尊敬的国际民间艺术博物馆的各位朋友：

大家早上好！

Dear friends at the Museum of International Folk Art — good morning!

我是王小梅，手上记忆博物馆的创始人。我来自中国西南的贵州省。今天，能站在享有盛誉的美国国际民间艺术博物馆与大家交流，我感到无比荣幸。尽管相隔万里，但我们共享着人类共同的文化遗产——对民间艺术深沉的爱，对手工记忆坚定的守护，以及对人类文化多样性与可持续发展的责任。

My name is Xiaomei Wang, and I am the founder of the Museum of Handcrafted Memory in Guizhou, southwest China.

It is a great honor to be here today at this renowned museum. Though we live oceans apart, we share a common cultural heritage — a deep love for folk art, a commitment to preserving the memories held in our hands, and a shared responsibility to protect cultural diversity and sustain our human future.

贵州是中国苗族、布依族、侗族等17个世居民族的家园，是仅次于西藏、云南少数民族人口最多的一个省份。全省有4000万人口，其中有三分之二的人口是少数民族。这里是苗族的家园，有近500万苗族聚居，这里也是民族纺织品、蜡染、刺绣、蚕走板丝等古老技艺和文化多样性最富集的一个区域。

Guizhou is home to 17 officially recognized ethnic groups — including the Miao, Buyi, and Dong peoples.

（Wenhong’s note: If I may add a quick note as the translator：In China, the term Miao refers to a broad ethnic group that includes the people known in the U.S. as Hmong. They share related languages and traditions, but outside China the name Hmong is more commonly used.）

It is the third most ethnically diverse province in China, after Tibet and Yunnan, with a population of about 40 million people, two-thirds of whom belong to minority groups. Nearly five million Miao people live there, and the region is one of the richest in traditional textile arts — from weaving, batik, and embroidery to the ancient silk-felting technique known as can zou ban si (蚕走板丝).

我出生在贵阳附近一个偏远的山村翁贡村，源于苗语，意为金色的泉水。大学时，我就对蜡染那深邃的蓝色和神秘的纹样无比好奇。我走遍了贵州成百上千个村寨，开始了长达近三十年的藏品收藏、田野调查和扶贫实践。曾获福特国际奖学金IFP（International Fellowship Program）在美国克拉克大学深造，完成国际发展和社会变迁专业的学业。

I was born in a small mountain village called Wenggong, near Guiyang. The name comes from the Miao language and means “golden spring water.”

As a university student, I fell in love with the deep indigo of batik and its mysterious patterns. Since then, I have traveled to hundreds of villages across Guizhou — collecting, documenting, and supporting local crafts for nearly three decades.

With the support of the Ford International Fellowship, I studied International Development and Social Change at Clark University here in the United States.

随着现代化浪潮的席卷，越来越多的年轻人离开村寨，那些承载了千年记忆的手艺正在快速消逝。我有一种深刻的焦虑感，大量的民间手工艺在快速消逝，所以一直在尽我所能抢救濒临失传的民间手艺。2009年发起蓝花叙事公益文化项目，在贵州省开展乡村手艺人扶持计划，扶持了上千个苗族、布依族手艺人。在近20年的时间里，我们在一些国际慈善机构的支持下，持续不断开展手工艺保护传承与发展项目。从2009年至2017年，我们在美国花旗银行的资助下，在贵州省丹寨县扬武乡排倒村、排莫村、基加村以及雷山县、贵定县的十几个苗族村寨开展了8年的手工发展扶贫项目，扶持了900多个手艺人。这个项目获得了“中国慈善奖”。

As modernization swept across China, more and more young people left their villages, and traditional crafts — once passed down for generations — began disappearing. I felt an urgent need to act.

In 2009, I launched the Blue Flower Narrative Project, a nonprofit initiative supporting rural artisans in Guizhou. Over the years, we’ve worked with more than a thousand Miao and Buyi artisans.

From 2009 to 2017, with funding from Citibank and other international foundations, we ran long-term development programs in over ten Miao villages in Danzhai and Guiding counties, supporting around 900 artisans. This project was honored with China’s National Charity Award.

经过三十年的藏品收藏、田野调查与社区发展实践，我们深知保护与传承民族民间手工艺已成为一生的使命，我们需要一个地方深耕与长时段开展工作。2018年，我回到家乡翁贡村，和苗族、布依族、彝族、汉族的村民们一起营造了“手上记忆博物馆”。博物馆占地5000平方米，展厅1500平方米，收藏了超过6500件来自贵州及中国西南的纺织品、织锦、蜡染、刺绣，其中包括数十件有蚕走板丝工艺的苗族、瑶族藏品等。博物馆的建造得到当地村民、北京和上海的慈善企业家的捐款与大力支持。我们的核心方法是人类学与口述史。近五年，我们在茅台集团和贵州省慈善总会的资助下开展西南地区40个村寨的田野调查。我们还创办贵州省人类学学会，作为博物馆的研究机构，团结全国高校、研究机构的200多名人类学者，在馆内持续开展“不浪费的人类学”口述史工作坊60多期，每年进行四十多人的口述史采集。

After thirty years of collecting, fieldwork, and community engagement, I realized we needed a permanent home — a place where these relationships could grow over time.
In 2018, I returned to my home village and, together with Miao, Buyi, Yi, and Han villagers, founded the Museum of Handcrafted Memory.
The museum covers 5,000 square meters, with 1,500 square meters of exhibition space. It now holds more than 6,500 textiles and folk artifacts from southwest China — including weaving, batik, embroidery, and dozens of silk-felt pieces from Miao and Yao communities.

