Ye Juan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Ye Juan, Female, Unspecified, from Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-106). The tradition is documented in Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship in Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan: The weaving of Dai brocade is concentrated in the area of Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Prefecture. The finished products are mostly used as skirt bands, bed sheets, and quilt covers, with patterns dominated by lotus, areca palm, peacock, and elephant, often raising a single or repeated continuous motif against a white ground. Dai brocade comes from the hands of Dai women and is an early variety of the Dai traditional handicrafts. Ye Juan learned weaving from her mother Yula at the age of 11 and could independently complete the full set of process steps by 13.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Dai ethnic group, born in March 1959, a native of Jinghong, Yunnan Province. A national representative bearer of Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Her birth name was Zhou Lanying; she is a Dai brocade technician. Born into a Dai family long engaged in brocade weaving, she began learning the craft from her mother, Yu La, at the age of eleven, and by thirteen she was able to complete the weaving process on her own. Over more than forty years in the craft she has acquired a full and practiced command of Dai brocade weaving. The Dai brocade she weaves has clear patterns, well-matched colors and fine workmanship. The skirt ties, bed sheets, quilt-head covers, shoulder bags and quilt covers made from her brocade are handsome, refined and pleasing to look at. Because older Han and Dai women in the area still prefer to wear brocade garments, brocade remains popular locally; at the same time, visitors from Japan, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries come especially to buy Dai brocade, and orders from abroad continue to grow. Her weaving carries distinctive Dai characteristics, and she actively takes on apprentices and transmits her skills, giving her considerable influence in the locality. Within the documented technical tradition of Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship in Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan: Dai brocade is the product of the labor of the Dai ancestors and an important early variety of Dai traditional handicrafts. Dai brocade comes from the hands of women, reflecting the farming social custom of men tilling and women weaving in Dai areas. In their spare time from labor, Dai women weave onto the colored brocade patterns of the lofty lotus, the upright areca palm, the auspicious peacock, the stately elephant, the majestic qilin and dragon-phoenix, and the Buddhist stupa, expressing the Dai people's pursuit of and yearning for truth, goodness, and beauty. Dai brocade often sets off a single independent motif or a repeatedly recurring continuous pattern against a white ground; some patterns appear as silhouette-like profile forms, vivid in image and clear in outline, leaving a deep impression. Moreover, Dai brocade emphasizes the symmetry, contrast, and continuity of patterns, attending to the combination of density and sparseness and of concrete and abstract forms. Dai brocade is both reserved and bright, rich in imagination, ingenious in conception, and unique in technique, occupying an important place in China's brocade art. The scientific and rational protection and development of Dai brocade is of significance that should not be underestimated for carrying forward the excellent culture of the Dai people. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "A single motif on white": A clean white ground lets one motif or a repeated band stand out sharply. "Silhouette figures": Side-view silhouettes give peacock, elephant and stupa a legible outline without any interior detail. "Sash and bag silk": The silk serves sashes, bed sheets, bag panels and quilt covers, thick where it carries weight and thin where it lies on the body. "Training centre and cooperative": In 2009 Yu Ershuai founded a training centre and cooperative; her work Luoga won gold at the Huangshan exhibition.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2009, Ye Juan was announced in the third batch of national representative bearers for Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship, with Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship in Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Xishuangbannadaizuzizhi, Yunnan as its declared area, and Xishuangbanna Cultural Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Ye Juan · National Representative Bearer Archive