Minneapolis Institute of Art

Manchu Women’s Unofficial Informal Vest

China

Date

19th century

Medium

Silk

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This vest is ornately decorated with stylized cicada insects, floating against a deep blue background. Cicadas have held a high status in Chinese culture for thousands of years. Their unique lifecycle—falling from tree branches, burrowing into the earth, and surviving on roots for about seventeen years before emerging and returning to the branches—lends itself to ideas of resurrection, harmony, and immortality. This vest was created as an unofficial, informal garment, worn not in a court setting but within domestic spaces. China, Asia

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