Protection and Transmission of the Fireweed-Ramie Weaving Technique of the Taliu People of the Yi in Yongsheng County, Yunnan

Zi Zhiyue　Liang Rui

Abstract:I. The Distribution of the Taliu People and their Traditional Costume The Taliu people are also called the Talv people; and they call themselves the “Tanusu” or “Talvsu”. In 1956, the Taliu were classified as a branch of the Yi. They mainly live in Yongsheng, and Huaping counties of Yunnan, and Yanbian, and Yanyuan counties of Sichuan. The main community of the Taliu is concentrated in the three village committees of Yinshan, Yushui and Shuanghe, in Liude Yi and Lisu Township, Yongsheng county.The Taliu are an ethnic group who have their own language, but have no writing system. In general, they can speak and write Han Chinese. The “Duoyi”, or the communicators between man and the gods in Taliu society, have a writing system of special pictographic symbols which they use when they hold funerary rituals.

Liude Yi and Lisu Township is located in the southeastern part of Yongsheng county of Lijiang city. It is around 30 kilometers away from the county seat. The township oversees 8 village committees and 71 small village groups; and it covers an area of 330.8 square kilometers. In early 2014, the total population of this township was 14,246 people, among which 6,635 are Lisu, which is 47% of the population; 4,648 are Taliu people of Yi, which is 32% of the population; and 3,214 are Han and other ethnic minorities, which is 21% of the population . Ninty percent of the Taliu have the surnames Chen, Wang, Lan, and Hai.

Clothes woven from fireweed and ramie are a handicraft passed down for generations by the Taliu Yi in Yongsheng County. Due to the lack of relevant historical records, it is not possible for us to date when the Taliu began weaving cloth from fireweed-ramie. In a folk song called the “Taliu dadiao” or the “Great Melody of the Taliu”, which is popular in the Taliu mountainous area, it says that “the baby is waiting to be separated from the body of the mother, the twine used for the umbilical cord is collected from the forest…what will be used to wrap up the baby? Is it possible to use the hemp clothes of the parents? The hemp clothes are prepared from the flowers by the parents; the hamp clothes are made of the hemp produced by the mother; the hemp clothes are woven from the fireweed collected by the father; the beautiful hemp clothes are filled with the love from the parents.” In addition, in the cluster of Taliu ancient tomb stones located in the three administrative villages of Yinshan, Yushui and Shanhe, there are 6,300 graves of the Yu clan of the Taliu people dating from the Wanli period of the Ming dynasty to the early years of the Republican era. Many fireweed patterns are carved on these tombstones. From this, we can note that fireweed is not only closely related to the daily life of the Taliu, but that a weaving technique using fireweed must also have a very ancient history.

The traditional costume of Taliu people differs stylistically according to age differences among these differences, those differences in female costume are quite obvious. The traditional male costume of the Taliu can be divided into “short attire”, ritual costume and funeral costume. The female costumes are mainly divided into children餾 clothes, young girl餾 clothes, young women餾 clothes and adult clothes.

II. An Intangible Cultural Heritage— Taliu People餾 Fireweed-Ramie Weaving Technique

According to literary records, among the ethnic minorities in southwestern China, there is a tradition of using the leaves of wild plants as a material for weaving. This includes the Naxi, Zhuang, Miao, Lisu, Nu, etc. The cloth made from fireweed-ramie not only has the quality of warmth provided by the fireweed, but it also is pliable and tough, a quality provided by the ramie. Hence, the Taliu have a tradition of making clothes using fireweed and ramie.

In the long history of production and living customs among the Chinese people, the weaving techniques of the people in the ancient time went through three stages: the first is the primitive hand woven stage. People collected materials from their surrounding areas; they collected Pueraria lobota, fibre, wild silk, the feather of birds and animals to weave; the second stage is the use of hand driven machines to weave cloth.In this stage, the weaving tools gradually changed into a kind of hand driven mechanized system with spindles, spinning reels , and spinning wheels ; the third stage is when the weaving process developing into one using machines. During this time, many forms of handcrafted machines appeared, for instances, the reel wheel and spinning wheel developed from being hand-operated style to foot-operated style, and the system of using single spindles developed to using double or multi spindles. In this way, production efficiency was improved. The Taliu people餾 fireweed-ramie weving technique includes thirteen different procedures , for example, peeling the ramie, scraping the ramie, washing the ramie, making ramie threads, boiling the ramie threads, weaving, etc. Twine processing is very complicated. Traditionally it was said that “there are 74 procedures for processing twine”. However, processing fireweed is relatively simple.

III. Challenges for the Protection and Transmission of the Taliu People餾 Fireweed-Ramie Weaving Technique

In the Taliu villages of Yongsheng, there are no special teachers who teach the fireweed-ramie weaving technique; most people learn this technique through transmission within the family. The Taliu believe that weaving is not only a technique for production and daily living, but it is also an important criterion for evaluating whether or not a girl is virtuous. Because the clothes made from fireweed-ramie are closely related with the rituals of life and daily life of the Taliu, the fireweed-ramie weaving technique has been preserved up to the present time.

