The staff of Jiangsu Nantong Blue Calico Museum displayed the blue calico zodiac sheep mascot. Photo provided by interviewee
Xinhua News Agency, Nanjing, May 19th (Reporter Yang Dingmiao) "Click, click..." Accompanied by the sound of traditional looms, a wooden shuttle shuttled back and forth in the hands of an old man. Thousands of spinning threads intersect on the loom, and the three or five tourists who stop by the side watch it with gusto.
This is the Blue Printed Cloth Museum located on the bank of Hao River in Nantong, Jiangsu. The old man is the mother of the curator Wu Yuanxin. Although she is 90 years old, she still often shows the traditional weaving skills to tourists. Since its establishment in 1996, this folk museum has changed its location three times. In the process of exploration and growth, the museum has become a "blue and white world" guarded by four generations.
Nantong is known far and wide as the "hometown of cultural and museum ", not only Nantong Museum known as "the first modern museum in China", but also a community of more than 20 museums.
Ni Shenjian, Wu Lingshu and Wu Yuanxin (from left to right), inheritors of blue calico production technology, discuss the design of new products. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
The Blue Calico Museum is one of them. Blue calico is a traditional Chinese squeegee and anti-dyeing calico. It originated in Tang and Song Dynasties and flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Wu Yuanxin almost spent his childhood in a dyeing workshop. His mother spun and weaved cloth, and his father slashed and dyed thread. He has been closely related to blue calico all his life. When he grew up, he entered the local printing and dyeing factory as an apprentice, and was admitted to Yixing Ceramic Industry School to study. After his skills matured, he resolutely resigned from the well-paid unit and devoted all he had to build a blue calico museum.
"The unique charm of blue calico lies in the variety of patterns and rich cultural connotations." Wu Yuanxin introduced that the pattern of blue calico organically combines dots, lines and planes. If there is a picture, it must be intentional, and if it is intentional, it must be auspicious, expressing the people's desire for a better life Pursue and yearn for.
opened the curtains in the exhibition hall, and rows of two-person-high wooden shelves were filled with fabrics, all of which were old blue calico collected from the people. "I found a rare pattern once, and when I rushed to the scene, I found that it had been buried with the old man who died." Wu Yuanxin told reporters that this experience made him realize the significance of "rescue excavation". The elders of the blue calico were basically born in the 1920s and 1930s. If they are not recovered, most of the blue calico will eventually disappear.
Over the years, Wu Yuanxin has traveled to major blue calico production areas such as the Yangtze River Delta and Hunan, and collected more than 30,000 physical remains and pictures of blue calico and folk color printing since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with more than 100,000 patterns.
Today, these patterns are not only used for collection, but also provide convenience for research. In recent years, Wu Yuanxin has undertaken a number of national key projects, and has published more than 10 monographs such as "Chinese Blue Printed Cloth Pattern Encyclopedia" and "Chinese Traditional Folk Printing and Dyeing Techniques".
For a long time, the survival of Chinese folk museums has always been troubled: although there is general government support, how to maintain and pass it on is a difficult problem that most folk museums have always had to solve. Wu Yuanxin believes that in addition to ensuring the interesting science popularization function of the museum, the ability of self-hematopoiesis is particularly important.
"The production and sales of cultural and creative products to ensure the collection and research of 'productive protection' have proved feasible." Wu Yuanxin has developed a series of "Yuan new blue " such as blue calico clothing, dolls, and mobile phone cases Cultural and creative products are deeply loved by the public, and the profits are enough to maintain the operation of the museum.
Wu Yuanxin demonstrates the squeegeeing skills of blue calico. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Dingmiao
Wu Yuanxin’s daughter Wu Lingshu gave up the opportunity to develop in Beijing after graduating from the graduate student of the China Academy of Arts, and returned to her hometown of Haohe, becoming the sixth generation successor of the Wu family; The apprentice began to learn the art of dyeing cloth, and has been awarded the "Jiangsu Provincial Master of Skills". The joining of
young people has injected more innovative fashion elements into the traditional blue calico technique. Wu Lingshu, who was born and raised in the blue-and-white world, has mastered traditional techniques such as engraving, printing, and dyeing early on. In her opinion, the pursuit of current training is not only to learn skills, but also to improve concepts, thinking and knowledge structure.
Wu Yuanxin’s little granddaughter, Wu Shuran, grew up in the museum. She started learning engraving and tie-dyeing at the age of 6. Now she often introduces blue calico patterns to visiting children.Xiang meaning.
In this folk museum where four generations live together, blue calico has long been a part of their family. What the younger generation inherits is exactly what the elders pursue - to pass on national memory and cultural heritage from generation to generation.