The museum was built with the help of local villagers — many of them my relatives or neighbors who have known me since childhood — and along with generous philanthropic donors from Beijing and Shanghai.

Our core approach combines anthropology and oral history. In the past five years, with support from the Moutai Group and the Guizhou Charity Federation, we have conducted fieldwork in 40 villages across southwest China and established the Guizhou Anthropological Society, bringing together over 200 scholars from universities and research institutions nationwide. Together, we have organized more than 60 oral history workshops involving hundreds of artisans and scholars — a practice we describe as “Anthropology without Waste,” meaning an anthropology that does not let the field or its relationships fade away.

（Wenhong’s note: This refers to the concept of “Anthropology without Waste,” proposed by Professor Zhuang Kongshao, a leading Chinese anthropologist. The idea emphasizes returning anthropological knowledge to the communities it comes from, keeping fieldwork relationships alive, and ensuring that research continues to benefit the people and places that made it possible.）

手上记忆博物馆延续了我大学以来的梦，她在我心里是永远发着光的一个童话世界。这是一个古老的精神场所，不是冰冷的文物仓库，而是一个“活着的”文化心脏，一个能让传统重新呼吸、记忆重新流动的家园，它也是村寨的文化中心。每一年我们都会组织三四期手工艺培训，让全省几百个苗族、布依族、汉族妇女都熟练掌握刺绣、蜡染、仡佬族印染和布依族纸扎染绣等手工艺。贵定东山村的小花苗手艺人罗启芳农闲时就会给我们打电话：“等我们收完庄稼，就来小馆找你们玩，做花。”我们亲切的称她叫小瑞，说：“小瑞，你快来，我们都想你了，这回来绣花，多呆几天呀。”我们和小瑞已经一起工作15年，未间断向外输出她美丽的手工艺。

The Museum of Handcrafted Memory is the realization of a dream I’ve carried since my university days.It’s not a cold warehouse of objects — it is a living, breathing cultural heart, where tradition can take a new breath and memory can flow again.Every year, we hold several training workshops for women in our village — Miao, Buyi, and Han alike — teaching embroidery, batik, and paper-dyeing.Our dear friend Luo Qifang, a Miao craftswoman from Guiding County, always calls after harvest season to say:“Once we finish the crops, we’ll come to the museum and make flowers again!”We’ve worked with her for over 15 years, helping her share her beautiful craft with the wider world.

每当来到博物馆的苗族青年人、丹寨白领苗的蜡染传人张云看到博物馆的藏品，都会感叹：“为什么在我的村寨没有这些古老的物保存？好多纹样都没有了！”我就想象着能把博物馆白领苗的所有藏品的图片、纹样都和她分享，重新复活祖先的记忆，找回古老的生命智慧，让手艺新生。张云的母亲、苗族蜡染传人杨春燕在与我们共同守护苗族民间手艺23年后，今年因病离开了我们，她的手艺与精神永存。我今年发起了“青年非遗”口述史工作坊项目，每月邀请一个青年非遗传人到博物馆做工作坊，让他们看博物馆的藏品，我们向他们学习本支系的文化系统，做深度访谈，一起切磋手艺。同时，我也在酝酿贵州及西南民族藏品数字化项目，希望能有一个相对系统完整藏品数据库，和社区的少数民族手艺人共享，支持民族产业向善向好的发展。

When young Miao visitors come to the museum, many are amazed — “Why don’t we have these old patterns in our own villages anymore?” one woman once said.Her name was Zhang Yun, a young batik artist. Her mother, Yang Chunyan, worked with us for 23 years to preserve Miao batik before she passed away this year.To honor her and others like her, we started a new program called “Youth and Intangible Heritage”, inviting young artisans each month to visit the museum, study the collections, and record oral histories of their own traditions.We’re also planning a digital database for Guizhou’s ethnic collections — to document, preserve, and share these works with the communities that created them, helping artisans connect their heritage to sustainable futures.

贵州镇宁石头寨布依族蜡染传承人伍国芬指着她蜡染裙摆上的“漩涡纹”，对我说：“这不是简单的图案，这是祖先迁徙时走过的路，是星辰、河流的漩涡，是犬牙、是粮仓，是生命的轮回，没有起点，也没有终点。” 我们收藏的，不仅仅是“物”，而是附着在物上的时间、记忆和整个精神世界。我们不只是展示一件精美的苗衣，我们会去探寻：这件衣服在什么节日穿？上面的纹样代表有什么神话故事？制作它的手艺人说了什么？我们试图将“物”放回它原本的文化生态系统和生命礼仪中去理解，去守护那赋予它灵魂的“无形”的意义。

One Buyi batik artist, Wu Guofen, once pointed to the spiral pattern on her skirt and told me:“This isn’t just decoration. It’s the path of our ancestors’ migration — the stars, the rivers’ whirlpools, the teeth of animals, the granaries, the cycles of life. It has no beginning and no end.”
What we collect is not just “things,” but the time, memory, and spirit attached to them.When we display a Miao garment, we also ask: When was it worn? What stories do the patterns tell? What did the maker say while creating it?We try to return each object to its living cultural and ceremonial context — to protect not only its visible form but its invisible soul.

