"I am a donor, and I am also a fan of the Shanghai Museum." Singer, collector, and curator Zhang Xinzhe donated his collection of modern clothing to the Shanghai Museum today. 12 pieces of Zhang Xinzhe's beloved private collection, including 10 cheongsams from the 1920s and 1930s, and 2 shirts and women's jackets from the Qing Dynasty are in the collection of the Shanghai Museum.
Caption: Zhang Xinzhe donated his collection of modern clothing to the Shanghai Museum. Photographed by Xinmin Evening News reporter Wang Kai (the same below)
In addition to the development of his singing career, Zhang Xinzhe likes to collect clothing and calendar cards, and is also a curator. In 2019, when he held the "People·Tide" exhibition at Shanghai Aurora Museum, he showed his personal understanding of cheongsam and his preference for Shanghai-style cheongsam. After the "People·Tide" exhibition, Zhang Xinzhe became more and more enthusiastic about collecting cheongsam and gained a lot from it. He said that as a fan of the Shanghai Museum, he often quietly walks into the exhibition hall and quietly enjoys the exhibitions alone. He feels that the exquisite and precious cultural relics and artworks nourish his soul and soothe his emotions, which makes him always love it. Cultural arts. When I learned that the "Jiangnan Creation" theme exhibition being prepared in the East Building of the Shanghai Museum had a demand for Shanghai-style cheongsam, I proposed that I could select the Shanghai style cheongsam from the collection of more than a thousand cheongsam and donate it free of charge to fill the vacancies in this type of collection. Promote the art of Shanghai-style cheongsam.
After 3 years and more than 10 rounds of repeated selections, Zhang Xinzhe selected 10 unique and representative cheongsam collections from more than a thousand cheongsam collections based on the needs of Shanghai Expo. "I believe that through the collection and arrangement of the museum, more people will appreciate these collections and feel the unique charm of Shanghai-style cheongsam. Traditional cultural heritage requires everyone to pay attention to, participate in promoting, and contribute. In the future, we will continue to work with experts from Shanghai Expo Research, discuss, and prepare for the next batch of donations. I hope this is the beginning, and we can have more cooperation in the long term and better share more precious works of art with everyone." Zhang Xinzhe said.
Caption: Cheongsam donated by Zhang Xinzhe
Shanghai Museum Director Chu Xiaobo attended the ceremony. On behalf of Shanghai Expo, he praised and thanked Zhang Xinzhe for donating clothing cultural relics to the Shanghai Museum. "With his most sincere heart and deepest love, he composed the simplest song of goodwill from an enthusiastic audience who loves cultural and museum affairs. The Shanghai Museum, which carries this most beautiful sentiment, will also make unremitting efforts for this."
After appreciation and evaluation by clothing experts, they believe that this batch of clothing has various styles and distinctive styles, with obvious characteristics of the times and the aesthetic taste of mutual learning between China and the West. This batch of cheongsam overall reflects the changes and development history of Shanghai-style cheongsam 100 years ago, and has precious research value on clothing history. The cheongsams are all hand-sewn with exquisite craftsmanship, and are decorated with fine and elegant Jiangnan or Shanghai-style embroidery, floral buttons, etc. The fabric patterns are rich in variety and highly artistic, including velvet, jacquard and other luxurious fabrics, supplemented by embroidery, floral buttons, contrasting Color, inlay and other decorative techniques. Among them, three cheongsams were made by well-known brands at the time, such as "Xianshi", "Xinxin" and "King Kong". The shirts of the Qing Dynasty were decorated with the three-blue embroidery method of Jiangnan Su embroidery to create a fresh and beautiful artistic style, while the double-breasted women's coats were made with exquisite workmanship. The embroidery patterns and techniques can show the unique delicate and elegant local charm of Su embroidery. Shanghai Expo believes that this batch of clothing is in good preservation condition and can supplement the collection of Jiangnan-themed and Shanghai-style clothing series, improve the collection system, and provide important resources for subsequent exhibitions and research work. (Xinmin Evening News reporter Le Mengrong)
