Non-Engraving Products

Ying Xinxun& Liu Jiajing

In 1925, Liu Zongyue coined the word “Minyi”, which is an abbreviation of “Minzhong gongyi”, and translated this word as “folk art”. Then, he found that the word “art” was so professional that he invented a new word “folk-craft”. From this process, we may understand that “craft” is totally different from “art”. It should be argued that the Folk-Craft Movement led by Mr. Liu was started on the basis of the discovery of the value of “non-engraving products” instead of “engraving products”. The movement tried to upset the common values that “talents” were better than “craftsmen”.

The so-called “non-engraving product” denotes those handmade products without being engraved with the names of makers. It declares to return to normality, to give up identity and to enter the freedom of the products. The products thus are not the work of anyone, but it can be the work of everyone. There is an open standpoint without fixed perspective, worship or contempt. Makers, viewers and products can return to the state of freedom by viewing and touching the products directly. Among all art activities of humankind, the signature standing for self-consciousness actually appeared rather late. Non-engraving products do not lack for the imagination and spectacular beauty of the daily life. The exhibited multi-layered cotton shoes, woven ribbons and dyed blue cloths cover only a small part of non-engraving products. These things are just bare necessities of our everyday life, originated from the daily life of makers and users. Therefore, there is no weakness or hypocrisy within them. What they have is calmness or the beauty of normality. Of course, this“beauty of nature” comprises a series of happiness and warmth in daily life, like a stable living environment, steady income, harmonious relations with others and a sound state of mind.

Dyed Blue Cloth from Fanpai Village in Southeast of Guizhou Province

For women in Fanpai Village, cloth dyeing is an essential household duty besides farming, cooking and other housework. They immerse the bluegrass (isatis root) they grow in a vat and the water will become blue and green in three days. Then, they fish out the bluegrass and wait the water to become indigo. Finally, they add lime powder and charcoal water to it. A vat of indigo water can be used to dye cloth for a whole family. Those cotton-woven fabrics, 30-40 centimeters wide and 10 meters long approximately, will become deep indigo with a little bit aubergine after being immersed, rinsed and aired for over 10 times. The last step is to boil cowhide until it melts and make it permeate into dyed cloths. Having washed off redundant cowhide, they air the cloths and beat the cloths with a stick to make them smooth, tough and glossy.

The originally soft and thin cloths are changed totally into tough ones with deep color. Fanpai villagers make use of the gift given by the nature smartly, combining plants and animals into mysterious indigo with aubergine and black. Also, women in Fanpai Village weave their love into these cloths and give them to their loved ones with best wishes.

Colored Ribbon from She Minority in Jingning, Zhejiang Province

The colored ribbon is an important accessory of She people’s traditional costumes. It can be belts, suspenders, love tokens among younger generations, dowry or mascot to exorcise evil spirits, undertaking utility functions in daily life. In a bad year a person who can weave colored ribbons may be able to feed the whole family.

Most of the colored ribbons in Jingning are woven by silk and sometimes by cotton yarn or ramie. At first, there was no specific looms for ribbon weaving. Whenever and wherever women are free, they may fasten one side of the thread on a chair, desk, pillar or even a tree and fasten the other side to their waist. Then, they sit on a stool to start weaving, which is quite flexible.

In the past, a mother would teach her daughter the way of weaving colored ribbons when she was six or seven years old. Different patterns that include their ancestors’ blessings in ancient times would also be passed on by mothers through oral instruction. It is in this intimate way that “ideogrammatic characters” last over thousands of years integrat into their genes.

Multi-layered Cotton Shoes with Embroidery Flowers from Fengxiang in Baoji, Shaanxi Province

According to the tradition in Central Shaanxi Plain, women need to make shoes for important members in her future husband’s family. After the wedding ceremony, the bride needs to distribute the shoes she made and those who get the shoes must try them on immediately and make comments on them. Making shoes not only shows the craftsmanship of the bride but also shows that the bride will respect the old and cherish the young after the wedding and get along well with the whole family.

In Fengxiang, where the “hands of women” are regarded as a major feature, women make soles in various ways. Making soles by hand is time-consuming. Every sole needs at least 25 layers of cloths. From clipping and sketching to thread twisting, each step requires great patience. In Fengxiang, during slack farming seasons, women still make shoes for their husbands and children, although those children may be reluctant to wear those “out-of-fashion” shoes nowadays. Shoemakers believe that hard as the life is, everyone should wear a pair of suitable shoes which stands for a down-to-earth spirit. They feel that our feet in earth should be as beautiful as our face in air.

Oral History of Ordinary People

For half a year, we have visited many places and interviewed people including villages of Miao Minority in southeast of Guizhou Province, inheritors of intangible cultural heritage Dai Brocade in Xishuangbanna, masters of cross-stitch works in Hani Minority, collectors of clothes of She Minority in Jingning and farm women who make shoes in Fengxiang. There is a trend that those well-known folk handicrafts are becoming applied arts in a positive way. The cost of marketization and standardization of patterns is the disappearance of wits and warmth behind those handmade works. Thus, we have this exhibition in which we excerpt a short part of our field interview so as to share with you and to help you to reflect upon it. In other words, things that deserve more attention are not those splendid and magnificent “traditional clothes” but those “non-engraving products” existing in our daily life even today.