Duan Yinkai
01 · Lineage & Regional School
She is the ninth-generation transmitter of Bai tie-dyeing craftsmanship, a craft handed down in her family line. Within the regional tradition and school record of Bai Tie-dyeing Craftsmanship in Dali, Yunnan: Bai tie-dyeing comes in a wide variety; its patterns are mostly small natural-form motifs, evenly distributed, with auspicious themes; it has important aesthetic value and practical function, and is highly regarded by consumers at home and abroad. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the dyeing and weaving craft of the Bai region around Erhai Lake had already reached a very high level, and dyeing guilds appeared; the Erhai Guard red cloth of the Ming dynasty and the Xizhou cloth and Dali cloth of the Qing dynasty were all best-selling products of their time.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Duan Yinkai, a woman of Bai ethnicity, was born in April 1975 in Dali, Yunnan Province. She is a national representative bearer of Bai tie-dyeing craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Born into a family long devoted to tie-dyeing, she entered the Zhoucheng Ethnic Tie-dyeing Factory in 1989. Over more than three decades in the craft she has gained a thorough command of Bai tie-dyeing and has collected and sorted more than thirty traditional resist-stitching techniques, enriching the colours and patterns of tie-dyeing. Each year she teaches regularly at universities in the province. In 2014 she raised funds herself to establish the Bai Tie-dyeing Culture Museum. Her works are fresh, restrained and elegant, with a distinctive charm. Her wall hangings Yangzhi Guanyin (Willow-Branch Guanyin) and Feitian (Flying Apsaras) have been collected by the Yunnan Provincial Museum and the Dali Municipal Archives. Within the documented technical tradition of Bai Tie-dyeing Craftsmanship in Dali, Yunnan: Tie-dyeing, called 'jiaoxie' in antiquity, is one of China's ancient textile dyeing techniques. Zhoucheng Village in Dali City, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, and the Dacang and Miaojie areas of Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County still preserve this traditional craft today; among them, the tie-dyeing industry of the Bai of Zhoucheng is the most famous, and the village was named a 'Hometown of Ethnic Tie-Dyeing' by the Ministry of Culture. According to historical records, dyeing and weaving methods already existed in the Dali region in the Eastern Han period. In the sixteenth year of the Zhenyuan era of the Tang dynasty, a Nanzhao dance troupe went to Chang'an to perform; the dance costumes they wore — 'skirts and jackets with birds, beasts, grass, and trees, patterned in eight mixed colors' — were made by tie-dyeing. In modern times, Dali's dyeing and weaving industry continued to develop, and Zhoucheng became a hand-weaving and dyeing village known far and wide. Tie-dyeing generally uses white cotton cloth, or a cotton-linen blended white cloth, as its raw material; the dye is mainly plant indigo (commonly called 'banlangen' by the people of Yunnan). The main steps of tie-dyeing are drawing and brushing the pattern, binding and tying (jiaozha), soaking, dyeing the cloth, steaming and boiling, sun-drying, removing the threads, and rolling the cloth; the technical crux lies in the binding technique and the dyeing craft. Dye vats, dye sticks, drying racks, and stone rollers are the main tools of tie-dyeing. Dali Bai tie-dyeing displays a strong folk-art character; its more than one thousand motifs are a microcosm of Bai history and culture over the centuries, reflecting the customs and aesthetic tastes of the Bai people; together with the various craft techniques, they constitute the richly appealing Dali Bai weaving and dyeing culture. However, the current trend toward industrialization has driven some traditional tie-dyeing techniques to extinction; the original folk character has begun to degenerate, pollution problems have become increasingly prominent, market operations have bred an excessive pursuit of economic profit, and plant indigo (banlangen) is in short supply. Only by earnestly solving the above problems can the inheritance and development of the traditional Bai weaving and dyeing technique of Dali be promoted. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Painting the resist pattern": The motif is drawn in white on cotton or cotton-hemp cloth, then bound along the outline; the painter and the binder must work as one for the pattern to hold. "Binding and twisting": Binding is the technical crux: needle, thread and tension create folds that resist the bath, so the same motif yields a different result each time it is tied. "The dye vat and dip stick": The dye is plant indigo, called banlangen locally; the dip stick sets the depth, the drying rack catches the drips and the stone roller presses the finish. "Steaming, untying and rolling": The sequence is painting, binding, soaking, dyeing, steaming, drying, untying and rolling; untying only after cooling, or the creases set hard and rigid.
Painting the resist pattern
The motif is drawn in white on cotton or cotton-hemp cloth, then bound along the outline; the painter and the binder must work as one for the pattern to hold.
Binding and twisting
Binding is the technical crux: needle, thread and tension create folds that resist the bath, so the same motif yields a different result each time it is tied.
The dye vat and dip stick
The dye is plant indigo, called banlangen locally; the dip stick sets the depth, the drying rack catches the drips and the stone roller presses the finish.
Steaming, untying and rolling
The sequence is painting, binding, soaking, dyeing, steaming, drying, untying and rolling; untying only after cooling, or the creases set hard and rigid.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2018, Duan Yinkai was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Bai Tie-dyeing Craftsmanship, with Dali, Yunnan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Bai Tie-dyeing Craftsmanship in Dali, Yunnan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Dali, Yunnan as its declared area, and Dali City Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Office 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
Historical origin
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the dyeing and weaving craft of the Bai region around Erhai Lake had already reached a very high level, and dyeing guilds appeared; the Erhai Guard red cloth of the Ming dynasty and the Xizhou cloth and Dali cloth of the Qing dynasty were all best-selling products of their time.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhang Shishen | Dali, Yunnan | 01-0145 | Same declared area |
| Zhang Xiaoping | Zigong, Sichuan | 05-2738 | Other regional school |
| Duan Yinkai | Dali, Yunnan | 05-2739 | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
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 and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。