Liu Xinjian

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the fifth-generation bearer of the Liu family's blue calico. He studied under his father, Liu Gongxin, known as Liu Dapao. 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 Han Chinese man, born in February 1968, a native of Fenghuang County, Hunan Province. National representative bearer of Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. His printing and dyeing is meticulous in workmanship, ingenious in composition and profound in meaning, with pure and vivid colours and a fresh, elegant style. Representative works include Phoenix at Play among Peonies, Golden Fish at Play among Lotus, Auspicious Celebration in Abundance, Twin Fish, Fortune and Longevity, Auspicious Harvest and The Eight Treasures Radiant. His works are exported to Southeast Asia and have been entered many times in folk-art competitions at home and abroad, and are much loved by consumers. Within the documented technical tradition of Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship in Fenghuang, Hunan: 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

In 2018, Liu Xinjian was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship, with Fenghuang, Hunan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Craftsmanship in Fenghuang, Hunan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Fenghuang, Hunan as its declared area, and Fenghuang County Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding 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. Liu Xinjian · National Representative Bearer Archive