The fireweed-ramie weaving technique of the Taliu people takes fireweed and ramie as the raw material, and it is completely a traditional handwoven technique. The clothes, no matter for male or women, use black and white as its main colors, mixed with some other colors. The clothes have a strong ornamental value as well as a research value. Hence, Taliu costumes have been collected by the museums of Central Nationalitiy University of China, of Yunnan University, and even the British Museum, the Russian State Museum, etc. The costume of the Taliu is gradually working its way out of the isolated mountain villages, and is becoming known and accepted by more and more tourists and researchers both home and abroad. At the same time, with the promotion and effort of the local cultural elites and local government, in 2009, the fireweed-ramie weaving technique of the Taliu was inscribed in the second group of the Yunnan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List. This established a good platform for the protection and transmission of this weaving technique. At present, many households in Taliu village, including Shuanghe and Yinshan, have preserved the wooden-frame looms which are around 1.8 meters high and 2.0 meters width. If we step into the courtyards of the Taliu during the sixth and seventh lunar months, we can still see Taliu women spinning and weaving here and there.

However, following the improvement of the living conditions of the Taliu, and changes in the natural environment, both the traditional way of production and values of the Taliu have changed. This has brought a serious challenge to the continuation of the Taliu people餾 fireweed-ramie weaving techniques. The main causes are:

1) the reduction of raw material. On one hand, because of serious deforestation, the gradual destruction of the natural vegetation and serious soil erosion in Taliu area, the natural ecology on which the Taliu people餾 traditional weaving craft depends, is gradually worsening. As a result, the production of fireweed is gradually being reduced. Hence, it is not easy to get enough raw material for the traditional woven needs. On the other hand, due to low production, the Taliu also reduced their planting of ramie. Hence, it is possible that the Taliu餾 fireweed-ramie weaving technique will gradually be lost.

2) the relatively complicated production process. Taliu traditional weaving primarily depends on a self-sufficient family economic unit. In general, the cloth is not used for market exchange. In other words, it has not yet become part of industrial production. As an intangible cultural heritage technique, the production process is very complicated. Moreover, the cost of production is very high, and it is very time consuming. When new kinds of production for articles of daily use, which use synthetic fabrics, entered the common people餾 homes, traditional weaving is gradually replaced by less expensive textiles which are mass produced. This, to a certain degree, has limited the transmission of the Taliu people餾 fireweed-ramie weaving techniques.

3) the changes in values. Following the gradual improvement of the Taliu餾 living conditions; the frequent communication with other ethnic peoples; and the influence of the modern life style, the values and aesthetic ideals of the younger generation of the Taliu also changed. Except during ethnic festivals, weddings and funerals, not many young Taliu wear their traditional ethnic costume in daily life, and they do not want to spend time leaning traditional weaving. This has greatly impacted the transmission of the Taliu people餾 fireweed-ramie weaving technique.

4) the appearance of a “break”in the line of transmission. According to statistics, during the recent 20 years, many young Taliu have left their villages to find jobs in Lijiang, Kunming and other cities. Some Taliu girls even married outside, and do not come back to their villages. At present, it is mostly middle-aged women who take the responsibility of weaving, for example, as seen in Shuanghe village. The number of young women who engage in traditional weaving has become less and less. Hence, the line of transmission for Taliu fireweed-ramie techniques is in danger - there could be no qualified successors

IV. Some Thoughts on the Protection and Transmission of the Taliu People餾 Fireweed-Ramie Weaving Technique

This fireweed-ramie technique is the crystallization of Taliu production and life practice, and it is an important part of Chinese cultural heritage. It is also an important marker for maintaining the local social historical memory, and cultural identity, and is a kind of non-renewable cultural resource. If we do not take efficient measures to protect it, it might be in danger of disappearing.This article thinks that the following aspects should be of concern with regard to the protection and transmission of Taliu fireweed-ramie weaving technique.

1) Fully engage the guiding role of the government for ethnic cultural protection.

The government should take the leading role in cultural protection.

2) Be concerned with the living cultural inheritors among the Taliu folk

The inheritors are important carriers and transmittors of intangible cultural heritage—they are not only a living treasure of intangible cultural heritage, but also the representatives for the transmission of intangible cultural heritage. Hence, if this weaving technique of the Taliu needs to be passed on, governmental institutes on various levels must provide necessary attention, and a living subsidy to the living weavers so as to ensure that they have energy for training pupils.

3) Enhance the cultural consciousness of the Taliu community for protecting their ethnic culture.

Intangible cultural protection should firstly be a kind of cultural consciousness of the people, and should be practiced by the whole society. Hence, On the premise of clear government dominated principle, we must constantly strengthen consciousness of Taliu cadres and masses of the Taliu, and help more Taliu cadres be aware of the necessity and importance of the safeguarding and transmission of intangible cultural heritage.Doing so will enhance their ethnic pride and ethnic confidence, and promote the sustainable development of the Taliu people餾 traditional woven techniques.

4) Strengthen public information regarding the protection of Taliu ethnic culture

We should take efficient measurements to strengthen public information regarding the protection of Taliu culture, and by doing so enable more Taliu and people in the outside world understand Taliu culture, be concerned about Taliu culture, and construct a good social atmosphere which will be good for the protection and inheritance of Taliu intangible cultural heritage.

In conclusion, fireweed-ramie weaving technique is a “l(fā)iving culture” which has been passed down by the Taliu for generations. It is the crystallization of the precious wealth and wisdom of the Taliu during the long process of their history. Hence, protecting and making good use of this weaving technique will provide significant meaning to ethnic unity, social stability, and the preservation of ethnic cultural diversity in ethnic minority areas

Key Words: Taliu people; fireweed-ramie cloth; woven techniques; protection and transmission

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