Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Hangluo has a long history; it was already recorded in local gazetteers as early as the Song dynasty, and by the Qing dynasty it had become a famous variety of Hangzhou silk. Since the 20th century, under the strong impact of chemical-fiber fabrics, traditional silk production has been extremely difficult, and Hangluo production has been especially hard-pressed.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Together with Suzhou satin and Nanjing Yunjin brocade, Hangluo is one of the three great famous silk products of East China. Hangluo originated in Hangzhou; it is woven from pure mulberry silk in a plain weave and a gauze (sha-luo) structure, its surface bearing evenly spaced vertical or horizontal strip-shaped gauze holes that are clearly defined, with a smooth, soft, and crisp texture. This fabric is comfortable, cool, and pleasant to wear and stands up to washing, and is mostly used for curtains, summer shirts, and casual-wear fabric. The looms that produce Hangluo have gone through several transformations, yet its production process still preserves a great deal of fine, meticulous handwork, demanding extremely high skill of the producer. After the raw silk enters the factory it must be strictly inspected and selected, and go through a series of processes including soaking, drying, reeling the yarn, warping, and quilling the weft, before it can be put on the loom to weave. The woven coarse blank must then go through refining, dyeing, and other steps before it becomes fine Hangluo. Because the craft is complex, Hangluo has throughout history had few successors. At present only the Fuxing Silk Factory produces Hangluo; its director comes from a Hangluo family and directly inherited the weaving craft. The Hangluo produced by Fuxing has always been distributed by long-established shops such as Beijing's 'Ruifuxiang' and Suzhou's 'Qiantaixiang', and is deeply welcomed by consumers at home and abroad.
Documented Process Record
The woven coarse blank must then go through refining, dyeing, and other steps before it becomes fine Hangluo.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hangluo is a heavy silk fabric native to Hangzhou, standing alongside the satin industry of the Suzhou area and the brocade industry of the Yunjin area as the three great silk products of East China; its production long concentrated within Hangzhou city, today only Hangzhou Fuxing Silk Co., Ltd. still practices it, its director coming from a Hangluo family and directly inheriting this weaving craft. The Hangluo it produces has always been sold to various places through long-established houses such as Beijing's 'Ruifuxiang' and Suzhou's 'Qiantaixiang'; since the factory's founding in 1984 it took five years of trial to complete the loom renovation for the traditional Hangluo water-weaving secret formula, both preserving constant quality and markedly raising efficiency, and it has now also built a nearly 1,000-square-meter Hangluo museum to collect physical objects and historical materials.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The factory's Hangluo production now faces layer upon layer of difficulties and urgently needs rescue and protection. Shao Guanxing (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): male, Han ethnicity, born in December 1954, a native of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item 'Silk Weaving Craft (Hangluo Weaving Craft)'. A Hangluo weaving artisan. In 1984 he founded the Hangzhou Fuxing Silk Factory. After five years of trial and improvement he completed the loom renovation for the traditional Hangluo water-weaving secret formula. The improved Hangluo loom can markedly raise production efficiency while guaranteeing the constancy of traditional quality. He has taken on technical workers in a planned way, carrying out strict training and craft transmission. He is devoted to research, publishing, and physical-object collecting; he participated in the publication of 'Hangluo Weaving Craft', and built a Hangluo museum of nearly 1,000 square meters to publicize and promote Hangluo weaving culture. His products have repeatedly won national, provincial, and municipal awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhou Kangming 03-1357
- Yu Caigen 05-2795
- Shao Guanxing 05-2796
- Gu Mingqi 05-2797
- Hong Guizhen
- Zheng Xiaohua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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