When traveling in Qiandongnan, Guizhou, I heard from a local friend that there was an old man from the Northeast who came to Guizhou more than ten years ago and has been devoted to the collection of folk "trash". He became a collector of Miao folk art. So, with curiosity, we came to the Miao family compound in Datang Town, Leishan County, where he lives.
The old man’s name is Miao Yaosheng, a Hangzhou oil painter whose ancestral home is in the Northeast. He is about 1.7 meters tall and has long hair. Attracted by the beautiful environment and the local folk customs, I moved all my household registrations and settled here for 17 years.
The Miao Family Courtyard is very close to the water granary in Datang Town. It covers an area of about 11 acres and consists of 19 Miao wooden houses. Shijiu is some old objects, ranging in size from an oil lamp or an embroidery piece to large folk farm tools, furniture, stone carvings, water tanks, and everything related to Miao culture is included in his collection.
According to Teacher Miao, he came to Guizhou mainly to collect folk songs, but found that some old demolished objects were not suitable for them, but they carried the local folk culture, so he bought them as guides for sketching. The more I collect, the more I get out of hand, and I gradually fell in love with collecting these old objects, which is very meaningful.
When he went to a Miao village to sketch, he found that many old houses were being demolished and rebuilt. During this process, a large number of old objects were being discarded or even burned as firewood. It was very heartbreaking to see. , so I made up my mind to do one thing in this life, one thing that must be done: to build a "Miao Family Courtyard", to collect and maintain the cultural treasures created by the Miao Family in their production and life for thousands of years, and to inherit them. offspring.
In 2008, he sold a large number of his paintings, bought these 19 Miao houses from the public with a huge sum of money, and then moved the houses from the Miao Village deep in the mountains to the Datang Town, Leishan County, where he lives, is where the Miao Family Courtyard is today. The reason why it is named Miao Family Courtyard is because his surname is Miao, and the other reason is that most of the items collected are Miao people. So the name Miao Family Courtyard is also a pun.
For more than ten years, Mr. Miao has used all the proceeds from selling paintings to purchase antiques and objects of Miao culture. It has collected tens of thousands of items related to production, life, sacrifices, weddings and funerals of the Miao people. Although these items may not be very precious, they are huge in quantity, and each item is a witness of the local culture. It is said that he has spent more than 30 million yuan before and after.
He told us that under normal circumstances, most of the museums cover their collections with glass, and the audience can only see the exhibits through the glass. However, his Miao Family Courtyard hopes to build a museum that can talk and communicate. You can also touch and experience these collections when you see the objects about Miao culture.
There are rich stories behind these collections. He will tell us, where did this collection come from, and what are these items for? There have been some interesting stories, and these stories are the living culture of the local area.
Not all of these items have a very long history. For example, the TV set in the picture above should be an item from the 1980s. It should be more than 40 years old. There used to be many of these items, but they were basically discarded by the scrap yard. After taking it away, he kept a few, which can be regarded as a memory of an era.
He asked us with great interest, do you know what this is? Some people said it was a milling trough for rice milling, and some said it was a tool accessory. No one could name it accurately. Finally, he told us that it was a production tool of the Miao people, called a waist boat. . When they go to work in the field, they will put some fertilizers and items needed for seeds in the waist boat, and then tie it around the waist with a rope, so that they can free their hands, whether it is fertilizing the field or sowing seeds, the waist boat Floating on the water is labor-saving and efficient, which is the embodiment of the folk wisdom of the Miao people.
Besides, the chair above was collected by a large family in the Miao village. In order to worry about bandits coming to rob the house, they made the chair a sandwich and removed the wooden boards. They could put some valuables such as bank notes inside, and then packed them with wooden boards. After sitting on it, put a cushion on it. No one would have thought that there is such a doorway under an ordinary chair. He said that this represented the folk culture at that time, and the memory of an era. If you don’t collect it, future generations may I no longer know that there is such a secret. He also said with a smile that this is the same reason that some men hide imitation money now.
We see in his room that there is simply no way to unfold it due to the collection of too many items, it just piles up all together.
We can see that these items are indeed very down-to-earth, including many daily tools of folk artists such as carpenters, carpenters, stonemasons, etc., which can be described as all-inclusive and dazzling.
This is an old measuring tool with horns, liters, and buckets, which is rare in the folk.
He said that it is really not easy to collect these items. Not to mention going to the cottage, if you don’t collect them, they will use them for firewood or discard them on the side of the road. When you want to collect them, they will collect them. I think it must be very valuable, but you have to bargain slowly, and it is not easy to transport it out of the mountains after you buy it. If you don't really like it, it is really difficult to stick to it.
He said that he has been in Guizhou for 17 years, and he has fallen in love with this land deeply. Although he is not from the Miao nationality, he has integrated the Miao culture into his blood. For more than ten years, in addition to collecting those tangible Miao objects, he also took a large number of pictures and videos about Miao culture in the form of records, whose cultural value cannot be measured by money.
In 2017, someone offered 130 million yuan to buy his "Miao Family Courtyard" and all collections, but he politely declined. Teacher Miao explained: "Every item I collect is attached to the culture of generations of Miao ancestors. These resources are non-renewable and priceless. Selling them is tantamount to betraying my ancestors and ruining my happy life." Spirit world, I can't do that."
In the short communication with Mr. Miao, we all expressed our sincere admiration for his 17 years of rooting in Miao Village, researching Miao culture, and collecting authentic Miao art. He was even more moved by his feelings for the art and culture of the Miao family, from love to cherish, from painting to collection, from art sublimation to cultural inheritance, from the perspective of an artist. If you go to Leishan County, you can visit his Miao family compound. I believe you will be as moved as we are.