum curator. She conducts her research hands-on by interviewing
people and by learning from things that were made and used
in the everyday lives of her subjects. This type of research,
Ko says, is much more interesting and fulfilling than studying
history solely by researching written catalogues and documents.
"Most collectors know that women's work and crafts that
women made by hand, such as embroidered purses, children's
hats, and shoes belong to a different universe and have a
different logic than the impressions we get from history books
and catalogues," Ko said.
"I want to bring women's work and the dress-making tradition
alive - the methods such as silk making, weaving and embroidery
used back then have not really changed in hundreds of years."
Ko, who specializes in 17th century China, will focus on the
dress-making, fashion and domestic culture in the Lower Yangzi
region of China, starting her research from the 20th century
and working back to the 17th century.
According to Ko, 17th century China was rich and commercialized
- a period during which many styles of dress were established,
and each was full of social meaning.
Though inspired by the period, which offers an abundance of
actual artifacts and written material for research, Ko found
that women's dress-making and domestic work were seldom talked
about, leaving very little written material available. "There
is more material available for the footbinding tradition,
dating back to the 12th century," Ko said.
Ko will leave for China in February and will be based for
six months in Nanjing, the center of the Chinese silk industry,
close to Shanghai. She will reside as a senior fellow at the
Hopkins-Nanjing Center's Institute for International Research.
The center, jointly administered by Johns Hopkins University
and Nanjing University, is one of the oldest United States-China
research institution, with a large body of both Chinese and
American students.
Ko's study of silk-making, weaving and embroidery techniques
will include lessons in weaving at the Brocade Research Institute.
She noted that there are only a handful of experts who still
practice these ancient weaving methods.
Ko will also look at women's work in the domestic realm in
light of Confucianism. Although Confucianism reinforced gender
segregation, Ko pointed out that Confucian beliefs placed
high value on women's labor in the domestic realm. "According
to Confucian ethics, women from all classes are to work with
their hands and body. This is how they display their moral
worth and feminine skills," Ko concluded.
Ko has taught history at Barnard since 2001. Her courses include
Chinese cultural history, body histories, women and culture
in 17th century China, and Confucian cultures. A tenured professor
at Barnard, she previously taught at Rutgers University for
five years.
In addition to Every Step a Lotus, Ko has written numerous
books and publications, including "Footbinding as Female
Inscription," chapters in: Rethinking Confucianism:
Past and Present in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam (2002),
The Presence of Antiquity: Ming Discourses on Footbinding's
Origins (2001); "The Sex of Footbinding," chapter
in: Good Sex: Women's Religious Wisdom (2001), and
Teachers of the Inner Chambers (1994). She is also
co-author of the forthcoming Women and Confucian Cultures
in Pre-modern China, Korea, and Japan.
Ko earned undergraduate and advanced degrees at Stanford University,
including the doctorate. She has received a number of fellowships
and awards. She was a member of the School of Historical Studies
at the Institute for Advanced Study (2000-2001), a fellow
of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2000-2001)
and a fellow at the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary
Culture, Rutgers University (1999-2000).
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, 212-854-790, ptuomi@barnard.edu
Photo
by Timothy Fadek
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