Future Space and Trend of Miao Nationality Silver Jewelry Research

Inheriting the traditional culture on the premise of “digital technology”

Nowadays, with the development of modern society, Miao people’s beliefs are becoming more diversified and open. The occasions for wearing silver jewelry are gradually decreasing, and many Miao people's concept of inheriting Miao silver jewelry is also weakening. Silversmiths, with the main purpose of expanding large-scale production, have little enthusiasm in integrating the artistic spirit of Miao silver jewelry into modern design, only the simple repetition of Miao silver jewelry patterns and insufficient use of pattern layers. Researchers should be inclined to study the Miao silver jewelry patterns, but there are only 5 articles on the construction and design application of a Miao silver jewelry atlas, and even fewer studies on the establishment of a Miao silver jewelry patterns database, which researchers can draw on through digitization.

Technical support provides a more comprehensive, rapid and convenient understanding of the information on Miao silver jewelry, so that the patterns of Miao silver jewelry can be displayed in a more comprehensive and perfect way, and provides a reference for the innovative design of Miao silver jewelry. Digitization also brings commercial value to Miao silver jewelry, provides a material foundation for the research into Miao silver jewelry, and further promotes the development of Miao silver jewelry and Miao culture.

Taking “intangible cultural heritage into universities” as an opportunity to deepen traditional culture

Scholars in colleges and universities have not studied the content of non-inheritance, and ability in handicraft innovation is also insufficient. Introducing non-genetic inheritors into colleges and universities to teach their skills, cultivating the forging skills of college scholars, and taking inheritors as students of study classes to improve their own design innovation ability and aesthetic accomplishment are conducive to promoting the exchange of research results on Miao silver jewelry between inheritors and university researchers, deepening the theoretical research and retaining more complete research data and materials. College students and teachers can conduct a more direct and comprehensive holistic study on Miao silver jewelry, so that the innovation of Miao silver jewelry can better meet the aesthetic or life needs of modern people. At the same time, the interest of more high-quality talents in Miao silver jewelry should be cultivated, their awareness of protecting and inheriting folk handicrafts should be enhanced, a good handicraft cultural atmosphere should be created, and non-inherited successors should be found, thus encouraging more scholars to join in the research of Miao silver jewelry.

Conclusion

Miao silver jewelry is the ethnic memory created by the Miao people in the long history, and it is the national root of the Miao people. Protecting and inheriting Miao silver jewelry can not only cause the continuous inheritance of traditional culture, but also meet the individualized needs of social development. The unremitting research of many scholars on Miao silver jewelry is to better protect the traditional culture of Miao silver jewelry, cater to the development of the times, and do a good job in the inheritance of Miao silver jewelry, so as to provide a better platform for the inheritance of this national craft.

Researcher identity and structure

Through the information retrieval of published authors, it can be found that scholars from Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other places have done the most research on Miao silver jewelry, which is due to their advantage regarding the origin of Miao silver jewelry. Most scholars carry out research based on the importance of local culture. The main scholars include Professor Tian Aihua (15 articles, Jishou University) and Professor Zheng Honghao (7 articles, Jishou University), Professor Jiao Chenggen (6 articles, Hunan Normal University), Professor Chen Jian (5 articles, Hunan Normal University), Li Ruohui (5 articles, Minzu University of China); among these, scholar Li Ruohui’s research on Miao silver jewelry spans decades and he has his own views on Miao silver jewelry, making great contributions to the inheritance, innovation and development of Miao silver jewelry. Scholars’ research on Miao silver jewelry mostly starts from their own professional fields, involving design, aesthetics, history, education and other fields. The multi-disciplinary and multi-field cross-fusion research makes the research into Miao silver jewelry spread at multiple levels, and also makes Miao silver jewelry obtain better inheritance and development.

