Miao batik

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Miao batik

Applicant: Danzhai County, Guizhou Province

Item No.: 375

Project No.: VIII - 25

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Guizhou Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Danzhai County, Guizhou Province

Protection unit: Danzhai Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Introduction to Miao batik skills:

Applicant: Danzhai County, Guizhou Province

Batik is a traditional skill handed down from generation to generation by Miao people in Danzhai, Anshun and Zhijin counties of Guizhou Province. It was called "batik" in ancient times and "Wutu" in Miao language, which means "batik clothes".

Danzhai County, Anshun county and Zhijin County are multi-ethnic areas with the Miao nationality as the main body. In the long-term isolation from the outside world, the residents here gradually formed a self-sufficient way of life, so the ancient batik skills were preserved. According to Miao customs, all women have the obligation to inherit batik skills. Every mother must teach her daughter how to make batik. Therefore, Miao women have learned this skill since childhood, planting indigo and cotton, spinning and weaving, painting wax and cutting, and inheriting it from generation to generation. In this situation, these Miao inhabited areas formed a wax art led clothing, marriage and festival customs, social ways, funeral customs and other customs and cultures.

Miao batik is an art created for the needs of producers. Its main products are daily necessities, including women's clothing, bed sheets, quilt covers, cloth for packing, headscarf, backpack, bag, strap, funeral sheet, etc.

Miao batik has two kinds of techniques: a little wax and painting wax, which can be divided into geometric pattern and natural pattern. The authors of Danzhai Miao batik prefer the big flowers with natural patterns, which are vivid, concise, vivid, fluent, full of exaggeration and strong local flavor. Anshun Miao batik is mainly geometric pattern, with loose structure and vivid shape. Zhijin Miao batik is mainly fine white, full of geometric spiral patterns, and the pattern structure is interlaced and integrated.

The production tools of batik mainly include copper knife (crayon), porcelain bowl, water basin, big needle, bone needle, straw, dye vat, etc. When making, soak the cloth with plant ash filter water to remove the lipid in the fiber to make it easy to wax and color. Then put the right amount of yellow wax in a small porcelain bowl, and place the bowl on the hot wood ash. After the yellow wax is heated and melted into liquid, you can dot the cloth. The cloth with wax pattern is soaked in warm water, and then put into the developed indigo VAT. After repeatedly soaking, the cloth can be taken to the river for rinsing, and then washed with clean water to remove the floating color. Then put it into the pot and add water to boil, so that the yellow wax will melt and float on the water surface. After recycling, it can be reused. After that, the wax printing is repeatedly rinsed to remove the residual yellow wax, which is the completion. After that, Danzhai batik has to be painted red and yellow. The red is usually painted with the root of cassia, while the yellow is extracted with gardenia. In order to avoid fading, it is generally necessary to wait for batik products to be made before coloring. In addition to the above steps, batik also has the processes of making indigo and hair dye vat. Each process is connected before and after, forming a complete and mature set of skills and operating procedures.

With the development of science and technology, the types of textiles are constantly enriched, and the status of batik as the mainstream textile in Guizhou Miao area has gradually shaken. With the development of tourism, batik handicrafts are put on the market as special tourist souvenirs. In order to meet the needs of the market and pursue economic benefits, a large number of poor batik products emerge, which poses a threat to the orderly inheritance of the art. It can be seen that Miao batik skills need to be truly protected and reasonably developed.

Chinese PinYin : Miao Zu La Ran Ji Yi