Embroidery and Dyeing Skill of Bai in Zhangjiajie

Culture 2011/11/29 View：2244

Bai people ,the 15th largest ethnic group in China,are mainly located in southwest China.Mostly of them dwell in Yunnan province.Also,there are Bai people live in Zhangjiajie for generations.

Embroidery and dyeing skill is to Bai people what swimming is to Phelps.

Embroidery and dyeing skill, known as “skein tie” in the ancient time, is a kind of old textile dyeing workmanship in China which is named Bai Nationality Embroidery and Dyeing.

The history of embroidery and dyeing can be dated back to ancient times. According to historical record, the embroidery and dyeing skill already existed in Dali in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The clothing and finery in The Scroll Painting of Nanzhao Kingdom in the Tang Dynasty and the Scroll Painting of Dali Kingdom in the Song Dynasty tell us that more than 1,000 years ago, the Bai people already mastered the technology of printing and dyeing. In the Scroll Painting of Dali Kingdom in the Song Dynasty, the cloth coronets on the heads of two generals among the civil ministers and military generals are very similar to the traditional blue white-flower knot-dyeing, so the painting is possibly the visual record of the real clothing at that time. With continuous development in Nanzhao and Dali Kingdom, the embroidery and dyeing skill has developed to a kind of handicraft of printing and dyeing with distinctive Bai characteristics.

It is a complex work of the embroidery and dyeing,which consists of many processes, such as brushing patterns, twisting and tying, soaking, dyeing the cloth, steam boiling, atmospheric drying, taking out stitches, rinsing and grinding the cloth, among which the knoting and dip-dyeing are main processes and the twisting and tying skill and dyeing skill are key problems in technology. The essential tools include dye vat, dye rod, hack and stone roll.

By Aileen

Dyeing Skill.jpg

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