Xinhua News Agency, Dali, July 11th, Question: The Road of "Fuxin" of Two Generations of Bai People

  Author Hu Yuanhang Huang Xiaotong

  On the second weekend of July, Dali Zhoucheng, the "Hometown of Tie-dye of Bai Nationality" at the foot of Cangshan, welcomed a new wave of tourists. More than ten tourists are experiencing tie dyeing in the Puzhen dyeing workshop, the largest dyeing workshop in the village. Slowly dismantling the pimples, a white butterfly jumped on the blue cloth, and Chongqing tourist Wu Na's face showed a pleasant smile.

  The tie-dyeing of the Bai people experienced by Wu Na is an ancient folk dyeing process that has a history of thousands of years. The old book once vividly described the process of tie-dyeing: "The picking line picks the knots and then dyes them. When dyeing, the knots are solved, all the knots are the original colors, and the rest are dyed, and their colors are colorful."

  At the same time, the Bai people's tie-dye is a "young" national craft. It has appeared on many popular variety shows such as "Extraordinary Ingenuity" and "The Strongest Brain", and is also the first souvenir for Chinese and foreign tourists to travel to Dali.

  "In fact, the Bai people's tie-dye, like many intangible cultural heritages, also faced development difficulties." Duan Shukun, the 18th generation heir to the Duan family of Zhoucheng tie-dye provincial intangible cultural heritage, said: In its heyday, Zhoucheng almost "had dyeing tanks in every household, and households went out for tie-dyeing". Later, for various reasons, the dyehouse disappeared in Zhoucheng.

  In the late 1980s, with the arrival of the first group of tourists in Dali, the tie-dyeing of the Bai people used the craftsmanship from the baby's swaddle at birth to the wedding dowry at the time of marriage, to the shroud they wore at death. recovery.

  "Many'foreigners' are holding US dollars to buy tie-dye fabrics at the bottom of our press boxes. Many people don't know US dollars and dare not accept them." Duan Shukun recalled that after more and more people bought tie-dye, the village established a state-run tie-dye factory . Later, the tie-dyeing factory closed down, and Zhoucheng tie-dyeing returned to the "starting point" of family-style dyeing workshops and inheritance between father and son.

  "There are more than 2,000 patterns of tie-dyeing patterns in the Bai ethnic group, but to cater to consumer preferences, there were only 17 patterns left on the market." As traditional patterns gradually disappeared, and people engaged in tie-dyeing became more and more aging, Duan Shukun Duan Yinkai, his wife and Bai nationality tie-dye national inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, embarked on a road of innovation.

  The two of them have a clear division of labor, and Duan Yinkai is in charge of "binding": on the basis of more than 30 traditional acupuncture methods, more than 100 acupuncture methods have been innovated. Duan Shukun is responsible for "dyeing": developing a series of natural dyes such as gardenia fruit, saffron, hematoxylin, etc., so that the color of tie-dyeing is no longer restricted to blue; in the dyeing technique, Duan Shukun also introduced PH test paper, by testing the pH of the dye, Improve the success rate of dyeing.

  In addition to innovative craftsmanship, the Duan and his wife also conducted numerous experiments: relying on tie-dyed cloth, developed a series of products such as backpacks, tissue boxes, and clothing, and exported them to Japan, Thailand, and other countries; created tie-dye museums for tourists to visit for free; and actively embraced the outside World, actively participate in intangible cultural heritage exchange activities and television programs at home and abroad; and cooperate with institutions of higher learning, travel agencies and other institutions to launch tie-dye skills experience, tie-dye course training and other projects.

  "We first made tie-dye a business, and then developed it into an industry. Now, we do it as a business." Duan Shukun said.

  Through a series of "fuxin", the Bai people's tie-dye rejuvenated more and more vitality. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists flock to Zhoucheng only to tie-dye for visiting experience. More and more young people in Zhoucheng returned to their hometowns to inherit their skills.

  Duan Shukun's son Duan Yuan and his daughter-in-law Yang Zhirui are among them. 27-year-old Yang Zhirui used to work for a well-known Internet company in Guangzhou. In 2017, she gave up her white-collar life and returned to Zhoucheng.

  "Seeing that more and more young people are wearing tie-dye clothing, I find the infinite possibilities of tie-dye." Today, Yang Zhirui, who is the inheritor of the municipal intangible cultural heritage, uses modern design concepts to develop a series of poles Jane's tie-dye clothing and parent-child clothing products. Duan Yuan is constantly trying new binding methods and dyeing techniques to innovate "Dali Cangshan Erhaiyue" series of works, and is currently applying for a patent.

  In addition to the Duan family, there are many more people in Zhoucheng who are "fuxin" the Bai people. Zhang Hanmin, a Bai youth from the north, returned to his hometown to create the tie-dye brand "Lanxu" and created a series of new tricks and cultural experience projects, which were favored by people in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. But at the same time, she insisted on tie-dyeing with ancient methods, the dyes are pure natural plants such as Radix isatidis, saffron.

  Dali in July has entered the rainy season. In the large and small dye workshops in Zhoucheng, regardless of the sunny and rainy days, the "blue sky and white clouds" composed of tie-dyed cloth will always float. Duan Shukun took his little grandson for a walk under the "blue sky and white clouds". His traditional horseshoe pattern tie-dye waistcoat and the little pig Paige tie-dye pattern on his grandson's T-shirt were in perfect harmony. In front, an old tie-dye cloth fluttered in the wind.

  "This is the ultimate pursuit of our tie-dye people-'Yueyue Blue'. This color cannot be copied, but can only be given to time to settle down. The same is true of inheritance skills." Duan Shukun said. (Finish)