Characteristics and Limitations of Research on Miao Silver Jewelry

In the past 30 years, the research focus of Miao silver jewelry has mainly been on communication innovation, history and culture, educational research, tourism development and other aspects. The distribution of topics related to Miao silver jewelry research is shown in Table 3. As can be seen from Table 3, the initial research of scholars on Miao silver jewelry focused more on history and culture, and paid attention to the cultural connotations, social function and aesthetic value of Miao silver jewelry. With the advance of time, research results on the communication innovation of Miao silver jewelry are increasing. For example, Wang Youmei et al. adopted field investigation and literature research and concluded that creative design and the leading strategy of cultural elites should be emphasized in order to better inherit and protect traditional crafts [2]. Yu Ping et al. proposed to integrate modern design methods with Miao culture for innovative design [3]. At present, under the policy support of the state, Miao silver jewelry related to education research, tourism development and other aspects have been gaining more attention. The number of Miao silver jewelry research papers published on Jiki is increasing year by year. Since Miao silver jewelry was listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006, the number of research papers on the protection and inheritance of Miao silver jewelry has gradually increased, resulting in different research directions with different emphases. Some of them focus on the forging techniques of Miao silver jewelry. For example, Zhou Zhi-gang et al. discussed the changes in the living space of Xijiang silversmiths under the influence of the global economy, mobile society and machine production mode from the perspective of the cultural ecology of silver jewelry technology, and proposed a new direction for the development of silver jewelry making technology [4]. Some other scholars take the inheritors of Miao silver jewelry forging skills as research objects, such as Wang Xiuzhen et al., starting from the difficulties and problems faced by Miao silver jewelry inheritance, and suggest a path to cultivate the artisan spirit of “intangible cultural heritage” inheritors [5]. WangYin Fei adopted the method of a questionnaire survey to discuss the inheritance of silver jewelry skills from the perspective of three non-genetic inheritors of Miao people's silver jewelry making in western Hunan.

Summary of Research on Miao Silver Ornaments in China: Statistics and analysis based on CNKI (1987-2020)

Introduction

Miao silver jewelry is an important part of Miao culture and is known as “history books worn on the body.” Miao silver jewelry forging skills have been approved by the State Council to enter the first batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list. At present, domestic scholars have accumulated some research achievements in the discussion of Miao silver jewelry. In this context, based on the research achievements of Miao silver jewelry published in the China National Knowledge Network for more than 30 years, the author presents the research situation, characteristics and limitations of Miao silver jewelry, and then investigates future research into the space and trend of Miao silver jewelry, in order to promote the combination of Miao silver jewelry and modern technology.

Overview of Research on Miao Silver Jewelry from 1987 to 2020

Number and annual distribution of published articles

By 2020, 280 articles had been retrieved on CNKI.com under the title of “Miao Nationality Silver Jewelry,” and 428 on the theme of “Miao Nationality Silver jewelry,” including 62 master’s theses, 5 doctoral theses, 6 conference papers, 14 newspaper reports and 341 introduced in other journals. On the whole, before 2005 the first stage, the amount of literature was small at this time, and then the amount gradually increased. The period from 2006 to 2011 is the second stage. The literature during this stage accounts for 21%, the number of papers increased, and the quality of papers in this stage also improved. This has much to do with Miao silver jewelry entering the first batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2006. Among them, the studies of 2011 are the most striking. In this year, scholars mainly analyzed the types, shapes, craft, history and culture of Miao silver jewelry, and pointed out the outstanding artistic value and spiritual value of Miao silver jewelry. From 2012 to 2020 was the third stage, during which research on Miao silver jewelry entered a full stage, with a total of 320 papers, accounting for 75% of the total number. This stage is generally recognized as the “post-World heritage application era” in the academic world. It focuses on the inheritance and development of Miao silver jewelry innovation in modern times, and tries to accelerate the pace of national cultural revival on the basis of the continuous promotion of the national plan to revive traditional crafts. The number and annual distribution of articles related to “Miao Silver Jewelry” are shown in Table 1.

Statistics of research topics involved in this paper

Much research on Miao silver jewelry have been supported by National Social Science Fund projects. With the continuous participation of university research, the academic value of the papers has been improved step by step, and the focus of the papers has also changed. Scholars have focused on Miao regional economic development at the beginning, in order to focus on and deeply explore the cultural, historical and social value of Miao silver jewelry. According to the statistics of Miao silver jewelry research projects approved in the article, 55 projects were approved at all levels, among which the top three were 28 projects funded by the National Social Science Foundation, 12 projects funded by the Education Commission of Hunan Province, and 10 projects funded by the Philosophy and Social Science Commission of Hunan Province. 

