Mar'iang! Needle and Thread Dialogue - Cross-Stitch Culture Exhibition of the Pingpu Indigenous Peoples of Southern Taiwan

The clothing culture of Taiwan's indigenous peoples is diverse, magnificent, and profound. The Fiber Arts Museum of this Bureau, during its predecessor's time as the Weaving Craft Museum, actively collected weaving artifacts of the Pingpu indigenous peoples. In recent years, through the collaboration of Professor Chang Ying-ling (張瑛玲) of Shu-Te University and Siraya culture expert Tuan Hung-kun (段洪坤), an analysis was conducted on how cross-stitch techniques gradually became one of the cultural symbols due to life exchanges with the Dutch, Hokkien, and Hakka peoples. Through pattern interpretation and in-depth differentiation, the fog has finally been lifted, and these objects have been re-endowed with the ethnic vocabulary belonging to the Siraya, Taivoan, or Makatao peoples, thus planning this exhibition.
This exhibition takes "Mar'iang! Needle and Thread Dialogue" as its theme, derived from the common praise meaning "beautiful" or "fine" among the Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao peoples of southern Taiwan. It is planned with four exhibition areas and interactive designs: "Tracing Origins: The Footprints of Embroidery Thread," "Needlework: The Secret Language of Symbols," "Life: The Trajectory of Aesthetics," and "Exploration: Decoding the Cipher."
A total of 21 sets of cross-stitch collections covering the Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao peoples from the Taichung City Fiber Arts Museum's collection are exhibited, along with 14 sets of cultural and creative products replicating the museum's artifact research, traditional Siraya and Taivoan costumes replicated by Professor Chang Ying-ling, and 35 sets of cultural and creative products from the Siraya Toushe Tribe and Siraya Gibesua Tribe.
Through the exhibition, audiences are led to understand the decorative techniques of cross-stitch used in Pingpu indigenous peoples' clothing and home decor, to appreciate the value contained in every stitch and thread of the people's perception of nature, cultural writing, ethnic identity, faith, and life memories, and thus, through the perspective of craft, to reinterpret the cultural aesthetics and life wisdom of the Pingpu indigenous peoples within Taiwan's multiculturalism.