Here are the experiences of fishing in rice fields, paper making, embroidery making, and batik making in Guizhou:
Fishing in Rice Paddy Fields
Locations:
Many rural areas in Guizhou, such as some villages in Qiandongnan Prefecture and Zunyi City, have vast rice fields where fishing activities can be carried out. For example, in the rice fields around Zhaoxing Dong Village, there are often opportunities to fish.
Experience and Fun
While fishing in the rice fields, you can enjoy the beautiful rural scenery, with green rice plants swaying in the wind and the clear sky above. It's a great way to relax and get close to nature. When a fish bites the hook, the excitement and joy of reeling in the fish are indescribable, especially when you catch some small crucian carp or loach, which brings a sense of accomplishment.
Paper Making Experience
Locations:
Shiqiao Miao village: It is known as the "Hometown of Ancient Papermaking in China" and is a famous place for experiencing papermaking. The papermaking technique here has a history of more than 1,300 years and was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
Production Process
Material preparation: Usually, bark of Broussonetia papyrifera and other raw materials are used. The bark needs to be cut, peeled, dried, and then soaked in water for a long time.
Cooking and pounding: The soaked materials are cooked and then pounded into a pulp, which requires a lot of physical effort and patience.
Paper forming: The pulp is put into a paper-making trough, and after adding an appropriate amount of water and stirring evenly, a paper curtain is used to scoop up the pulp to form a paper sheet.
Drying: The formed paper sheet is carefully peeled off and dried naturally or by baking, and finally, a piece of handmade paper is completed.
Experience and Fun
Through the whole process of papermaking experience, you can deeply understand the wisdom and hard work of the ancients. Watching the pulp gradually turn into a delicate piece of paper in your own hands gives a sense of achievement. You can also make some unique paper handicrafts, such as paper flowers or paper bookmarks, as souvenirs.
Embroidery Making Experience
Locations
Kaili City: There are many embroidery experience venues, such as the Huaxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Living Museum, where you can experience the unique charm of Huaxi Miao cross-stitch embroidery.
Congjiang County: In Gaozeng Township, there is an intangible cultural heritage inheritance base where tourists can experience Dong embroidery.
Production Process
Pattern design: First, determine the pattern you want to embroider, which can be a traditional ethnic pattern or your own creative design.
Thread selection and color matching: According to the pattern, select the appropriate embroidery threads and match the colors to make the pattern more vivid and beautiful.
Embroidery stitching: Use needles and threads to stitch on the fabric according to the designed pattern. Different embroidery techniques, such as cross-stitch, satin stitch, and chain stitch, can be used to create different textures and effects.
Experience and Fun
Embroidery making allows you to calm down and immerse yourself in the world of art. During the process of embroidering, you can feel the unique cultural connotations and aesthetic concepts of ethnic minorities. The finished embroidery works can not only be used to decorate your own home but also as special gifts for relatives and friends, carrying your unique feelings and memories.
In Guizhou, the experiences of batik making are rich and profound, allowing people to deeply appreciate the charm of this ancient traditional art.
Batik Making Preparation
Location selection: Many places in Guizhou offer batik making experiences, such as the villages in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, like Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village and Zhaoxing Dong Village. There are also some batik workshops in Guiyang, Anshun and other cities.
Material preparation
Fabric: Generally, cotton cloth is used, which is soft, breathable and easy to absorb dyes. You can choose different specifications and qualities of cotton cloth according to your needs.
Wax: The commonly used waxes include beeswax and paraffin. Beeswax has good viscosity and is suitable for drawing fine lines, while paraffin is relatively inexpensive and can be mixed with beeswax for use.
Dye: Traditional batik in Guizhou mostly uses indigo dye made from plants such as Polygonum tinctorium, which has stable color and is not easy to fade.
Tools: Copper wax knives of different sizes and shapes are required for dipping wax and drawing patterns on cloth. In addition, you also need containers for melting wax, such as small copper pots or ceramic bowls, as well as charcoal stoves for heating and maintaining the temperature of the wax liquid.
Production Process
Cloth preparation
Washing and bleaching: Whether it is self-woven linen or machine-woven white cloth purchased from the market, it needs to be soaked, rubbed, beaten, washed and sun-dried repeatedly to remove impurities and sizing agents in the natural fibers, making the cloth white, smooth and delicate.
Sizing and polishing: In some places, such as Danzhai, Konjac or Bletilla striata juice is evenly applied on the cloth for sizing, and after drying in the shade, it is polished with smooth cow bones or pebbles to make the cloth surface smoother and more suitable for drawing wax patterns.
Pattern design and drawing
Pattern design: You can choose traditional patterns such as butterfly patterns, dragon patterns, and geometric patterns, or create your own unique patterns according to your imagination and preferences.
Drawing: First, lightly draw the outline of the pattern on the cloth with a pencil. Then, heat the wax with a charcoal stove until it melts, dip the copper wax knife into the wax liquid, and carefully draw the pattern on the cloth along the pencil lines. The temperature of the wax liquid should be controlled properly. If the temperature is too low, the wax liquid will solidify on the surface of the cloth and the dye will penetrate; if the temperature is too high, the wax liquid will spread and damage the pattern lines.
Dyeing
Preparation of dye solution: Generally, for every five zhang of cloth, five kilograms of indigo and twenty kilograms of plant ash are used. Place a bamboo sieve on the upper end of the vat, spread straw on it, pour in the plant ash, and gently compact it. Leave about fifteen centimeters at the mouth of the vat for water injection. After the water passes through the filtration of the plant ash and fills the vat, which takes about three to four days, remove the plant ash, straw and bamboo sieve. Then put one kilogram of indigo and half a kilogram of native wine into the vat with water and stir well with a bamboo pole for fermentation.
Immersion dyeing: Wet the cloth with warm water before dyeing, and then slowly put the cloth into the dye vat, constantly turning it gently. After twenty to thirty minutes, take it out and dry it in the air to react with oxygen. Then put it into the vat for the second immersion dyeing. Generally, light colors can be dyed two or three times, while dark colors need to be dyed seven or eight times or even more.
Wax removal
Boiling wax removal: Put the dyed batik fabric into a pot and boil it with water. Add a little soda ash to help remove the wax. The wax will float on the water surface and can be scooped out with a spoon or removed with paper or cloth.
Secondary wax removal: After the first wax removal, put the fabric into warm water at about 60 degrees Celsius for secondary wax removal to ensure that the wax is completely removed.
Experience and Fun
Cultural inheritance and learning
Understanding history and culture: Through the production process of batik, you can understand the history, culture and customs of ethnic minorities in Guizhou. Each pattern and color contains rich cultural connotations and historical memories.
Learning traditional skills: Under the guidance of batik inheritors, you can learn the skills of batik making, such as the use of wax knives, the control of wax temperature, and the dyeing process, experiencing the wisdom and hard work of the ancients.
Creative satisfaction
Designing personalized works: You can give full play to your creativity and design unique batik works according to your own preferences and ideas, making each work a unique expression of yourself.
Combining with modern elements: You can also try to combine modern elements with traditional batik techniques, such as using modern patterns, colors or materials to create batik works with both traditional charm and modern flavor.
