Unidentified Li Artist China, Hainan Island Woman’s Skirt with Embroidered Band, early 20th century Cotton and hemp ground and supplementary warps, silk embroidery thread Gift of Amy Gould and Matthew Polk, Gibson Island, Maryland, BMA 2006.176 Women of the Li Chinese minority dye, weave, embroider, and assemble skirts such as this one entirely by hand. Unlike the silk garments made on the Chinese mainland, this skirt is constructed of bands of indigo dyed cotton woven on a simple backstrap loom. Motifs created by sections of undyed threads depict geometric and abstracted human and animal motifs signifying Li ancestors and beliefs. SKIRT Li Chinese Skirt with Embroidered Band Early 20th century China, Hainan Island Cotton and hemp ground and supplementary warps, silk embroidery threads Gift of Amy Gould and Matthew Polk, Gibson Island, Maryland, BMA 2006.176 This tubular skirt would have been worn by a woman of the Chinese minority called the Li, who live on Hainan Island off the southern coast of China. The fabric would have been dyed, woven, embroidered, and assembled entirely by hand. Unlike the silk garments of the Han and Manchu Chinese, this skirt is constructed of bands of indigo-dyed cotton woven on a simple backstrap loom and patterned by areas of ikat resist. In this method, sections of threads were tied off prior to dyeing and weaving to prevent those selected portions from absorbing the dye. The motifs thus created by the undyed threads on a dark blue ground appear almost as a written code, depicting geometric forms, abstracted humans, and animal motifs, signifying Li ancestors and beliefs. Additional colored warps woven into the indigo bands and a section of multi-colored embroidery add to the dense ornamentation.