Zhang Shishen
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, of the Bai ethnic group, born in 1941, a native of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan. A national representative bearer of the Bai Tie-dyeing Craftsmanship, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Zhang Shishen began learning tie-dyeing from his mother in 1956; the practice was interrupted for a time during the Cultural Revolution, resumed in the 1980s, and in 1987 he became director of the Zhoucheng Ethnic Tie-dyeing Factory, formally engaging in and supervising the processing and production of tie-dyed goods. Relying on the tie-dyeing methods and working processes handed down in his family, he has constantly explored and innovated, integrating modern dyeing techniques and making full use of purely botanical dyestuffs such as banlangen (indigo) to create more than a thousand outstanding works of high ornamental, collection, and practical value. The Bai tie-dyeing craft originally had only five stitching methods; after his improvements these developed to twenty-six, with the addition of techniques such as tiaozha (pick-tying), gouzha (hook-tying), and zuhezha (combined tying). The range of patterns and designs has been greatly enriched, and products made from tie-dyed cloth have continually expanded to cover every aspect of daily life. During his more than two decades as director of the ethnic tie-dyeing factory, Zhang Shishen brought its products to more than ten countries and regions, including Japan and the United States, not only earning foreign exchange for the state but also solving the employment of more than four thousand households of villagers.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
Profile
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。