Traditional Li Textile Techniques
01 · Historical Records
Li weaving in the Baoting area exists in an environment where Li and Miao peoples live interspersed; weaving, batik, and silver ornamentation grow up in the same place without blending into one another. Miao batik excels in full-width fabrics, while Li brocade is distinguished by its complex patterns; the two kinds of cloth run in parallel across the same mountainous region, each following its own path. This parallelism also shaped the orientation of Baoting brocade: its patterns favor three categories — human figures, animals, and plants — with complete compositions that do not strive to cover everything. Compared with monumental tribute pieces such as the Yazhou quilt, it is closer to the needs of everyday cutting and sewing. The formation of this orientation is related to the limited scale of local tribute in past dynasties alongside the continuing demand for daily wear.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Li people's weaving and dyeing techniques have a long history and distinctive characteristics, encompassing ramie weaving, cotton weaving, brocade weaving, printing and dyeing (including tie-dyeing), embroidery, and dragon quilts. Li settlement areas are rich in raw materials for weaving and dyeing, such as kapok and wild hemp. Before cotton textiles became widespread, wild hemp textiles prevailed in Li areas. People generally strip the outer bark from wild hemp gathered during the rainy season and, through soaking, rinsing, and other processes, steep it into hemp bolts. Once the hemp bolts have been dyed, they are hand-twisted into hemp yarn or spun into thread with a spindle, and then woven into cloth. Wild hemp cloth is sturdy in texture and was mostly used to make outer garments and lower robes worn while working. Li brocade patterns are rich and varied, numbering more than 160 kinds; they consist mainly of human figures, animals, plants, flowers, everyday implements, and geometric motifs, with human, animal, and plant designs predominating. The looms used to weave Li brocade are mainly of two types: the foot-treadled loom and the backstrap loom. The backstrap loom is an extremely ancient loom; Li women can use it to weave exquisite and complex patterns. Different patterns, colors, and styles of Li brocade once served as important markers distinguishing tribal groups with different kinship ties, and thus possess extremely important humanistic value. Li printing and dyeing is dominated by tie-dyeing, known in ancient times as jiaoxie. The fabric passes through binding, dyeing, drying, and thread-folding steps, ultimately forming brilliantly colored printed cloth. The dyes used in printing and dyeing are derived mainly from plant leaves, flowers, bark, and roots, supplemented by natural mineral pigments. Li embroidery has two forms: flat embroidery and double-sided embroidery, the most famous being the double-sided embroidery of the Run-dialect Li people of the Baisha area, whose composition and patterns are exceptionally fine. The dragon quilt is a treasure among Li brocades; it integrates spinning, dyeing, embroidery, weaving, and other crafts in a single piece, with exquisite workmanship, brilliant colors, elegant patterns, and varied styles. It represents the most outstanding craftsmanship and the highest cultural and artistic value among Li brocades, and for this reason became a tribute treasure of the Hainan region in every dynasty. The dragon quilt is also called the great quilt, and is known in historical records as the Yazhou quilt. The weaving and embroidery of dragon quilts produced different artistic styles and characteristics according to the Li dialects and regions of residence, making them valuable physical material for studying the evolution of Li culture.
Changing the multicoloured warp
The warp is pre-coloured in several tones and shifted as the pattern demands, letting one length of cloth carry different grounds; the switching order is held in memory.
Weaving figurative motifs
Figures, animals and plants dominate Li motifs; figures cost the most, and Baisha-area weavers favour a readable whole figure over exhaustive detail.
Weaving skirts and headscarves
Skirts and headscarves are the most-used Li women’s textiles: narrow, voluminous and dense, woven long at the waist loom, their borders geometric and continuous.
Embroidery and cross-stitch
After weaving, cross-stitch and embroidery add colour and sheen, so weaving and needlework each contribute their strength across the making of one garment.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Within Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County, Li brocade technique is distributed among mountain villages, interspersed with Miao settlement areas; weaving in each village is undertaken mostly by women, and the products are used for tube skirts, headscarves, quilt covers, and ceremonial brocades. The composition of branches in Baoting gives its patterns a plural character: the same motif often has different color schemes and treatments in different villages, and weavers commonly give patterns to one another as gifts and congratulations. Compared with the counties of Wuzhishan, Baisha, Ledong, and Dongfang, Baoting brocade does not rank first in refinement, but it retains a place of its own in the diversity of its patterns.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Traditional Li Textile Techniques · Traditional Li Textile Techniques · Traditional Li Textile Techniques · Traditional Li Textile Techniques.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The most noteworthy point about Baoting-area Li brocade is the mutual influence of brocade and batik within the same community: the two approaches of leaving reserve in dyeing and leaving reserve through wax application inform each other, and when making large works such as the dragon quilt, weaving and dyeing often have to divide the labor around a single set of patterns. The state of the craft's survival likewise deserves record. The number of people who master the complete set of spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery processes is declining, while implements such as dye vats, looms, and embroidery frames are mostly made from locally available materials, so that once a generation is missing there is no physical reference to rely on. At the same time, patterns are preserved largely by memory, and the absence of catalogued pattern archives leaves many patterns that circulate only within particular branches facing extinction. In Baoting, therefore, recording the patterns and teaching the craft onward are equally urgent matters: the former requires tracing and archiving the patterns extant in each village one by one, while the latter requires those who still master the complete set of processes to bring up new practitioners through daily use.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Rong Yamei 01-0139
- Liu Xianglan 03-1309
- Fu Linzao 04-1837
- Wang Ruimei
- Hu Chunfang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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