[**Xi'an**].
China Xiabu Author: Zhang Qiang Publisher: China Textile Publishing House Publication date: August 2021.
Xia cloth is a relatively fine flat fabric woven according to the traditional process, with ramie or ** fiber as raw material, because it is cool and breathable, it is usually used as a material for summer clothing, so it is called Xia cloth. With the advancement of industrialization, Xiabu gradually withdrew from the stage of people's daily life, and became an intangible cultural heritage from a thing that accompanies day and night. Although this is an unstoppable trend of the times, Shabu has been passed down from ancient times to the present day, and has always retained its charm and life.
In order to preserve this rare memory, Professor Zhang Qiang spent five years, traveled thousands of miles, collected a lot of materials in the main production areas of Xiabu, and used the camera in his hand to shoot and record the past and present life of Xiabu, so there is a book "Chinese Xiabu". The production, weaving, and inheritance of Xia Bu are all based on the development of agricultural society and continue to evolve and exist, Professor Zhang Qiang is also a teacher in an agricultural college, and he has injected more thinking and resonance into the record of Xia Bu.
Although this is a book with images as the main content, but the connotation of Xia Bu is better than a thousand words, and readers use visual intuition to restore all kinds of Xia Bu in their minds, as if they are immersive, with the change of light and shadow and Xia Bu are integrated, becoming a part of Xia Bu.
The reason why Xia cloth is so precious today is that it has not been taken seriously in the long history, these cloths are usually used by ordinary people, and many researchers tend to focus on silk and cotton products. However, Xia Bu is an indispensable part of the study of Chinese textile history, so in the chapter "Xia Bu History", Professor Zhang Qiang focuses on the cloth pattern pottery bowl in the museum. Ancient textiles have rarely survived to this day because of their perishable and perishable nature, but traces of textiles remain on those pottery. Those faint traces restore for us the scene of the ancestors picking plants and weaving cloth in ancient times. Traces of textile can be seen in different cultural sites and archaeological sites of different ages, which also shows that textile technology was a common skill in ancient times.
Shabu is ancient, but it is not static. From simple manufacturing, to fine weaving, from a piece of coarse cloth, to the formation of many types, which are not only the change of the way of survival, but also the testimony of the continuous refining and improvement of skills. Just like the various crafts of summer cloth production photographed in the book, it is the accumulation of experience explored by the inheritor with one hand and one foot, one stitch and one thread. Those who have been working in the fields for a long time have only thought about creating "a piece of coarse cloth", and in order to accomplish this ideal, they need to complete many processes such as planting hemp, cutting hemp, making hemp, brushing pulp, weaving, and refining. In the eyes of Professor Zhang Qiang, every link is very artistic, with the philosophy of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Therefore, the ramie seedlings he created for us are growing in the face of the rising sun, and the faces of the people who work under his lens are full of joy, anger and sorrow, and the history of Xia Bu has long been integrated with their lives and even their family inheritance.
Although Xia Bu under light and shadow has all kinds of beauty, outside the camera, Professor Zhang Qiang also sees all kinds of worries. Xiabu production, which does not match the fast pace of today's society, and in the face of market competition with multiple choices in society, Xiabu does not have the slightest advantage, and people who work hard for Xiabu production cannot get a way to make a fortune from this piece of cloth. Although the production of summer cloth in Longchang, Rongchang, Liuyang and other places has a long history, and is constantly exploring new production methods, it is still difficult to escape the dilemma of tomorrow's yellow flowers. The black-and-white tone of "Chinese Xiabu" also seems to emphasize the series of dilemmas faced by Xiabu. The Xiabu inheritance, which is scattered in the countryside, seems to indicate that this technology is gradually declining. Under the lens of Professor Zhang Qiang, the villages and woods that were once prosperous because of Xia Bu have also been abandoned due to the construction of the railway, and the scenery is no longer suffocating. Xiabu and those ancient towns have all shrunk into the depths of history alone, showing a dying posture.
When we look through these "broken walls", we seem to be able to find the tenacity of Shab's life under the "rubble of ruins". When the camera lens focuses again, we see a group of people still holding on for Shabu. If you want to name their group, they can call it "Xiabu people", and their mission is not only to pass on the craftsmanship of Xiabu production from generation to generation, but also to promote the culture of Xiabu and give this ancient thing a new glow. Through light and shadow, Professor Zhang Qiang's lens allows us to meet the gaze of these "Xiabu people", in their eyes, we see perseverance, persistence, love, and sedimentation.
Through light and shadow, all kinds of Xia Bu were recorded by Professor Zhang Qiang. The light and shadow injected the soul into the monotonous Xia Bu, and those moments that ** were caught were evidence of Xia Bu's vitality. Closing the pages of "Chinese Xia Bu", the story about a kind of cloth has already been churning in my mind.
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