Preserving Embroidery Patterns through a Manuscript: The Sino-Singapore Trade of Teochew Buddhist Textiles since the 1930s

Abstract: This study investigates contemporary Teochew embroidered textile banners produced in China that are hung in Singaporean charitable halls, recreated from a manuscript of embroidery patterns preserved in Singapore. Through visual analysis and oral history, I answer three research questions: How do textiles evoke traditional Buddhist architecture in the contemporary landscape of urbanized Singapore? How did the embroidered motifs travel across media from paper to textile? Who facilitated their transnational and intermedial movement since the 1930s? Teochew embroidered textile banners are displayed temporarily during rituals to imitate a traditional Buddhist temple, enacting a theatrical, portable and auspicious sacred space. Despite their degradable materials, they sustain a long-term network of transnational and cross-industrial flows of finance, people and visual iconographies between China and Southeast Asia. This study uncovers the roles played by Singaporean Teochew merchants in reviving religious visual tradition in mainland China in the post-Mao period, after Buddhist embroidery patterns were lost during the Cultural Revolution (1967–77).