Batik (Miao batik)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: batik (Miao batik)

Applicant: Gongxian County, Sichuan Province

Item No.: 375

Project No.: VIII - 25

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Gongxian County, Sichuan Province

Protection unit: Gongxian Cultural Relics Management Office (Gongxian Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center)

Introduction to batik (Miao batik)

Applicant: Gongxian County, Sichuan Province

Batik is one of the ancient folk traditional printing and dyeing processes of the Chinese nation. As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Miao people had mastered batik technology. Gongxian Miao batik is unique in Sichuan Miao batik. According to the records of Gongxian County by Guangxu of Qing Dynasty, Luodu Miao people took wax and melted it into cloth. After dyeing, they boiled the cloth and washed the wax to form batik skirt.

Gongxian Miao batik takes blue and white as the main tone, and is often combined with cross stitch and patchwork. It is usually dyed first and embroidered later. It has rich colors and distinct layers, which is simple and gorgeous. Most of the patterns are natural and geometric, some of which are inherited from tradition, some of which are derived from life. Batik has full composition, vivid modeling, symmetry and balance, and pays attention to the overall effect of pattern combination and visual order. The theme is generally in the middle, focusing on the integrity and harmony of the pattern, concise and lively, dense but not complex, simple but not thin. Even on the pleated skirt which is more than Zhang long, the chain composition is full of rhythmic change and sense of rhythm due to the interpenetration of dots and lines, the coexistence of curves and straights, and the crisscross density. The design is exquisite, the lines are smooth, fresh as light clouds, the blue sky is mutual support, the melody is bright as mountains and rivers, the simplicity contains ruggedness, the simplicity contains elegance, and it has a distinctive national style. Miao people in Gongxian often use batik products to make clothes, pleated skirts, aprons, sleeping sheets, pillows, curtains, door curtains, bags, mosquito nets, etc., which are indispensable folk handicrafts in Miao people's life.

In 2006, Luodu Miao Township, with Miao batik as its feature, established "Sichuan folk art town". In 2008, Luodu Miao Township in Gongxian County was named "the hometown of Chinese folk culture and art" by the Ministry of culture.