Traditional Hats in 11 Asian Countries

Before humans roamed the Earth, plants were already in place. Our ancestors relied on nature for their daily survival, and this relationship built civilisation. Leaves and twigs were made into temporary baskets to carry hunted and gathered foods. Plant materials were manipulated to make items such as mats, roofs, and walls for shelter. Eventually, plant fibres were extracted and processed into yarns, then woven into cloth to clothe us, giving birth to textile culture.

Barbara Park has travelled extensively in Asia, sometimes for work, other times for vacation and cultural study trips. She is always looking out for a different hat. From the hats selected to represent eleven countries in this exhibition, we can see both the diversity and similarity in materials, techniques, and usage, which were often results of exchange through trading over centuries.

Cambodia is mostly a land of plains and great rivers and lies amid important overland and river trade routes linking China to India and Southeast Asia.

Angkor Wat, the legendary temple complex in Siam Reap, is the reason to visit Cambodia. The priced Chinese Dain Cui Kingfisher feather jewellery used a species of Kingfisher bird from Cambodia. The trade of these precious feathers may have been a major contributor to the wealth of the Khmer Empire and used to help fund the construction of the magnificent temple complex. One of the best accounts of Cambodia is The Customs of Cambodia, written by a Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan during the Yuan Dynasty in the late 13th century.

Vietnam is bordered by China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand and the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia across the South China Sea.

Over centuries, Chinese influences Vietnamese culture in terms of Confucian ideology, governance, and the arts. Following independence from China in the 10th century, successive Vietnamese imperial dynasties flourished as the country embarked on a southward expansion that absorbed territories of the Champa and Khmer civilisations, which resulted in regional variances of modern-day Vietnamese culture.

Based in Hong Kong for over forty years, Barbara has made many trips to China, frequently collecting a new hat from a different part of China. The wide variety of forms, materials, and techniques tells of the vast natural and craft resources available.

The hat collection gives us an excellent opportunity to review how plant resources around us affect our lives. Today, in a world over-supplied with colourful manufactured items, these hats, made of perishable materials, might look primitive and outdated. Through these humble hats, let us ponder again, how humans take reference from nature, and how our evolution depends on working with nature.