Li Shupibu Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the Li people's bark-cloth culture in Baoting County can be traced back to the Stone Age. From the book Dongguan Hanji by Pei Zhou of the Jin dynasty it is known that by the Han dynasty there were already records of making caps from bark cloth, and at that time border minority groups also used bark cloth to make clothing and bedding.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Bark cloth is also called nabu, chupi bu (paper-mulberry-bark cloth), or gupi bu (mulberry-bark cloth). The chuguan (paper-mulberry cap) and gubu yi (mulberry-cloth clothing) referred to in ancient documents are clothing and headwear products made from bark. Before the forebears wove with hemp and kapok, they went through a fairly long 'non-textile' period, during which the clothing used to cover the body was mainly this coarse-fibered 'bark cloth.' After the Li forebears on Hainan Island mastered cotton-weaving technology, bark cloth did not completely yield to hemp and cotton products; some still used paper-mulberry bark to make household items such as mats, clothing, and waistbands. This was mainly because bark material was abundant and easy to gather, the Li had become quite skilled at the craft, and the finished products were very durable. The Li region has many kinds of bark suitable for processing, such as houpishu (thick-bark tree), huangjiushu, jiandushu (arrow-poison tree), and gou tree (paper mulberry); among these the gou tree was anciently called 'shu' and is scientifically named Broussonetia papyrifera. The Li's 'sewing bark into clothing' has seven steps: strip the bark, trim it, soak the bark in water to remove gum, rinse, sun-dry, beat it into sheets, and sew. People use the processed bark cloth to cut and sew household items such as caps, pillows, quilts, jackets, skirts, egg-pocket cloth, and pouches. Although this craft is divided into several process steps, it uses few tools, of which the pounding tool is the most important. The stone beater is the implement for making bark cloth and also the emblem of bark-cloth culture. In the Li region, the younger generation no longer knows what bark cloth is.
Archival Record of Process Steps
Although this craft is divided into several process steps, it uses few tools, of which the pounding tool is the most important.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Li bark cloth on Hainan Island is distributed mainly in the central and southern Li-concentrated areas, including the cities of Sanya, Wuzhishan, and Dongfang, and the counties of Qiongzhong, Baoting, Lingshui, Ledong, Changjiang, and Baisha.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
For nearly half a century, with social development and changes in people's way of life, bark cloth and stone beaters on Hainan Island have entered museums and disappeared from daily life. Therefore, the protection, excavation, and systematic collation of the bark-cloth craft are of great significance. Huang Yunying (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): a representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the Li bark-cloth making craft intangible cultural heritage item. Having been immersed in the craft since childhood, he skillfully identified the tree species for making bark cloth and mastered the best season for stripping bark, as well as the techniques of the process flow of trimming, soaking, degumming, beating, rinsing, and sun-drying, thereby cutting and sewing household items such as caps, pillows, quilts, jackets, skirts, egg-pocket cloth, and pouches. In particular, he could handle the skill of stripping the bark of the arrow-poison tree (jiandushu), which can be fatal, making him a master of bark-cloth making in the area. Male, Li, born in March 1948, died in May 2013, a native of Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County, Hainan Province.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Huang Yunying 03-1341
- Wang Wenqi
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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