ichLinks

Farmers’ dance of China’s Korean ethnic group
Farmers’ dance of China’s Korean ethnic group is a performing art danced at seasonal rites and festivals. It is one of the most representative artistic performances of the Korean ethnic group. It is also a symbolic artistic form showing nationality identity. The team leader waves a flag reading “farming, the root of the world”. Players with musical instruments of suona horns, small gongs, bell-shaped gongs, long drums, round drums and hand drums will play the instruments while dancing. They are accompanied by masked or unmasked farcical clowning dancers. Farmers’ dance is usually acted out in villages and fields. Farmers’ dance is closely associated with farming sacrifice ceremony. Before acting out the dance, players will hold a ceremony treading God of Land and sacrificing, to show respect to nature and pray for happiness and luck. Since it is generated in farming activities, farmers’ dance imitates manual labor with shrugging acts and walking field ridges. Farmers’ dance is widely known in the Korean ethnic group. People largely learn basic dancing skills through family influences and neighborhood exchanges. But to master superb dancing skills and music performances, players have to formally acknowledge seniors as teachers. Farmers’ dance art has been inherited under the mouth-heart teaching method. Players of lofty skills are highly respected and enjoy unusual prestige in communities. This plays a crucial role in passing along the art for generations. To date, people of Korean nationality in Wangqing County, Antu County, Helong City, Longjing City, Huichun City, Tumen City and Yanji City under Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Wangqing County Farmers’ Dance Protection Development Association, China Korean Nationality Folk Protection Development Association, and 52 spreaders like Jin Mingchun are committing themselves to protecting and passing on farmers’ dance. The art has been handed down for six generations. Players spread from farmers to people of all walks in cities, enterprises and schools. Starting from the Korean Peninsula, farmers’ dance was introduced to China by Korean immigrants at the end of the 19th century. It has been innovated and improved in new environments by means of integrating agricultural production in high latitude areas and multi-ethnic group customs. Influenced by Han ethnic culture, “elephant caps” replace previous black cloth with red silk fabrics. Clustered waving belt is processed into two layers from the original single layer. “Elephant caps” are developed from original two varieties to current short, medium and long ones. Long “elephant cap” color belt is continually extended to amount to maximum 28 meters. Tossing “elephant cap” develops from “flat tossing” and “left-to-right tossing” to “vertical tossing” and “shaking dews”. Players also create “crossing circle skill” and “three-color-belt tossing skill”. As regards music, original four musical instruments are expanded to collaboration of wind instruments and stringed instruments. Women are admitted to play musical instruments, compared with previous whole-colored men players. All these contribute to cultivate Korean ethnic farmers’ dance of striking Chinese characteristics. Farmers’ dance is a product of arduous labor and wisdom of the Korean ethnic group over a long period of time. People of the Korean ethnic communities have realized it is their historic duty to carry forward farmers’ dance. So far, farmers’ dance groups of various sizes have spread all over villages of Korean ethnic groups. Most residential quarters and schools in Yanbian prefecture have also set up all sorts of farmers’ dance performance teams. Farmers’ dance teams, traditionally of 30 people each, will act on folk-custom festivals. One site will accommodate a number of teams at the same time. Farmers’ dance music, dance skills and players have been collected in Complete Works of China Folk Dance. Piao Yongguang, a famous scholar, has bought farmers’ dance into History of Korean Dance, furnishing theoretical basis for studying Korean history and ethnic features.

China 2009

Craftsmanship of Nanjing Yunjin brocade
In the Chinese tradition of weaving Nanjing Yunjin brocade, two craftspeople operate the upper and lower parts of a large, complicated loom to produce textiles incorporating fine materials such as silk, gold and peacock feather yarn. The technique was once used to produce royal garments such as the dragon robe and crown costume; today, it is still used to make high-end attire and souvenirs.

China 2009

Sericulture and traditional production of silk for weaving
Cocooning is a complex of raising silkworms, growing cocoons, and is one of the main branches of agriculture that supplies raw materials for the silk industry. As a cocoon industry, the establishment of mulberry groves as a source of food for cocoons, the creation of new varieties of mulberry, the creation of silkworm breeds and durapillas, breeding work, raising silkworms and raising their eggs, preparing live cocoons for the silk industry, drying the cocoons and making them meet the requirements of the dry cocoons standard. includes tasks such as transfer to enterprises, preliminary processing of cocoons.

#silkworms #silk #traditional knowledge #agriculture

Afghanistan,Azerbaijan,Iran,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,Turkey,Uzbekistan 2022

ATLASBOFI
Handcraft of weaving atlas (ikat) with silk threads in the special machinery. Atlas has different ornaments and colors. Atlas fabric is used for making dresses, scarfs, skull-caps and other things.

#handicrafts #weaving #silk thread

Tajikistan

Traditional Ikat Making in Uzbekistan
Fabric making art has been known in the territory of Uzbekistan since ancient times. Initially fabrics were weaved only from cotton. But in the first and second centuries bce, due to trading along the Great Silk Road, our ancestors learned the secrets of weaving silk fabrics.\n\nThis film includes some of the thirty-two stages involved with making abr fabrics. Rasuljon Mirzaahmedov is the representative of the ninth generation of abr makers. He revived various secrets of abr making as the result of his research on Uzbek fabrics being kept not only in the museums of Uzbekistan but also in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg and in other cities of Europe. As follow up his studies he established ikat weaving workshops in many regions of Uzbekistan as well as in neighboring countries.

Uzbekistan 2017

Tush-kiyiz—Traditional Skills in Making Wall Carpets
The centuries-old nomadic way of life of the Kyrgyz people contributed to the high skill level of women in crafts development. Tush-kiyiz, an embroidered wall carpet, is a fine example of Kyrgyz decorative and applied art. Tush-kiyiz was given a special place in the interior of the yurt. Embroidered panels of cloth—satin, silk, or another fabric—tush-kiyiz is framed with a broad band of black velvet, on which is usually sew one, two, or three fringed triangles. Tush-kiyiz have always been created as a personal family heirloom, symbolizing a newly married couple’s union with family.

#carpet #embroidery #women #crafts #textile arts

Kyrgyzstan 2017

silk fabric