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K W A C DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 1 11/21/17 11:05 AM DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 2 11/21/17 11:05 AM K W A C: D B Marie Anna Lee DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 3 11/21/17 11:05 AM iv Kam Women Artisans of China: Dawn of the Butterflies By Marie Anna Lee is book first published Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © by Marie Anna Lee All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (): --- ISBN (): ---- DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 4 11/21/17 11:05 AM v To Nicola, Daniel, omas, Alena, and Ivan with love. is book is a testament to the wisdom, humility, and ingenuity of these astonishing women: Wu Meitz (*), Wu Gaitian (*), Wu Yingniang (*), Wu Huazhuan (*), and Wu Mnci (*). ese women showed me, a stranger, the wealth of knowledge traditionally reserved only for their daughters. DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 5 11/21/17 11:05 AM DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 6 11/21/17 11:05 AM vii T C Preface: Arrival . Introduction .. Broken read / Heritage that survived centuries about to be forgotten .. Finding the Story’s read / Preceding projects .. Tying the Knot / Apprenticeship .. Weaving the Tale / Matriarchs’ lessons, big and small . Places and Faces .. e “Hidden” Kam / e Kam ethnic group .. Dimen, the Kam Spring/ Dimen highlights .. e “Living” Museum / Dimen Dong Cultural Eco Museum . e Living Legends .. e Za at a Glance / Five matriarchs I apprenticed with .. Wu Meitz / e humble wealth of knowledge who never judges the younger generations .. Wu Gaitian / e only one who remembers the Origin of All Beings .. Wu Mnci / e widow who raised five sons and sang through it .. Wu Yingniang / e one who sees once and remembers everything .. Wu Huazhuan / e orphan who never went to school but learned it all DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 7 11/21/17 11:05 AM viii . Papermaking .. Paper Magic / Magic of Kam paper .. Bark Stripping / Separating bark layers with a sickle .. Mulberry Hunt / Finding mulberry tree branches .. Endless Mashing / Making paper .. Different Processes, Same Results / Slightly different techniques to make paper .. Little Books to Store Her Treasures / Making paper purses . Back-Strap Loom .. Weaving s / Introduction to weaving and back-strap looms .. Liping Interlude / Gathering with Wu Mnci and her family in Liping .. Colorful reading / Making a back-strap loom and warping it .. Flower My Belts / Weaving “flower” belts on a back-strap loom .. Baby Steps / We weave a simple pattern on back-strap loom .. After All, Practice Makes Perfect / Restretching warp on a back-strap loom and making secondary heddles . Spinning and Preparing read .. From Flowers to Fabric / Making Kam fabric .. Yarn Beyond Compare / Spinning yarn from ramie fibers .. Sunny Twists / Preparing cotton thread .. Songs and Cones / Winding thread on cones and preparing the warp DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 8 11/21/17 11:05 AM Table of Contents ix . Frame Loom .. Great-Great-Grandmother’s Loom / Wu Meitz tells the history of her loom .. Let the Timber Sing / Kam loom anatomy .. Dressing the Loom / Beaming the warp and preparing the loom . From Back-Strap to Frame Loom .. Breaking the Back on Warping Benches / Warping a frame loom to make narrow drawstrings .. Drawstring as an Art Form / Weaving narrow decorative drawstrings on a frame loom . Indigo Paste .. Indigo Blues / Indigo around the world .. Two Tales of Orphaned Girls / Taboo surrounding indigo .. Four Seasons / Taking care of indigo plants .. Making the Kam Gold / Preparing indigo paste . Indigo Vat .. Grandmother’s Bath / Preparing an indigo dyebath .. Blue Do-Over / Redoing indigo dyebath .. Sometimes Others Know Better / Miao people’s indigo dyebath . Dyeing in Indigo .. Blue Nails Are In / Dyeing hand-made cloth in indigo .. Dye, Dye, Dye Some More / Second indigo dyeing lesson .. Interlude: Feast for a Baby / We visit a baby celebration .. Loops Backwards / I hang the cloth the wrong way DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 9 11/21/17 11:05 AM x Kam Women Artisans of China: Dawn of the Butterflies .. Our Blues of the Blues / We dye in our vat, unassisted . Post-Indigo Treatment .. Stiff Beans / Treating the cloth with bean starch .. Mountain Goats / Finding roots and leaves to make red dye .. Red to Black / Making red dyestuff and apply it to indigo-dyed cloth .. Ox Sludge / Making ox skin liquid and treating the fabric with it . Pleated Skirt .. Sticky Flutes / Pleating fabric for a skirt .. Itchy Hair / Sewing pleats together and stiffening the skirt in ox skin liquid .. Hollow Buckets / Steaming the skirt pleats and dyeing them in indigo .. Sticky Stitching / Hand-sewing the skirt . Embroidery .. Sunflowers and Moths / Kam embroidery .. e Ageless Under-Apron / Under-apron made more than sixty-five years ago .. Bridge Super Sampler / Wu Mnci shows her embroidery .. Flower Past Blossom / Satin stitch embroidery technique .. Glasses Rule / Embroidering with Wu Huazhuan and her friends .. A Butterfly Needs Flowers to Live / Embroidering a hat .. Feng Shui Master’s Patterns / Cutting embroidery patterns .. Centipedes, Dragons, and Snakes / Dimen motifs DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 10 11/21/17 11:05 AM Table of Contents xi . Garments .. Made in China, by the Kam / Introduction to Kam garments in Dimen .. Subtle Patterns / Sewing patterns for a jacket .. Who Needs Tailor’s Chalk? / Cutting fabric .. Not My Grandma’s Sewing Machine / Sewing a jacket .. Birds in Song / Sewing an under-apron and calf wraps .. Dragon Shoes / Making pointed cloth shoes . “Kamness” in Making .. Dinner at Made Us a Family / How we earned a place by serving the women .. e Whole Package / Learning from the lifestyle .. Different Times, Different Songs / Kam songs .. Dramatic Didactics / Kam opera .. No Nails Needed / Kam architecture .. Haven No More / Impact of industrialization and globalization .. Building Bridges / Hope for the future .. Butterfly Songs / How the Za found their voice Glossary / Kam Vocabulary / Conversion Chart / Bibliography / Index / Acknowledgments / DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 11 11/21/17 11:05 AM xii DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 12 11/21/17 11:05 AM xiii P: A “He can drive blindfolded here,” I try to assure my companions who are hopelessly trying to hold on to the seats in front of them. A young man that works for the Dimen Dong Eco Museum picked us up at the Liping airport this afternoon and is driving us to Dimen, a Kam minority village that will be our home for the next month. e old van flies from side to side on the narrow winding road. Anastasya looks queasy. Zhang Zhanxian seems to take pleasure passing slower traffic in blind curves honking wildly to let incoming cars know we’re there. I hope I’m right about his driving ability and we get to Dimen in one piece. We finally leave the main road and get onto a narrow unpaved road wide enough for one vehicle to pass. ick green vegetation opens from time to time and we glimpse at luscious green valleys nestled against mountain slopes. e view is breathtaking. After about twenty minutes of twists and turns, we pass through an elaborately carved and painted gate that marks the village entrance. “Welcome to my fairytale, ladies.” I smile at Anastasya and Jennifer. e dusty road to Dimen seems to have transported us several centuries back in time. My companions are unceremoniously plastered to the van’s windows as we gather first glimpses of the village. Rows of two-storied, weathered wooden houses line the road. From time to time, we see a cautious head peep through a doorway to see whom the van is bringing. An everyday tale is being told in front of us, undisturbed by our presence. We drive slowly because we have to share the road with pedestrians. Women are returning from faraway fields, balancing on thin poles heavy loads of firewood and vegetables for tonight’s dinner. Not minding the late afternoon heat, they stop to chat with friends. Old men are resting in small groups smoking pipes in the shadow near a grocery store. A butcher is selling a freshly slaughtered pig on the main square. Little children scream with delight when jumping into the river that winds through the village. At the very farthest edge of the village, the van comes to a slow stop. Beyond the wooden bridge lies the Dimen Dong Cultural Museum, our home for the next four weeks. Women walking on the road. DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 13 11/21/17 11:05 AM xiv DawnOfTheButterflies.indb 14 11/21/17 11:05 AM C I .. Broken Thread Heritage that survived centuries about to be forgotten Many centuries ago in southwestern China, Han majority settlers drove the Kam people, whom they called Dong, from the fertile plains to the inhos- pitable mountains of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. e Kam sprinkled the mountain slopes with terraces of rice paddies, built spacious homes with tall fir timber, and wove sounds of nature into their songs. e villages’ remote locations ensured isolation from the outside world and the “progress” of industrialization. ey were self-sufficient in many ways, growing their food and producing by hand most of what they needed in terms of clothing, tools, and other implements. It was a hard life with famine, illness, and forces of nature taking their toll. ey relied on each other for help and de- veloped social values that stressed collective wellbeing above individual needs. eir centuries-unchanged lifestyle earned them a nickname: living fossils of Chinese civilization. Dimen village, a home to the Kam minority, hides deep in fir woods about seven kilometers from the nearest road.