The Sisterhood of Guangdong

I bought this jacket in a thrift store a few years back and was doing a little research prior to putting it on etsy. Checking the label, I couldn't find anything under "Plum Blossom", so I checked the place name, Guangdong, which opened up a whole new perspective. The cheerful birds on this jacket were not hatched in a sweatshop.

Guangdong province was famous for its handspun silk thread and its embroidery style (Yue). The silk trade gave independence to female domestic laborers, who took an oath to remain single. When the Communists took over in 1949, they cut off trade to the West from this area, and many of the women returned to domestic service as nursemaids (amahs). I don't know, but would like to think, that the embroidery tradition was kept up in private.

The style of script on the label leads me to believe that this jacket was made in the late 40s and that these embroidered birds were among the last to cross the sea.