chunyu huang

object: umbrella
assignment: tech and cultural history

Technical History

Origins of the basic umbrella dates back three, four thousand years ago, indicated by ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Greece, and China. It is believed that the beginnings of umbrellas stemmed from assembled leaves that sheltered the head of rain or the sun’s rays. It could also have been an adaptation of a portable tent.

The collapsible umbrella is said to have been invented in ancient China roughly 1,700 years ago, and fittingly the Chinese character for umbrella (傘) is a pictograph resembling the design of modern umbrella. In ancient times, the frames of the umbrellas were made of mulberry bark or bamboo. The Chinese decorated paper parasols with hand-paintings and waxed and lacquered the paper surface with oil to repel water. Then, via the Silk Road, the Chinese design of umbrella was able to spread to Persia and the West.

When umbrellas became widely used during 1700’s in Europe, they were fashioned out of heavy woods and oilcloth. Women popularized parasols, decorative sunshades in the 1800’s to 1920’s that was made with whalebone or metal frames with fine silk, lace, and fringe attached.

Today’s umbrellas come in a variety of styles and innovative modifications from expansion with the push of a button to one that tells weather forecast. Most are made of metal or plastic frames with fabric or clear plastic. Many have been designed to fold for convenience and portability.

Cultural History

Besides its functionality, umbrellas have worked their way into different cultures. For example, as an expression of their love, the Japanese writes their names under an umbrella as would Americans carving their love and name on the trunk of a tree.

Furthermore, in addition to providing protection from the sun and rain, umbrellas also served as a symbol of status and rank, props and works of art, and can also be altered into a weapon. For instance, fair skin was a sign of nobility in Egypt around 1200 BC, where royalty used parasols to prevent tanning, and it also symbolize the vault of heaven opening over a king. The parasol is still regarded as emblem of rank in Africa.
In Europe, until mid 18th Century, umbrellas were considered a woman’s accessory and men seen using one suggested that he could not afford or hire a carriage. However, a servant holding an umbrella over a gentleman between the carriage and the door was an indication of respect.

Moreover, umbrellas can be works of art, especially those crafted by the Chinese, which are covered with thin silk printed with landscapes and fixed onto a bamboo frame. Also, it serves as props for stage performances from traditional Chinese umbrella dance to Rihanna’s Umbrella music video.

Finally, umbrellas also have made their way into espionage in works of fiction and nonfiction. For instance, the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only depicts an umbrella with clawlike spikes that protrude from the tips of the canopy. In reality, in 1978, Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident writer, was assassinated by a suspected secret Bulgarian agent with an altered umbrella, which shot a poisonous pellet into the victim’s leg.