It can be seen from the subject of the published results that the state strongly supports research on Miao silver jewelry, among which Hunan Province has the most outstanding investment in the research fund of Miao silver jewelry. The project content mainly includes the inheritance and development of Miao silver jewelry, the application of Miao silver jewelry in modern design, the cultural change in Miao silver jewelry, and the application of Miao silver jewelry in classroom teaching.

Ways and platforms of article publishing

According to a search of “literature source,” periodicals are the most published way of research into Miao silver jewelry, accounting for 76%, followed by dissertations, journals, newspapers and conference papers, among which master’s degree dissertations account for 15%. It can be seen that more and more young scholars focus on research into Miao silver jewelry. Jishou University has become a leading university in the study of Miao silver jewelry, playing a positive leading role. Long Xiaofei and Shi Qunyong first analyzed Miao silver jewelry in 2006, and mainly described the cultural and aesthetic characteristics of the Miao people. Since 2011, a large number of scholars and inheritors have conducted continuous research on Miao silver jewelry [1]. In recent years, the simple research on Miao silver jewelry has gradually shifted to the application and development of Miao silver jewelry’s traditional cultural value in modern life. College teachers and students also continue to participate, which provides a continuous impulse for research into Miao silver jewelry. It not only lays a deeper theoretical foundation for research into Miao silver jewelry, but also encourages young people to consciously assume the responsibility of protecting and inheriting the excellent traditional culture. Table 2 shows the distribution of publishing channels and literature sources of Miao silver jewelry research.

Abstract

Based on the research results related to Miao silver jewelry published by CNKI from 1987 to 2020, this paper has categorized the number of published papers in different years through literature analysis and data statistics. The identity of the researcher, the institution and the source of the publication of the paper, and the main characteristics and limitations of the research on Miao silver jewelry are analyzed and summarized, and the future space and development trend of Miao silver jewelry proposed.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation Art Program (21BG135).

Conflicts of Interest

The author has no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication of this article.

References

1.  Xiaofei Long and Qunyong Shi, “Miao Nationality Clothing Ecology Esthetic Perspective,” Journal of Brokerage, no. 1 (2006): 135-137, 140.  [cnki] 

2.  Youmei Wang and Xiangping Long, “Research on Innovative Inheritance and Development of Silver Jewelry forging Skills of Miao Nationality,” Art Appreciation, no. 9 (2019): 189-190.  [cnki]

3.  Ping Yu and Ningtuan Su, “R Research on inheritance of Miao Silver jewelry forging technique and product development and application,” Yangtze River Series, no. 23 (2020): 24-25.  [cnki]

4.  Zhen-gang Zhou and Yu Yan, “The Cultural Ecology of Silver Jewelry Craftsmanship of Miao in Xijiang,” Journal of Minzu University of China (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 41, no. 7 (2014): 101-106.  [cnki]

5.  Xiuzhen Wang, Jinfeng Liu, Chengyong Shi, et al., “On the Cultivation of Craftsman Spirit of Inheritor of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Take Miao nationality silver jewelry as an example,” The Farmers Consultant, no. 2 (2019): 289-290.  [cnki] 

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Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhang Hongying, Huang Shanshan, and Zhang Zongdeng, "Summary of Research on Miao Silver Ornaments in China: Statistics and analysis based on CNKI (1987-2020)." JDSSI 1, no.1 (2023): 22-27.

AMA Style

Zhang H Y, Huang S S, Zhang Z D. Summary of Research on Miao Silver Ornaments in China: Statistics and analysis based on CNKI (1987-2020). JDSSI. 2023; 1(1): 22-27.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Overview of research on Miao Silver Jewelry from 1987 to 2020
• Characteristics and limitations of research on Miao silver jewelry
• Future space and trend of Miao nationality silver jewelry research
• Conclusion
• Funding
• Conflicts of Interest
• References

Zhang Zongdeng * 2

Zhang Hongying 1,

Huang Shanshan 2,

and

by

  1 College of Arts, CITI University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

  2 School of Packaging Design & Art, Hunan University of Technology, Hunan, China

  * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

JDSSI. 2023, 1(1), 22-27; https://doi.org/10.59528/ms.jdssi2023.0512a3

Received: April 22, 2023 | Accepted: April 29, 2023 | Published: May 12, 2023