About this resource
Chinese Textile & Costume Research Archive
中国传统织绣与宫廷服饰研究档案
This is a study and reference resource on Chinese textiles, embroidery and court dress — a place both to learn the subject and to look something up. Everything said here rests on surviving objects and on records that can be checked.
At a glance
- Director
- Xiaojian Li
- Version
- First stage
- Updated
- September 2026
- Scope
- Chinese textiles, embroidery and court dress
- Published in
- English
Citing the Archive
Chinese Textile & Costume Research Archive (First stage, September 2026). https://chinastitches.com/en
To cite a single object, a glossary entry or a text, use the title and address of its own page.
How this is put together
The archive works from the objects themselves. Each is recorded by material, weave structure, technique, motif and construction; anything not measured or established is marked “to be added” rather than filled in by inference.
The motif section is not a catalogue of patterns. The same motif is gathered as it appears on different objects, so that it can be compared — differences of form are concrete evidence for dating and attribution, not decorative knowledge.
Exhibitions, publications, lectures and donations are documented alongside, because they record how this material entered public circulation. A textile in private hands and the same textile in a public collection do not carry the same scholarly value.
Principles
- 01Objects are named only by what can be determined from the object itself: dynastic form, ground colour, principal motif and object type.
- 02Date, dimensions, provenance and technique are left blank and marked “to be added” unless measured or established.
- 03Motifs are compared only within a single technique and object type; comparison across techniques is not treated as evidence.
- 04Exhibitions, publications and donations are recorded only where verifiable; dates, counts and institutional names follow the original record.
- 05Chinese and English texts are written separately; no machine translation is used.
How to use it
The learning line
History, technique, the regulation of court dress, and the vocabulary — written to be read in that order, and assuming no prior background.
The reference line
Object records, the motif reference, the bibliography, and the collections elsewhere with their image terms — for when you already know what you are looking for.
Director
Xiaojian Li
Collector and researcher of Chinese textiles, embroidery and imperial costume
On the record
Xiaojian Li is a collector and researcher of Chinese textiles, embroidery and Qing imperial costume. Introduced to the field in childhood through his father, the collector Li Yulai, he has worked for many years on historical Chinese woven textiles, embroidery and court dress. His research centres on the costume regulations of the Qing court, the development of dragon and cloud motifs, historical weaving and embroidery techniques, and the object-based study of surviving textiles.
His work has consistently sought to move a private collection into public and academic circulation. Through university exhibitions, scholarly symposia, published research, lectures and museum donation, the collection has been made available as primary material for the study of Chinese dress and textile history.
Career
Xiaojian Li was born in 1984. He came to Chinese textiles and dress through his father, the collector Li Yulai, and has since worked for many years on collecting and researching the field. His material covers woven textiles from the Tang dynasty onwards, Ming-dynasty zhuanghua (polychrome supplementary-weft) and gold-brocaded silks, Qing court and official dress, and technical samples of embroidery.
In October 2017 the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology presented an exhibition of Qing-dynasty dress from the Li Yulai collection. Xiaojian Li took part in the accompanying symposium on Qing costume culture, speaking on the development and cultural meaning of dragon and cloud motifs across the reigns of the Qing dynasty.
In April 2018 the Museum of Textile and Costume at Donghua University, Shanghai, presented an exhibition of Chinese textiles and embroidery drawn from the family collection. One hundred and seven objects were selected, in two groups: historical woven textiles — among them a Tang-dynasty samite with paired birds in pearl roundels, a Yuan-dynasty gold-brocaded textile with geometric patterning, a Ming-dynasty zhuanghua satin length with dragon motifs, and a Ming-dynasty gold-brocaded silk with scrolling lotus — and court and official dress, including armour, chao robes (court dress), jifu robes (festive court dress), longgua (dragon surcoats), changyi (informal women’s robes), ritual robes and rank badges.
In December 2018 the China Cultural Centre in Moscow marked its sixth anniversary with an exhibition of Chinese fashion and costume art. Xiaojian Li contributed objects to the exhibition in his capacity as a collector.
In November 2019 he contributed to two volumes on Qing costume regulations and surviving objects — one on women’s dress, one on men’s dress — published by Donghua University Press. Both volumes read documentary regulation against surviving garments, addressing construction, motif and the codification of rank.
In August 2022 he donated ninety-seven objects from his collection to the Tsinghua University Art Museum: twelve garments, including a Qing-dynasty kesi (cut-silk tapestry) mang robe with dragon and cloud design, and eighty-five textiles and embroideries, among them a Qing-dynasty blue-satin-ground brocade with peony and grapevine motifs. The donation places the material in a public collection, where it is available for research, display and teaching.
Research interests
- Qing costume regulation read against surviving garments
- The formal development and cultural meaning of dragon and cloud motifs across the Qing reigns
- Kesi (cut-silk tapestry), zhuanghua and gold-brocading techniques
- Embroidery stitches and a typology of technique
- Object-based study of Tang, Yuan and Ming textiles
- Routes by which private collections enter public holdings
The objects catalogued here are part of a private collection. A further 97 were given to the Tsinghua University Art Museum, where they carry accession numbers and catalogue records and can be consulted by researchers through the museum’s own procedure.
Enquiries are welcome from researchers, museums, universities, publishers and exhibition projects. Any of the following can be raised directly.
- 01
Consulting the record of a particular object, or requesting fuller images
- 02
Image use and permissions
- 03
Collaboration on exhibitions, teaching and publication
- 04
Pointing out an error here, or adding material that can be checked
Corrections
If you find an error, a dead link, or have material to add, please write. Corrections are noted on the entry concerned rather than made silently — the unconfirmed fields already flagged in the bibliography are an example of the same practice.