Zhuang Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Zhuang brocade has a very long history; the ban cloth woven by Zhuang ancestors in the Han dynasty was its forerunner. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, archaeologists excavated several fragments of orange-red brocade with a key-fret pattern from Pit No. 7, a damaged burial pit of the Han tombs at Luobowan in Guangxi, confirming that brocade weaving techniques already existed in Guangxi in the Han dynasty. Zhuang brocade techniques took shape in the Tang and Song dynasties and developed further in the Ming and Qing; in the Ming dynasty the brocade was listed as a tribute item, and in the late Qing and early Republican period Zhuang brocade began to decline.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Having developed over more than a thousand years, Zhuang brocade has its own system of three major categories, more than twenty varieties, and over fifty patterns, and is celebrated for being sturdy and durable, finely crafted, with distinctive designs and exquisite decoration. Zhuang brocade is one of the outstanding cultural heritages of the Zhuang people. It not only provides vivid physical material for the study of the textile techniques of China's ethnic minorities, but also adds living examples to the textile history of China and the world, playing a positive role in inheriting and promoting ethnic culture and in strengthening ethnic self-respect.
Three families, twenty varieties
Three distinct families, more than twenty named varieties and over fifty pattern systems, each durable, ingenious and highly coloured.
Dowry and festival dress
A daughter's dowry traditionally included a bolt or two of her own weaving, and festival dress was a matter of display at song gatherings.
Dyeing and weaving together
Silk is reeled at home or dyed with indigo and its relatives, the shades graded from light to deep to give a single cloth its full range.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhuang brocade is transmitted in Jingxi County and other Zhuang settlement areas such as Chongzuo and Dahua in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with each place laying particular emphasis on different warp-and-weft structures and pattern motifs. Having developed over more than a thousand years, Zhuang brocade has its own system of three major categories, more than twenty varieties, and over fifty patterns, and is celebrated for being sturdy and durable, finely crafted, with distinctive designs and exquisite decoration. The Jingxi City Cultural Center serves as the project protection unit, and transmission is mainly from mother to daughter and from master to apprentice. Zhuang brocade is woven on a family basis, with a single loom usually operated in turn by mother and daughter or by sisters; the woven brocade strips vary in width and require added borders according to use. The Zhuang brocade of the Jingxi area is often woven in one piece with homespun cloth, and can be used for quilt covers, mats, and ceremonial back-screens; the cotton quilts a girl takes as dowry at marriage are mostly faced with Zhuang brocade. Pattern motifs are determined by each village, and within a village vary slightly from family to family, so a design must be compared with those of neighboring villages before it can be used. Transmission relies mainly on elders orally passing down style names and color-matching formulas, with practical instruction given at any moment in the intervals of work; no special master-apprentice initiation ceremony is observed.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
However, for a variety of historical and practical reasons, Zhuang brocade faces a severe transmission crisis and urgently needs rescue and protection. Zhuang brocade is one of the outstanding cultural heritages of the Zhuang people. It not only provides vivid physical material for the study of the textile techniques of China's ethnic minorities, but also adds living examples to the textile history of China and the world, playing a positive role in inheriting and promoting ethnic culture and in strengthening ethnic self-respect. Since the 1980s, Zhuang brocade production has generally resumed in the counties of Guangxi, and it has been incorporated into the development of ethnic costume and tourism products. In the past decade or so, machine-jacquard imitations of Zhuang brocade have appeared in Jingxi, Longlin, and elsewhere; although the patterns are similar, their hand-feel and luster fall far short of the handwoven, so the trade still prices them by whether they are hand-woven. Protection efforts mostly combine veteran artisans taking on apprentices with villages collectively accepting orders and staging exhibitions; school curricula and museum displays are used to explain the cultural meaning of the patterns, so that this technique of exchanging color for thread does not end up with only a single warp and weft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Cunling 05-2730
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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