【Commentary】Safflower, lotus leaves, gardenias, walnut peels, turmeric... The plants and Chinese herbs seen in the Longyuan Qiaoshou of the Gansu Provincial Women and Children's Center are not for edible or medicinal purposes, but are the source of the color of the cloth tie-dye. Wang Chunyuan, a "post-80s" tie-dye promoter in Dingxi City, Gansu Province, initially worked in relation to clothing production, and after coming into contact with ancient tie-dyeing, she was attracted by the ancient clothing dyeing technique and became a practitioner of tie-dyeing technology and a promoter of this intangible cultural heritage. And she also took a fancy to Dingxi, known as the "world's medicine warehouse", which has high-quality authentic medicinal materials and rich variety advantages that can be used for fiber dyeing, so she is committed to excavating the artistry of tie-dye by combining the local cultural characteristics of Gansu, so that more people can understand the art of tie-dye and Gansu culture.
【Contemporaneous】Tie dye promoter Wang Chunyuan
When everyone talks about tie-dyeing, the first thing that comes to mind is Yunguichuan's blue dyeing. No one would have thought that in Gansu, more than three colors of color dyeing can be carried out through plants. So are the sachets and purses that you often see red, purple and green? I also hope that more people can see from the aspect of tie-dyeing, through the hydrangeas we make, it turns out that our sachets and purses can actually have different beauty, and can also be presented in different colors, in addition, we want to let more people know and understand our local folklore in Gansu and our local culture in Gansu. In fact, we in Gansu really have a lot of land and everything, but it just depends on whether we dig it carefully.
【Commentary】Open tie-dye experience classes, explain tie-dyeing processes to students, regularly promote online and answer various questions of netizens about tie-dyeing. In addition, in recent years, Wang Chunyuan and her team have been committed to making cultural and creative products with Gansu elements, such as clothing, luggage accessories, and various exquisite tie-dye decorative paintings through ancient tie-dye techniques. Its products are not only loved by local consumers, but also increase orders from overseas customers such as Japan.
【Contemporaneous】Tie dye promoter Wang Chunyuan
So some of our cultural and creative products you see actually have some Dunhuang elements, including on our cultural bags, and we also do a lot of Gansu local shadow puppets, paper cuttings and our (Lanzhou) water wheels. That is to say, I want more people to understand that in fact, our Gansu is also beautiful, and our Lanzhou is also beautiful. In fact, everyone has seen many big brands in the past two years are also making tie-dyed fabrics, as well as tie-dyed T-shirts and sweatshirts, but the price is not cheap. Since (tie-dye) is our traditional Chinese culture, we want to popularize it to more people at a price that is acceptable to the public.
【Commentary】As a female enterprise manager, Wang Chunyuan realized that it is not easy for women to be wives and mothers in work and life, and in 2019, Wang Chunyuan and her team established a dyeing and vascular textile poverty alleviation base in Zhangxian County, Dingxi with the concept of "accompanying students to find employment at the doorstep" in Zhangxian County, Dingxi, driving more than 200 left-behind women to find employment. From Suzhou and other places, embroiderers were invited to Zhangxian for training, teaching local women embroidery, tie-dye and other skills, hoping that their lives would improve while inheriting the non-genetic inheritance of tie-dye.
【Contemporaneous】Tie dye promoter Wang Chunyuan
At the beginning, the workshop was relatively quiet, everyone could not hear a little bit of chatting with each other, so now that everyone goes to work with laughter, some people will go to work to let go of the music, everyone listens to the music and sings. After all, they also generate income themselves, and after generating income, they have self-confidence.
【Commentary】Wang Chunyuan said that the next step is to build Longyuan Qiaoshou Museum into Longyuan Qiaoshou Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop, and jointly develop and produce "women" handicraft products with representatives of Longyuan women's crafts from all over the world, attracting more tourists to experience the intangible cultural heritage craft production process.
Wang Muyu reports from Lanzhou, Gansu
Responsible Editor: [Luo Pan]