Chinese Toggles: Culture in Miniature

Belt toggles, known as zhuizi (坠子), are small carved ornaments used as counterweights on cords tied around belts in traditional Chinese dress. Rising in popularity from the 1600s, belt toggles were used to secure pouches and cases for everyday items like tobacco, chopsticks, knives and money. These sartorial accessories gradually disappeared in the early 1900s as Western styles of dress became more fashionable across China. Zhuizi are decorative and functional objects that also embody great symbolic and cultural significance. Carved from a diverse range of natural materials to represent a variety of figures, plants, animals, and everyday objects, these splendid miniatures manifest Chinese culture and material values.

Chinese Toggles: Culture in Miniature was developed in partnership with the Powerhouse Museum and features objects mostly on loan from the Powerhouse collection, which includes one of the world’s largest collections of Chinese toggles, donated to the museum by Hedda and Alastair Morrison.

This exhibition was made possible thanks to the Pauline and Tim Harding Asian Collection Fund. 

坠子是中国传统服饰中的袖珍随身饰品。精雕细琢的坠子穿绳挂在腰带上起着承重的作用。从17世纪到19世纪，随着越来越多的人在腰带上悬挂烟草袋，坠子越发普及，兴盛一时。但在20世纪初，由于中国服饰的日渐西化，坠子慢慢退出了历史舞台。坠子是具有装饰与实用功能的物品，同时也蕴含着丰富的象征与文化意义。这些瑰丽的袖珍饰品由各种自然材料雕镌而成，包罗万象地呈现出人物、动植物和日常用品等造型，展现了中国文化与物质文化价值。

“中国坠子：方寸见乾坤”是与悉尼动力博物馆联袂策划的展览，绝大多数展品来自于该馆的珍藏品，其中包括由海达和阿拉斯泰尔·莫理循夫妇捐赠的世界上最大的中国坠子收藏之一。

本展览由保琳与蒂姆·哈丁夫妇亚洲收藏基金惠助。

Header image: A group of Chinese toggles. Powerhouse collection, gift of Alastair Morrison, 1992.