Liu Dapao

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Born into a family of dyers, he entered a dyehouse to learn the craft at the age of 12 and is the fourth-generation transmitter of Liu-family blue calico, having studied under his father, Liu Yuancheng. Within the regional tradition and school record of Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship in Fenghuang, Hunan: Hunan Province is a major production area of blue calico in China, and the blue calico printing and dyeing of Fenghuang County and Shaoyang County stand out in every respect. The blue calico printing-and-dyeing craft of Tuojiang Town in Fenghuang County has a long and distant history; blue calico already appeared during the Western Han period; to this day a number of family workshops in Tuojiang Town and the areas of Guzhang and Luxi excel at hand-scraped paste and indigo dyeing. The Fenghuang County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center is the protecting unit for the item. Blue calico (lan yinhua bu) was originally called "jiaohua bu" (poured-flower cloth) and was termed "yaoban bu" (medicinal-spot cloth) in the Song dynasty; it is a textile printing-and-dyeing product long circulated among the Chinese folk. The Ming-dynasty "Tiangong Kaiwu" by Song Yingxing records that indigo can be extracted from indigo plants (lancao), and gives a detailed account of the indigo-making methods of that time. Shaoyang blue calico began roughly during the Zhenguan reign of the Tang dynasty and has a history of over 1,400 years to this day. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, thanks to convenient water and land transport, Shaoyang became the largest blue calico production base in the central-south region.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He is a representative bearer of Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In the course of his career he has opened up and innovated certain dyeing techniques and compositional methods on the basis of traditional printing and dyeing, forming a printing and dyeing practice of distinctive character. His works range widely in subject; all printing and dyeing is done by hand, and the manual technique is complex, involving more than a dozen processes from conception to finished piece. The colors are pure and vivid, the style fresh and restrained, and the tone plain and refined. His works have been shown many times in exhibitions of folk handicrafts and traditional folk art at home and abroad, and are held in the collections of several museums and research institutions. Within the documented technical tradition of Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship in Fenghuang, Hunan: Hunan Province is a major production area of blue calico in China, and the blue calico printing and dyeing of Fenghuang County and Shaoyang County stand out in every respect. The blue calico printing-and-dyeing craft of Tuojiang Town in Fenghuang County has a long and distant history. Blue calico already appeared during the Western Han period. The blue calico printing-and-dyeing craft divides into two major categories—pure blue calico dyeing and colored blue calico dyeing: pure blue calico has a plain surface with no decorative patterns and is generally used to make garments and headscarves; colored blue calico has complex decorative patterns and is generally used to make quilt covers, mattress sheets, bed-curtain valances, aprons, waist wrappers, door curtains, tablecloths, wrapping cloths, and the like. Before dyeing it must go through the treatment processes of paper-mounting the stencil, tracing the draft, carving the stencil, oiling, mixing the dye, scraping the paste, and dipping into the dye; after dyeing it must further go through the process steps of airing, rinsing, rolling the cloth, and fulling the cloth (also called "stepping on the cloth"). The renowned Tuojiang Town artisan Liu Dapao created a double-sided blue calico on the basis of single-sided blue calico; its printing-and-dyeing method is relatively complex and has very precious craft value. According to the "Shaoyang County Annals," the Shaoyang people at that time created a printing-and-dyeing technique that used soy milk and lime to replace wax, based on the Miao ethnic group's batik craft. Shaoyang blue calico features archaic patterns, fine and dense dots and lines, emphasis on large-area contrast and detailed depiction, and a fresh, simple style. Its patterns mostly draw from folk legends and traditional auspicious designs, expressing the yearning and pursuit of a beautiful life. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Account of the Process Steps": Before dyeing, it must go through the treatment processes of paper-mounting the stencil, tracing the draft, carving the stencil, oiling, mixing the dye, scraping the paste, and dipping into the dye; after dyeing it must further go through the process steps of airing, rinsing, rolling the cloth, and fulling the cloth (also called "stepping on the cloth").

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, of Han ethnicity, he was born in May 1939 in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, and died in November 2016.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Liu Dapao · National Representative Bearer Archive