Button Museum of China

 

 

Xitang is the town of button in China, now there are about 500 button enterprises set up and their annual total output value is about 1 billion Yuan, which takes up forty per cent of the total national value. The Button Museum of China situates on the West Street in Xitang and it has six exhibition halls, Ancient Buttons Display Area, Modern Buttons Display Area, Contemporary Buttons Display Area, Production Line of Shell Buttons, The Application of Buttons and Chinese Knots Display Area. 

Shell buttons are the first batch of buttons for professional use in China's history. Animals with shells are many in rivers in the plain area, like Xitang, northern Zhejiang Province. Decades ago, the buttons on people's shirts were made of clamshells. Procedures in making these tiny shell buttons include punching shear, polish, drill holes, whiten and re-shape. The manufacturing machine is solely powered by human's manual labor without aid of electricity. Today there are workers to demonstrate the ancient process of button making in the Button Museum of China.

It is very easy to see that the Button Museum of China turns a new page of history in Chinese buttons. It also adds a brand new landscape to Xitang's beauty.