当我回归乡村，把生命的力量都沉浸在手上记忆博物馆，我发现这些古老的物和后面的制作者都开始来和我对话，我的生命变得如此丰盈和有力量。这些古老的藏品里的古老宇宙观和生命智慧值得我们用一生去完成一次超越性的生命实践。当我们超越藏品本身，回归物的本质生命状态，我们发现贵州蜡染、刺绣纹饰蕴含深厚的文化象征意义。其图案与村寨仪式空间（例如铜鼓场、花山、跳月场、鼓楼场）之间构建了一种高度同构的神圣秩序。从人类学的象征符号理论视角审视，蜡染、刺绣中的漩涡纹、太阳纹、十字纹、鸟鱼蛙等图案，作为非人类生命的远古象征，通过视觉符号与仪式实践，构建了人与自然、生命与宇宙之间的关联性。基于万物有灵论和宇宙生命观，这些纹饰不仅展现了万物一体、共生共存的哲学观念，也反映了贵州族群生死观的深层文化逻辑，通过仪式唤醒祖先灵性，完成逝者灵魂的宇宙迁徙，象征着生命的循环与永恒。从民俗学的视角出发，蜡染、刺绣纹样不仅是日常生活的艺术表达，也是族群文化传承与认同的重要载体，其纹饰所蕴含的象征系统和仪式功能在现代社会中持续焕发活力。

When I returned to my village and devoted my life to the Museum of Handcrafted Memory, I found that these old objects — and the people behind them — began to speak back to me. My life became fuller and more powerful.Through these artifacts, we glimpse an ancient worldview — one where everything in the universe is alive and interconnected.
The spiral, the sun, the cross, the birds, fish, and frogs in Miao and Buyi art are not mere motifs; they are symbols of a sacred order linking humans with nature, life with the cosmos.From both anthropological and folkloristic perspectives, these visual languages express cosmology, ancestry, and renewal — sustaining identity and meaning even in the modern world.

贵州和西南的少数民族手艺人，甚而全世界的多民族手艺人都能在这里汇集。手上记忆博物馆已成为贵州的民族文化高地，成为外界来到贵州认知民族文化的第一站。贵州的文化不仅是中国的，也是世界的。我们知道美国、欧洲和日本的许多机构里，都珍藏着来自贵州的宝贵藏品。贵州的民族藏品已经流动到世界各地编织她的生命网络，就像手上记忆博物馆未完成的生命树，在搭建的地球生命网络。

Today, artisans from across southwest China — and even beyond — are connected through this work.The Museum of Handcrafted Memory has become a cultural landmark in Guizhou — often the first stop for visitors seeking to understand the region’s living traditions.Guizhou’s culture is not only China’s — it belongs to the world.We know that many museums here in the U.S. and Europe hold precious Guizhou collections. This fills me with both gratitude and a sense of responsibility.Ethnic artifacts from Guizhou have journeyed across the world, weaving a living network—much like the unfinished Tree of Life at the Museum of Hand and Memory, now extending its roots into a planetary web of life.

博物馆的愿景是成为一个 “活态的生命中枢与流动的生命网络”。我们渴望连接人、物与文化，让古老的记忆在当下获得新生。我们愿成为记忆的守护者：我们不只是保管物件，更是守护附着其上的故事与精神；生命的连接者：我们连接村寨与城市，连接手艺人与公众，连接贵州与世界；未来的共创者：我们与手艺人一起，探索在当代社会延续传统的新路径，让手艺成为他们骄傲且可持续的生计。

Our vision is to build a living hub and flowing network of life — connecting people, objects, and cultures so that ancient memories can find new life today.
We aim to be:

• Guardians of memory, preserving not just objects but the stories and spirits they carry;

• Connectors of life, linking villages and cities, artisans and audiences, Guizhou and the world;

• Co-creators of the future, helping artisans sustain their traditions with dignity and pride.

我希望能架起一座手艺连接的记忆之桥，诚挚地邀请大家到贵州，到翁贡村手上记忆博物馆，走进贵州大山，看看少数民族妇女如何将记忆编织，将宇宙染进蜡染。让我们携手，共同守护手上的记忆，为我们共同的未来。谢谢大家！

I hope we can build a bridge of memory through craft — one that connects hands, hearts, and heritage.I warmly invite all of you to visit Guizhou, to come to Wenggong Village and the Museum of Handcrafted Memory, to see how women there weave memory into fabric and dye the cosmos into batik.Let us join hands to protect the memories in our hands — for our shared future.

Thank you all!