Ancient, dating back over 3,000 years to the Neolithic
traditional crafts
UNESCO Intangible Heritage
South China
active
The traditional textile techniques of the Li people on Hainan Island encompass spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery using local cotton and wild ramie fibers. Li women cultivate cotton, extract indigo and other natural dyes, and weave on waist looms. The iconic Li brocade features geometric patterns and totemic motifs — dragons, birds, and human figures — representing Li cosmology. The double-face embroidery technique is a particular specialty.
Skills & Techniques
Silk Reeling and Weaving expand_more
The traditional process of cultivating silkworms, harvesting cocoons, reeling silk filaments, and weaving them into fabric on hand-operated looms.
Steps
- Cultivate mulberry trees and raise silkworms on fresh leaves
- Harvest cocoons and sort by quality
- Boil cocoons to soften sericin and reel silk filaments
- Twist filaments into thread and dye with natural pigments
- Set up a handloom with warp threads
- Weave the weft thread through the warp to create fabric
Tools
reeling frame, dye vat, handloom, shuttle, bobbins, scales
Materials
silkworm cocoons, mulberry leaves, natural dyes (indigo, madder, gardenia)
Related Places
Relationship Constellation
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