Wujiaximu Wushuer

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the fourth-generation bearer of the printed cloth weaving and dyeing craft. He began learning the craft at the age of thirteen and, under his master's guidance, worked diligently and gained a sound command of the weaving and dyeing techniques for felt rugs and printed cloth. Within the regional tradition and school record of Huazhanyinhuabuzhiranjiyi in Yingjisha, Xinjiang: Yengisar County is an important production area for flower felt and printed cloth in southern Xinjiang. In the daily dwellings of the local Uygur, every visible place is carefully decorated, and the flower felt used for covering kang, flooring, worship, and wall hangings is among these decorations. Together with earthenware pottery, flower felt forms the two pillars of the local household handicraft industry; the felt material is mostly taken from local sheep's wool, and dyed with local plants such as pomegranate rind and walnut husk. Until the 1990s, felt carpets (flower felt) had never been absent from Uygur daily life, and to this day a few households with earthen kang still use them.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He is a Uyghur man, born in April 1961, a native of Yingjisha County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. National representative bearer of Huazhan Yinhuabu Zhiran Jiyi (the weaving and dyeing of felt rugs and printed cloth), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In technical terms he has mastered the hand-engraving of block-printed pattern plates and pays close attention to the extraction and preparation of traditional plant dyes, continually improving printing and dyeing techniques while preserving tradition. He attaches importance to transmitting skills and supporting younger practitioners, and has long taught students at the local vocational middle school, enabling a craft on the verge of disappearance to be restored and developed. Within the documented technical tradition of Huazhanyinhuabuzhiranjiyi in Yingjisha, Xinjiang: The weaving and dyeing techniques of the Xinjiang Uygur people have a long history, among which the weaving and dyeing of flower felt and printed cloth are the most renowned. The Uygur have a tradition of using wool felt; in daily dwellings, every visible place is carefully decorated, and the flower felt used for covering kang, flooring, worship, and as wall hangings is among these decorations. The flower-felt making craft of Qiemo County includes pressed flower felt, printed flower felt, painted flower felt, and appliqué-embroidered flower felt, among others. Its motifs are rich in subject matter, bright in color, and numerous in type, varying by region. They include the longevity pattern, meander pattern, and antique-pattern influenced by Han culture; Arabic-style geometric and floral motifs; motifs of Uygur daily utensils and tools; Islamic-style ewer and mihrab motifs; and even Nestorian and Buddhist motifs. Flower felt is also an important daily necessity of the Kazak people, who call it "Syrmaq" in their language. Kazak flower felt is mostly double-layered, thicker than ordinary wool felt, densely sewn, durable, and can be passed down through several generations. It is mainly distributed in Kazak pastoral areas such as Tacheng, Yili, Altay, Mori, and Barkol. Tacheng is a region where Xinjiang's Kazak people are relatively concentrated, and flower felt is used very widely. The making of Kazak flower felt has a history of over two thousand years. Its main raw materials are wool, wool yarn, colored cloth, and dyes. The entire process consists of shearing wool, beating wool, felting, drawing and designing, and pattern dyeing. The making methods include felt appliqué, cloth appliqué, combined felt and cloth, and embroidery. Kazak flower felt mainly includes types such as seat-cushion felt, bed felt, dowry felt, and felt used beside the stove. These flower felts are brilliantly colored with richly meaningful patterns, reflecting the ideals and wishes of Kazak herders and providing concrete material for research into Kazak ethnic traditional culture, aesthetic thought, and life customs. Their making craft and process are strict and reasonable, meet scientific requirements, and also hold research value for the history of ethnic-minority crafts. At present, industrial carpet production and the advent of chemical-fiber carpets have greatly impacted the market for hand-felted and embroidered flower felt. Under these circumstances, most young people are unwilling to learn flower-felt making; only a few elderly people master the craft, and the traditional flower-felt making craft has no successors and faces the danger of being lost. Mold-stamped earthen printed cloth is an ancient traditional manual craft of the Uygur people in Yengisar County, Xinjiang; people use self-woven white cloth as the base and print it with relief-patterned blocks. The molds used for printing and dyeing are all hand-carved from wood, their size determined by the size of the pattern. The colors of mold-stamped earthen printed cloth are mostly bright red, pink, fruit green, medium yellow, and pale yellow, with patterns mostly drawn from flowers, fruits, plants, and household utensils. This printed cloth is mainly used to make wall borders, wall hangings, waist scarves, tablecloths, mattress pads, and curtains, among others. It has a strong ethnic style and local color, giving a sense of archaic simplicity, refined elegance, and grace, and is deeply loved by the Uygur people. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Dyeing with pomegranate and walnut husk": Local wool is dyed with pomegranate rind and walnut husk for warm yellow and deep brown, which with undyed felt make a vivid three-tone scheme. "Pottery and felt side by side": Pottery and felt stand side by side in the same households, sharing tools and drying space and the same pair of hands. "Felt in daily life": Felt squares for the bed, the floor, prayer and the wall are made in graduated sets so they can be stored away between seasons.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Wujiaximu Wushuer was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Huazhanyinhuabuzhiranjiyi, with Yingjisha, Xinjiang as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Huazhanyinhuabuzhiranjiyi in Yingjisha, Xinjiang: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Yingjisha, Xinjiang as its declared area, and Yingjisha County 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. Wujiaximu Wushuer · National Representative Bearer Archive