Batik Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The motifs mostly take natural landscapes, flowers, birds, fish and insects, rivers, and stars as their themes, expressing the Miao reverence for nature, worship of ancestors, and love of life, while also recording the history of the Zhijin Miao people's migrations, struggles, and daily life.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Zhijin Miao batik technique is a batik craft mainly distributed in Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, while radiating into the surrounding areas. Zhijin lies in the heart of the Wumeng Mountains; according to The Miao of Zhijin, all 32 townships (subdistricts) within its borders have long-settled Miao communities that pass on the batik technique. The Zhijin Miao batik technique consists of five steps. The first step is composition: without the aid of paper-cutting or any other tool, the design is drawn with the fingernail alone. The second step is wax drawing: the wax knife (the smallest in the world) is heated, dipped in wax, and used to trace the motifs on white cloth, generating the pattern. The third step is dyeing: the cloth is placed in a dye vat and dyed by various methods until it takes on the desired indigo blue. The fourth step is dewaxing: the dyed, waxed piece is placed in boiling water to remove the wax. The fifth step is rinsing: the dewaxed piece is placed in clean water, rinsed, and then dried. The selection of raw materials and the use of tools in Zhijin Miao batik are highly particular. Wax materials are mainly paraffin and beeswax; dye materials use the indigo plants, blood vine, and other plants specific to the mountains of Zhijin. The characteristics of this project are mainly embodied in its craft, composition, motifs, and patterns. Motifs fall into two types, natural and geometric; besides the Butterfly Mother and yin-yang fish common to the Miao, there are dragon-head fish, snake-skin flowers, fish paths, and bats, among others; the snake-skin flower alone has several dozen varieties, so the range of patterns is extremely rich, amounting to several thousand kinds in all. By Miao custom, girls learn the batik technique from childhood — planting indigo and cotton, spinning and weaving, wax-drawing and cross-stitch embroidery, dip-dyeing and tailoring — passed down from generation to generation. In the Miao settlements of Zhijin County, Miao women can be seen making batik products at home everywhere. At present, Zhijin County has 125 cooperatives (companies) related to Miao batik, with more than 40,000 inheritors; batik has become the main traditional handicraft driving rural revitalization in Zhijin County. The Zhijin Miao batik technique is finely executed, with a highly patterned, abstract, and procedural artistic style; it carries the historical memory of Miao myth and legend, migration and development, and production and daily life, embodies the Miao people's interpretation of nature, history, life, and the universe as well as their hopes for a better life, and is an important means of understanding the history of the Zhijin Miao, with high cultural and artistic value.
Composition by fingernail
Of the five stages, the first is composition drawn with the fingernail alone — no paper pattern — and the second lays wax with a heated knife.
The world's smallest wax knife
Its wax knife is held to be the smallest of its kind, narrow enough for hairline wax lines that separate the successive dips.
Found in every township
Every one of the county's thirty-two townships has long-settled Miao families who keep the craft, its wide spread answering the mountain cold.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Zhijin Miao batik technique is a batik craft mainly distributed in Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, while radiating into the surrounding areas. Zhijin lies in the heart of the Wumeng Mountains; according to The Miao of Zhijin, all 32 townships (subdistricts) within its borders have long-settled Miao communities that pass on the batik technique. Its method comprises five steps, the first of which is composition, drawn with the fingernail alone without the aid of paper-cutting or any other tool. The Zhijin County Cultural Center is the protection unit for the project.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Batik Craftsmanship · Batik Craftsmanship · Batik Craftsmanship · Batik Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The mysterious motifs present artistic characteristics of line-based form, refinement, and all-over composition, and have high research value in fields such as anthropology, aesthetics, and craft studies. This technique is generally transmitted from the old to the young, from mother to daughter, or through master-apprentice succession between members of the ethnic group.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Ayong 04-1840
- Yang Fang 05-2736
- Wang Yueyuan 05-2737
- Luo Wenzhen
- Cai Qun
- Xiong Zonghui
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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