Owen Lattimore (1900-1989) und die Kamel-Karawane, auf seiner Reiset von Hohhot (Guihua) nach Qitai (Gucheng) entlang der Nordgrenze der Inneren Mongolei
man hat seine Strickwolle immer dabei ;=)
Owen Latimore war ein Reisender und Gelehrter, Geograph und Historiker. In seinem Werk The Desert Road to Turkestan (London, Methuen, 1928 or 29) beschreibt er, wie die chinesischen Karawan-Treiber das Stricken erlernten und wie leicht sie an die Wolle kamen. In der englischsprachigen Wikipedia ist dies im Kapitel "History of Knititng" sehr schön beschrieben:
After the White Russians defeat in the Russian Civil War, many units retreated into China's Xinjiang and were interned there.
As China was about to descend into a civil war of its own, the Russian internees were transported by camel caravans to Eastern China. According to Owen Lattimore, it was then that they passed on the art of knitting to the Chinese caravan men, who had ready supply of camel hair from their animals. In 1926, Lattimore was able to observe camel-pullers "knitting on the march; if they ran out of yarn, they would reach back to the first camel of the file they were leading, pluck a handful of hair from the neck, and roll it in their palms into the beginning of a length of yarn; a weight was attached to this, and given a twist to start it spinning, and the man went on feeding wool into the thread until he had spun enough yarn to continue his knitting". This way the camel men not only provided themselves with warm camel-hair socks, but were able to make knitwear for sale as well."
Es haben also Überlebende der weißen Armee, die dem chinesischen Bürgerkrieg ausweichen mußten, ihren Kameltreibern das Stricken beigebracht. Und diese nun konnten ihren Reittieren, wenn die Wolle alle war, ein paar Nackenhaare ausreißen, schnell mit einer improvisierten Handspindel das Garn spinnen und weiterstricken und sich so nicht nur warme Kamelhaar-Socken stricken, sondern das Gestrickte auch verkaufen, was als Nebenverdienst nicht zu verachten sei.
Eine schöne Geschichte. Aber strickende Soldaten der Weißen Armee? Das kann ich mir nun gar nicht vorstellen und davon habe ich auch noch nie etwas gehört. Man belehre mich eines Besseren ;=)
© des Bildes: Owen Latimore, The book "The Desert Road to Turkestan" by Owen Lattimore. London, Methuen, 1928 or 29; plate next to page 220.
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