Patterns Left for Next Generations
Today, I am immediately drawn to a bound collection of batik pages at Madam Zhang Shixiu’s workshop—each page filled with traditional patterns
Today, I am immediately drawn to a bound collection of batik pages at Madam Zhang Shixiu’s workshop—each page filled with traditional patterns
I initially wanted to ask if they were for sale, but Madam Zhang tells me that those are books not for sale, as she intends to keep them for future generations.
In this video, Madam Zhang flips through the pages—there are four books in total: one on geometric patterns, one on flowers, one on birds, and one on butterflies. As she turns each page, she explains to me the traditional motifs of the White Collar Miao people.
Many of the patterns are closely connected to nature and their history of migration—wild vegetables in the mountains that once saved people’s lives, the horns of water buffalo, bird totems they revered, mountain flowers, and horse shoes. (The Miao believe that after death, the soul must be carried back to the ancestors’ land on horseback.) All the patterns in the books are carefully redrawn from antique batik works, and their style is visibly different from what people make today.
