The beautiful land of western Hunan Province where the mountains vie with each other for beauty and clear streams cross has been home to Tujia and Miao since ancient times.Built on a hill,the ancient town of Fenghuang(meaning,“phoenix”)is a lustrous pearl in this land of mountains and rivers.The quiet stone-slab paved streets,the old bamboo houses,the ripples on the clear rivers,clouds and fog atop the mountains evoke a perfect freehand Chinese ink painting.You may go boating on the river,enjoy the lights of the fishing boats,sit in the bamboo houses lit with red lanterns and appreciate the unique taste of cured meat of Tujia.You may also wander in the street of handicrafts,pass through a forest of f lying f lags of the dye houses and feel the ancient charm of the folk arts.
The ancient town of Fenghuang is a perfect marriage of natural beauty and rich resources of talent.
Walking the black stone-slab paved str eet in Fenghuang you can see shops on both sides,all rich in local flavor:bundle-dyed cloth,wax-dyed cloth,print cloth,workshops with silver adornments,etc.Many shop signs are made of wax-printed cloth and bundle-dyed cloth.Among the numerous folk arts of Phoenix,wax print and bundle-dyed cloth will be shared here.
Wax print is a traditional printing and dyeing handicraft of China with a long history.As far back as the Qin and Han dynasties,the ancestors of such ethnic groups as the Miao,the Yao,and the Bouyi in southwest China had already grasped the skills of wax printing.The wax is used to prevent some of the cloth from being dyed.First,wax is spread on white cloth with a special knife dipped in melted wax;the cloth is then placed in a vat with indigo.Because the waxed areas cannot be dyed,
upon removing the wax,patterns will emerge.Corkwood
carved with various patterns or molds made with hard paper boards are placed on white cloth and molten wax is poured into the molds.When the wax is dry,the cloth is placed into an indigo vat to be dyed and then air-dried.In wax printing there is a resulting“ice pattern,”caused when the wax breaks away from the cloth.
The master hand in making wax prints in Fenghuang is a man nicknamed“Big Gun Liu.”He makes extremely meticulous printing blocks.Even though it takes more than a month to make just one block,he will discard it after only 10 prints.Liu’s dyeing skill is superb.He may judge whether the color is right from just dipping his hand in the vat and watching the water drip.The wax-dyeing of folk artist Xiong Chengzao of Fenghuang is special,too,and he is good at painting as well.His wax prints achieve the effect of painting,for example,brilliantly portraying a bamboo house’s reflection in
water,a town covered in snow and hazy rays at sunrise.
Bundle-dyeing is a companion art of wax printing
—similar in principle but different in craftsmanship.Bundle-dyeing highlights hand binding of cloth.Bundled white cloth is dyed and rinsed in clear water;and then the ropes are untied and the bundle is rinsed and air-dried.The areas where the cloth was not bound are dyed and the tied areas form white patterns.The combined binding and dyeing skills create mutable designs of amazing aesthetic charm.
The best-known artists in bundle-dyeing in Fenghuang are Zhang Guiying and Wu Huahua.Bundle-dyeing in the past included designs that consisted of just dots and lines,and only two colors,blue and white;therefore,the printed cloth appeared dull.Zhang Guiying invented the skill of“grey surface,”that is,creating a color between
blue and white,thus achieving gradations in color,which
made the design more expressive.A Wedding Procession of Rats represents the work of Zhang Guiying.The design shows four charmingly naive rats carrying a sedan chair, in which a rat bride is seated. In this work Zhang Guiying has applied the “grey surface” skill, resulting in strong color gradations and dramatic hues.Zhang Guiying’s shop,which sells bundle-dyed works,sits next to the shop of wax-dyeing master Xiong Chengzao.Her small shop is like a museum of bundle-dyeing works,ranging from tiny handkerchiefs to artworks of four or five meters.Because of their high artistry,her works command ready sale;one was auctioned at 100,000 yuan by Hunan satellite television station.In 1999,one of her works won an honorary gold prize at the Second International Competition of Chinese Artists,and the shop she runs is one of the few bundle-dyeing workshops that sell art works.
Fenghuang,an ancient town with clear rivers and green hills,has bred rich and colorful folk arts, and the locally born and bred folk artists have endowed the handicraft industry with new colors and added vitality to the old town.