Traditional Cotton Textile Craftsmanship

01 · Historical Records

Zaoyang's tradition of spinning thread and weaving cloth is exceedingly ancient. The Diaolongbei site unearthed in Lutou Town dates back more than 6,200 years, and pottery spinning whorls have been excavated there, indicating that textile activity already existed in this area as early as the prehistoric period. The local weaving implements are all handmade by craftsmen, and the craft has been passed down chiefly within families. To this day it has been carried through five generations and more than a hundred years, and the form of the wooden treadle loom has been preserved continuously down to the present.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Zaoyang coarse-cloth making technique is a traditional cotton textile craft practiced in Zaoyang City and its surrounding areas in Hubei Province. Zaoyang lies in the northwest of Hubei Province, bordering the Jianghan Plain to the south. It is a hilly, ridged terrain with a subtropical continental monsoon climate, marked by distinct four seasons, humid summers and dry winters, ample sunshine, and a long frost-free period. Its geographical setting, soil characteristics, and climatic conditions are all suited to cotton cultivation. The locally grown cotton has long fibers and strong tenacity, providing the handmade Zaoyang coarse cloth with abundant, high-quality raw material. Handmade coarse cloth produced by the Zaoyang coarse-cloth technique is also called "old cotton cloth," "old native cloth," "hand-woven cloth," "home-loom cloth," and so on. It uses locally produced fine cotton as raw material and is woven on wooden treadle looms. The production process consists mainly of seventeen process steps: ginning, fluffing, rolling cotton into strips, spinning, reeling, dyeing the yarn, starching the yarn, winding onto bobbins, warping, drawing through the reed, drawing through the heddles, drawing through the reed again, mounting the loom, making the shuttle core, weaving, finishing and mending the cloth, and dyeing the cloth. The weaving process is entirely hand-operated; the weaver controls the density and looseness of the cloth through the coordinated pressure of hands and feet, and produces various patterns using warp and weft colored threads. The products are woven from pure cotton, and are characterized by a soft texture, a thick and substantial feel, and a crisp, comfortable wear. They are also environmentally friendly and healthy, attractive and durable, colorfast, pill-resistant, washable, and free of static. Their colors are full and brilliant, their patterns endlessly varied, their designs simple and bright, and their style distinctive and unrestrained. Zaoyang's tradition of spinning and weaving is of great antiquity; the Diaolongbei site in Lutou Town, dating back more than 6,200 years, yielded pottery spinning whorls. The textile implements for Zaoyang native cloth are all made by local craftsmen, and the skill is transmitted chiefly through family lineage, having passed through five generations and more than a hundred years to the present. Every process step is imbued with the artistic conception and feeling of the weavers. Through the ever-changing interweaving of warp and weft threads, brilliant and colorful patterns are produced, embodying a bright and romantic character and possessing considerable cultural and artistic value.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Zaoyang coarse-cloth making technique is practiced in Zaoyang City and its surrounding areas. The seventeen process steps run from ginning and fluffing all the way to dyeing the cloth, and are entirely controlled by hand and by the force of the weaver's hands and feet; the color and pattern arise from the matching and variation of the warp and weft colored threads. In recent years, four training institutes for the Zaoyang coarse-cloth making technique have been successively established at the Zaoyang Cultural Center, Zaoyang Han City, and in the Wuchang and Hongshan districts of Wuhan; Xiangyang Vocational and Technical College and Wuhan Textile University have set up university studios and industry-study-research bases, offering free training to the public, with more than three thousand beneficiaries.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Today, four training institutes for the Zaoyang coarse-cloth making technique have been successively established at the Zaoyang Cultural Center, Zaoyang Han City, and in the Wuchang and Hongshan districts of Wuhan; Xiangyang Vocational and Technical College and Wuhan Textile University have set up university studios and industry-study-research bases, and at the same time offer free training to the public, with beneficiaries reaching more than 3,000 people. The Zaoyang coarse-cloth making technique is a product of China's agrarian civilization. Relying on the wisdom and creativity of successive inheritors, it has been continuously enriched and refined through the long course of history, and holds a certain reference value for the study of the development of China's textile technology.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Chang Zhangqin 03-1358
• Tuerxunmusha 03-1359
• Paretanmu Tuerdi 04-1878
• Chen Aiguo 05-2798
• Wang Guifeng 05-2799
• Li Conghui 05-2800
• Yu Yanping
• Liu Yune
• Zheng Yunxiang
• Su Jinfang

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Traditional Cotton Textile Craftsmanship (Xiangyangshizaoyang, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