▲Li brocade production, which combines tradition and fashion
In the scenic spots, museums, and villages of the Li nationality in Hainan, people often see such a scene: the "Weaver Girl" dressed in the traditional costume of the Li nationality sits on the ground, and the splendid embroidery is slowly generated between the warp and weft of the fingers and the colored threads...... As the crystallization of the wisdom of the Li people in Hainan, Li Jin is one of the oldest cotton textile dyeing and embroidery skills in China and even in the world, and is known as the "living fossil" of the textile industry. As early as 3,000 years ago, the Li people began to use the spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills, and the Li brocade that has been inherited to this day condenses and transmits the historical memory, common emotions and experience wisdom of the nation and the region.
Millennial Li Jin, unique charm
Long before the Han Dynasty, Li Jin, with its exquisite patterns and fine workmanship, became a tribute to the imperial court. In addition to being favored by dignitaries, Li Jin is also loved by ordinary people. Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty wrote "Guihai Yu Heng Zhi" recorded: "Li Dan, also woven by Li people, blue and red road kapok silk also, Guilin people buy it as bedding." It can be seen that Li Jin was a hot-selling commodity at that time.
Li Jin has the characteristics of exquisite production, bright colors, color matching and, exquisite patterns and patterns, birds and beasts, flowers and plants, and characters are lifelike, and the dyes are mainly taken from wild or domestic plants in the mountains, which are fresh and not easy to fade. As far as the patterns are concerned, Li Jin has more than 100 kinds of patterns such as horses, deer, snakes, chickens, turtle doves, frogs, peacocks, bamboo, rice, flowers, water, clouds, stars, etc., most of which are composed of straight lines, parallel lines and geometric figures such as squares, triangles, and diamonds. In terms of color, Li Jin is good at using light and dark colors, and blue, red, black, white and other colors cooperate with each other to form an artistic effect with strong color contrast
Li Jin is mainly cotton thread, supplemented by twine, silk thread and gold and silver thread, interwoven into the material, its skills to weaving embroidery, weaving and dyeing, weaving flowers, embroidery less. When making Li Jin, the warp is mostly dyed by valerian dyeing (i.e., tie-dyeing), the warp is braided on a tie frame, and then the yarn is knotted on the warp, and the yarn is removed after dyeing, that is, the "blue ground and white flower" pattern appears, and then woven into the colored weft. The Li people in various places have also created a variety of weaving, dyeing and embroidery techniques according to their own preferences. For example, the Li people of Baisha County have a kind of double-sided processing of color embroidery, which is exquisitely made and colorful, and is known as Hainan's "double-sided embroidery".
Li Jin can be used to make skirts, blouses, trousers, sheets, headscarves, belts, hanging bags, shawls, shoes and hats, etc. The beautiful Li Jin works show the creative talent and artistic attainments of the women of the Li nationality, and embody their hard work and wisdom. It is understood that it often takes three or four months or even longer to complete a complete set of Li Jin costumes. The craftsmanship of Li Jin is done by hand, and the textile tools are also made with ancient equipment, such as hand-rubbed deseeded cross sticks, wooden hand-cranked ginning machines, pedal spinning machines and looms.
Li Jin skills developed in inheritance
Like many intangible cultural heritages, Li Jin was once a skill that lived in daily life, but with the passage of time, it has become an art that needs to be inherited and protected, facing the problems of who will inherit, who will design, and who will promote.
Fu Xiuying, the provincial representative inheritor of the traditional Li nationality spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills who lives in Baisha Li Autonomous County, has encountered confusion: the traditional Li Jin skills are mainly used to make clothing, and the Li Jin clothing that takes a long time and has a high price has few buyers except for the collection and display of high-end people. How can Li Jin's skills be inherited and carried forward? To this end, Fu Xiuying continued to think and explore, and found a solution: she produced bookmarks, coin purses, canvas shoes and other products with Li Jin elements, ranging from a few yuan to several hundred yuan, so that Li Jin's skills can be revitalized through fashionable and practical products. Fu Xiuying said that when the product is welcomed by the market, the students and farmers who make Li Jin have the motivation to further invest in it, which is an important condition for the inheritance and development of Li Jin's skills.
