Dai Brocade Weaving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Dai brocade comes from the hands of Dai women and is an early variety of the Dai traditional handicrafts. Ye Juan learned weaving from her mother Yula at the age of 11 and could independently complete the full set of process steps by 13.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Dai brocade is the product of the labor of the Dai ancestors and an important early variety of Dai traditional handicrafts. Dai brocade comes from the hands of women, reflecting the farming social custom of men tilling and women weaving in Dai areas. In their spare time from labor, Dai women weave onto the colored brocade patterns of the lofty lotus, the upright areca palm, the auspicious peacock, the stately elephant, the majestic qilin and dragon-phoenix, and the Buddhist stupa, expressing the Dai people's pursuit of and yearning for truth, goodness, and beauty. Dai brocade often sets off a single independent motif or a repeatedly recurring continuous pattern against a white ground; some patterns appear as silhouette-like profile forms, vivid in image and clear in outline, leaving a deep impression. Moreover, Dai brocade emphasizes the symmetry, contrast, and continuity of patterns, attending to the combination of density and sparseness and of concrete and abstract forms. Dai brocade is both reserved and bright, rich in imagination, ingenious in conception, and unique in technique, occupying an important place in China's brocade art. The scientific and rational protection and development of Dai brocade is of significance that should not be underestimated for carrying forward the excellent culture of the Dai people.
A single motif on white
A clean white ground lets one motif or a repeated band stand out sharply.
Silhouette figures
Side-view silhouettes give peacock, elephant and stupa a legible outline without any interior detail.
Sash and bag silk
The silk serves sashes, bed sheets, bag panels and quilt covers, thick where it carries weight and thin where it lies on the body.
Training centre and cooperative
In 2009 Yu Ershuai founded a training centre and cooperative; her work Luoga won gold at the Huangshan exhibition.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The weaving of Dai brocade is concentrated in the area of Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Prefecture. The finished products are mostly used as skirt bands, bed sheets, and quilt covers, with patterns dominated by lotus, areca palm, peacock, and elephant, often raising a single or repeated continuous motif against a white ground.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Dai brocade is closely linked to the daily life of the Dai people as well as their Buddhist faith and ghost-and-spirit worship, occupies a fairly important position in Dai social life, and possesses unique historical, cultural, and aesthetic value. However, due to inadequate support and protection, the Dai brocade weaving craft now faces the brink of extinction. Ye Juan (per the official record of the associated inheritor): Female, Dai ethnicity, born March 1959, from Jinghong City, Yunnan Province. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Dai Brocade Weaving Craft." Original name Zhou Lanying; a Dai brocade technician. Born into a Dai brocade family, she learned brocade weaving from her mother Yula at the age of 11 and could independently complete the brocade craft by 13. Over more than forty years of practice, she has comprehensively and thoroughly mastered the Dai brocade craft. The Dai brocade she weaves has clear patterns, fitting color matching, and fine workmanship. The skirt bands, bed sheets, quilt tops, satchels, and quilt covers made from brocade are beautiful and dignified, exquisite and pleasing to the eye. Because local Han and Dai elderly women still like to wear brocade garments to this day, brocade is widely popular locally; meanwhile tourists from Japan, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries come to buy Dai brocade by name, and overseas orders keep increasing. The brocade bears distinct Dai characteristics; she actively takes on apprentices and teaches the craft, having considerable influence locally. Yu'ershuai (per the official record of the associated inheritor): Female, Dai ethnicity, born August 1958, from Jinghong City, Yunnan Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Dai Brocade Weaving Craft." Born into a brocade family, she learned brocade weaving from her grandmother Yuzhuang at the age of 15. Over more than forty years of practice, she has thoroughly mastered the full set of Dai brocade making techniques and continuously innovated on the basis of inheriting traditional patterns. In 2009 she founded a Dai brocade craft transmission studio, a Dai brocade inheritance base, and a Dai folk brocade cooperative, actively taking on apprentices and teaching the craft, playing a core role in transmission, and is a locally acknowledged brocade master. She has taken part in intangible cultural heritage exchange and demonstration activities in China's Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions as well as in Thailand; her work "Luoga" won the gold award at the first China (Huangshan) Intangible Cultural Heritage Traditional Craft Exhibition jointly held by the People's Government of Anhui Province and others. Her works show fine workmanship, rich patterns, and many kinds, with strong local and ethnic characteristics, and are sold far to regions at home and abroad.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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