The lost "Mo Nie" technique revives Guangxi Zhuang sachets and fragrances overseas

　　Chinanews.com, Baise, November 16th, title: The lost "Moye" technique revives the fragrance of Guangxi Zhuang sachets overseas

　　Author Huang Lingyan Wang Yizhao Zhang Wenqian

　　"The customs of the Zhuang people singing folk songs and using medicinal herbs and spices are very similar to those in Thailand. It is these ancient cultures that have been passed down from generation to generation and preserved until now, so that more people can understand and like them." Live blogger, Guangxi University China-ASEAN Thai Lulu, an assistant researcher at the Thailand Research Institute of the Institute, said on the 16th.

　　On the same day, overseas mainstream media, overseas Chinese media reporters, and foreign self-media people from 17 countries and regions including the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cambodia entered the Guangxi Baise Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Hall to experience the unique local ethnicity culture.

The picture shows foreigners walking into the Guangxi Baise Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Hall.

Photo by Lin Jieqi

　　In the intangible cultural heritage experience hall, the air is filled with a strong smell of wormwood.

Stuffed with medicinal herbs, stuffed tightly, and then closed and sewn, each round and full "Mei Mie" with no stitches was formed in the hands of Zhuang women.

"We supply to South Korea, the United Kingdom and Southeast Asian countries, and we have to rush to make thousands of them for export." Intangible cultural heritage inheritor Mai Qiongfang told reporters.

　　"Mo Nie" is a transliteration of the Zhuang language, meaning "God and Mother".

This thing is a folk auspicious sachet unique to the Youjiang River Basin in western Guangxi. In the past, during the Dragon Boat Festival, it was used to soothe the nerves, calm the shock, ward off evil spirits and detoxify, attract all kinds of blessings, and eliminate evil.

　　The shape of "Mo Nie" comes from the ancient legend of the Zhuang nationality.

The ancestors of the Zhuang nationality used cloth to make accessories in the style of "a person holding a dragon ball" to worship and commemorate the young Bohuang of the Zhuang nationality who found the sun for the dragon, and prayed for the sun and the dragon god to bless them for generations.

With the change of society, the skill of "Mo Nie" has gradually declined among the people.

The picture shows the finished "Mo Nie".

Photo by Huang Lingyan

　　Mai Qiongfang, who learned embroidery and other traditional crafts from her mother since childhood, became very interested in the making skills of "Mo Nie" in the process of getting familiar with local customs and culture.

In 2007, together with a group of women who are good at traditional handicrafts, Mai Qiongfang began to try to make this kind of sachet.

　　In order to rejuvenate the national handicrafts, Mai Qiongfang consulted old books, and went as far as the National Library of China in Beijing to obtain information from historical records about the ancient Baiyue area, and then tried to restore "Mo Nie" according to the dictation of the local elders The face of crafts, and with the help of some scholars, dig out its cultural connotations.

"'Mo Mie' is a part of the Zhuang culture, and it should be passed on and promoted well," said Mai Qiongfang.

　　The production of traditional "Mo Nie" is very particular.

"You should first dry the fresh wormwood, calamus, chrysanthemum, atractylodes, lavender and more than ten kinds of aromatherapy herbs, and mix the spices according to your needs." Mai Qiongfang introduced that sewing also requires skills. "What" will take a day or two.

If you don't do well, you have to undo the stitches and start over.

　　"In the past, every family used old cloth to sew 'Mo Nie', and simply tied it with hemp rope." In order to make it conform to modern aesthetics, Mai Qiongfang upgraded the surface cloth of "Mo Nie" to a more exquisite Zhuang brocade fabric, and designed frogs, etc. Zhuang-inspired pattern with colorful tassels.

On the basis of the classic shape of "single hug", she added styles such as "double hug" and "three hug".

The single "Moye" sachet has also developed into a series of products such as "Moye" pendants, earrings, etc., which are loved by the public.

The picture shows women making "Mo Mie".

Photo by Huang Lingyan

　　In 2012, "Youjiang Zhuang nationality's Moye production technique" was included in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region-level intangible cultural heritage list, and Mai Qiongfang also became the representative inheritor of this technique.

　　Mai Qiongfang is committed to spreading the intangible cultural heritage of the Zhuang nationality.

Before the epidemic, she was invited to go abroad every year to tell stories about Guangxi's national culture.

This move also helped the ancient "Mo Nie" to open up overseas sales.

"There are a lot of orders from abroad. If we rush to work, we are afraid that the workmanship will not be up to standard, so we can only give up some of them." She said.

　　Enthusiastic about public welfare for 50 years, Mai Qiongfang used to collect old clothes, buy food, and carry it to the countryside on a shoulder pole to bring it to the villagers in need.

After she founded the intangible cultural heritage experience center in 2019, she immediately thought of developing the "fingertip economy" and carrying out training in ethnic handicrafts. So far, she has helped more than 400 housewives earn income by hand-making "Mei Mie".

　　Over the years, Mai Qiongfang has brought the intangible cultural heritage culture into the campus, and led the students to experience the "Mo Nie" skill.

She said: "In the process of listening to folk stories and learning to make handicrafts, children deeply feel the beauty of our national traditional culture. This is what I hope to see most."

　　As a province rich in intangible cultural heritage resources in China, Guangxi currently has 70 national-level intangible cultural heritage representative projects and 914 autonomous region-level intangible cultural heritage representative projects, ranking among the top in China.

Guangxi has established 9 autonomous region-level cultural and ecological protection areas, 415 intangible cultural heritage protection work platforms including intangible cultural heritage exhibition centers and learning bases (museums, institutes), a total of 26 traditional craft workstations and nearly 100 intangible cultural heritage Image, gourmet experience store.

　　In recent years, Guangxi officials have actively explored the development model of "intangible cultural heritage + cultural tourism". The relic products "fly into the homes of ordinary people", and even travel across the ocean and sell them all over the world.

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