"Li Jin should not only be placed in museums or Weaver Girl's home, but should be combined with traditional elements and modern design to enter the lives of more people." Guo Kai, chairman of Hainan Jinxiu Weaving Shell Industrial Co., Ltd., who has been associated with Li Jin for more than ten years and has been committed to the industrialization of Li Jin, also said. According to reports, the company's main Li Jin peripheral products up to more than 2,000 kinds, scarves, silk scarves, jewelry, bags, murals and cheongsams made of Li Jin are well received by the market.
The inheritance and development of Li Jin is inseparable from a sound protection and inheritance mechanism. It is understood that Hainan Province has formulated a series of measures to strengthen the systematic protection and creative transformation and innovative development of Li Jin, including improving the construction of provincial Li cultural and ecological reserves, strengthening the identification and management of Li Jin inheritors, and encouraging socialized forces to organize and carry out Li Jin creative design training that meets the needs of market consumption, which not only overcomes the problem of lack of successors faced by Li Jin inheritance, but also further builds a platform for Li Jin inheritance and injects impetus into making Li Jin brand bigger and stronger.
In 2006, the traditional spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills of the Li nationality were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, and in 2009, they were included in the first batch of "intangible cultural heritage in urgent need of protection" list of UNESCO. In 2019, the traditional spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery skills of the Li nationality entered the UNESCO headquarters and held an exhibition. Li Jin has also appeared at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference for many years and presented it to guests at home and abroad as a "national gift", allowing the world to discover and perceive its unique charm.
Tell the story of Hainan to the world
Hainan Lijin has precipitated the collective memory of generations of people, and has also continuously provided new momentum for the integration of culture and tourism and industrial development. With a history of thousands of years, Hainan Lijin has continuously glowed with the brilliance of the new era through effective exploration.
Nowadays, fashionable, trendy, young, and internationally designed Li Jin cultural and creative products, such as handbags, coin purses, bookmarks, table runners, improved clothing, etc., as beautiful and practical characteristic souvenirs, into Hainan's major tourist attractions, popular business districts and airports. At the same time, through the holding of the Li Jin Cultural and Creative Design Competition, supporting Li Jin product development, production process innovation and packaging design, etc., more distinctive Li Jin cultural and creative products are still emerging......
In Hainan, the Oriental Li Jin Cultural Center, March 3 Square, Donghe Town Li Jin Building, Ledong's Xili Village Ethnic Culture Exhibition Hall, Ledong Li Autonomous County Cultural Center, Qiongzhong's Li Mu Mountain, Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County Cultural Center, Baoting's Binglang Valley, Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County Cultural Center, Changjiang Li Autonomous County Cultural Center in Changjiang, Baisha Li Autonomous County Cultural Center in Baisha, etc., all have Li Jin displays, people can experience a rich Li Jin cultural journey.
As a beautiful cultural business card, Li Jin has also gone abroad and gone to the world, and its wonderful appearances in many international fashion weeks have allowed people to see the broad space for the combination of tradition and fashion; Through exhibitions and cultural weeks at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Korea, Japan, Norway and other countries, Li Jin is better telling the story of Hainan and showcasing Chinese culture to the world.
If the ancient Li Jin wants to glow with greater brilliance, it is necessary to further highlight the cultural and creative attributes in the future, fully understand and tap the cultural symbol value of Li Jin, form a complete chain including interpretation, communication, display, brand building, etc., enhance the overall image of Li Jin, and on the basis of fully investigating consumer needs, strengthen the design and creation of Li Jin as the core element, enrich the product system, and improve the added value of products and brand reputation.
