Song of the Female Textile Workers

12th – 26th FEBRUARY 2021

The 2021 Chinese New Year falls on 12th February, and the traditional celebration runs for 15 days. To coincide with the celebration, Leeds Industrial Museum will be hosting an online exhibition on Song of the Female Textile Workers.

Song of the Female Textile Workers unfolds the erased memories and voices of the textile workers in Shanghai and China's post-industrial creative economy surge and examines the role of local culture in sustainable city development.

The story narrates the Shanghai 1990s transition period from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’, when over 500,000 female textile workers were made redundant, factories were demolished and communities dismantled. The once elite workers under Mao's era became the new urban poor whilst the rebranded city space and Shanghai All-female Yueju are catering for the newly rising middle class. The story critically examines the interwoven development of Shanghai All-female Yueju and the Shanghai Textile Industry from their historical formation to post-industrial digital transformation.

There are six short documentary films specifically created for this online exhibition. Every Friday, two films will be streamed, starting from 12th February, first day of 2021 in the year of the Ox.

News writer: Yi ZHAO (赵轶)