Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
December 19, 2016
Designers breathe new life into China’s dying folk crafts
PAINSTAKING PROCESS. Ethnic minority arti-
san Pan Xiu-ying (top photo) uses wax to make a batik
pattern on a scarf in rural Sandu in China’s Guizhou
province. In the bottom photo, artisan Pan Mi-shuang
weaves fabric using a traditional method, also in rural
Sandu. The two women and other village artisans are
working with designer Elaine Ng to put new twists into
traditional crafts created by Guizhou‘s ethnic minori-
ties, as Ng hopes to build a sustainable business
model that helps preserve skills endangered by
China’s rapid modernization. (AP Photos/Kelvin
Chan)
By Kelvin Chan
AP Business Writer
G
AORONG VILLAGE, China —
Dipping a brass-tipped tool into a
vat of liquid wax, Pan Xiu-ying
painstakingly traces an intricate design
onto a white cloth.
At her workshop in a remote valley in
one of China’s poorest provinces, Pan uses
traditional techniques passed down for
generations to create an indigo-dye batik
scarf embellished with patterns inspired
by her ethnic Shui minority. But her
handicrafts aren’t for family members.
They’re destined for affluent buyers
thousands of miles away.
Pan’s employer, Hong Kong-based
Elaine Ng, is among the growing number
of designers focused on ecological and
cultural sustainability who hope to
preserve skills of rural artisans that are
fast vanishing in China’s increasingly
industrial society.
“A scarf that is made with 50 hours of
love is different from one made by digital
print in a factory,” said Ng, whose strategy
of using artisans fits right in with Beijing’s
push to shift away from low-end, cheap
mass manufacturing toward higher
skilled, more environmentally friendly
industries.
Ng is helping to breathe new life into old
crafts of minority tribes in isolated villages
in south-central Guizhou province.
Many low-cost Chinese producers are
fleeing to neighboring Asian countries like
Vietnam, where they can pay lower wages,
as the local labor pool shrinks and costs
rise.
So garment makers that previously
thrived churning out cheap clothes for
overseas brands are revamping their
sweatshops with smart, small-batch
production methods such as 3-D printing
and cloud computing.
Ng hopes her project, “Un/fold,” run by
her design studio, The Fabrick Lab, can
pioneer a business model that might
appeal to young people fleeing villages for
easier and better paying jobs in distant
cities.
This fall, she launched a limited edition
of scarves, squat wooden stools, and
hexagonal wooden wall tiles, the latter two
decorated with batik patterns normally
used only for fabrics. She’s also working
with a Shanghai company to create custom
furniture that uses artisanal fabrics and
woodwork.
Back in the workshop, after finishing
her pattern, Pan dips the silk and cotton
fabric three times into a vat of organic dye
made from indigo plants grown higher up
the hillside. Finally, the wax is melted
away to reveal the scarf’s design. It will
eventually sell for $235 online or in
boutiques in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
In the next room, two village women
weave fabric by hand, using a wooden
spinning wheel strapped on to one of them.
Outside, the valley’s lush green rice
terraces and wooden houses stretch into
the distance.
Pan, 47, said she’s eager for more work
from Ng and the steady income it provides,
especially since her husband died earlier
this year. She learned batik skills from her
grandmother, but laments that her
daughter and other young villagers are not
interested.
“Young people don’t want to learn (the
skills). They want to go to Guangdong,” she
says, referring to the wealthy province
near Hong Kong where factories still
employ millions of workers from the
countryside.
“If people see that we are doing it and
definitely making money, then they’ll
want to come and have the patience to
learn,” said Pan. “Things that are machine
made are cheap but they don’t look good,”
she added.
Landlocked Guizhou, 1,230 miles from
Beijing, has rich folk art traditions. More
than a third of its 35 million residents are
from ethnic minorities including the Shui,
Miao, Dong, and other tribes known for
their skill with batik, embroidery,
silverwork, woodwork, and paper cutting.
Those arts are under threat as growth
picks up in the province best known for its
stunning karst limestone hills and its fiery
Moutai liquor. A new high-speed rail line is
opening up previously isolated towns to
outside visitors, while government plan-
ners are encouraging the tech industry to
make Guizhou a center for big data.
The province reported 10.5 percent
economic growth in the first half of 2016,
third-fastest among the country’s 31
regions.
The renaissance of traditional apparel
workshops is partly driven by a backlash
against so-called “fast fashion” seen in
retail chains like Forever 21 and H&M,
said Christina Dean, founder of Redress, a
non-governmental organization (NGO)
that promotes sustainability in the fashion
industry. Similar trends are at play even
in affluent Japan, which has rich textile
and woodworking traditions of its own.
“By and large, the mainstream fashion
industry has become so bland, it’s become
a polyester rag,” Dean said. “So we’re
seeing more and more emerging brands
really revive artisanal craftsmanship
around the world.”
Guizhou is attracting other independent
designers. Sharon de Lyster, also based in
Hong Kong, has scoured its markets for
her label, Narrative Made.
“This is stuff they have been doing for
generations but it really is dying,” said de
Lyster. She said young people see no way
to make money, so they don’t invest time
and energy in advancing those traditional
crafts.
The cuffs on one of de Lyster’s $190 silk
shirts have a black and white chili pepper
flower pattern by a Miao master
embroiderer with cross stitching that
produces an identical pattern on both
sides. The Miao and some other tribes have
no written language of their own so they
use embroidery to communicate their
myths and folklore.
New York-based designer Angel Chang
spent a year in Guizhou collaborating with
Miao and Dong artisans for a 2013 capsule
collection. Fashion editors loved her
biker-style jacket, $1,000 but now sold out,
in cotton damask featuring hypnotic blue
and white zig-zags and geometric birds.
It’s a race against time: Only three
grandmothers in the Dong village of
Zhaoxing can weave that pattern, Chang
said.
“Young people can’t do it. So you have a
knowledge that is already in decline,” she
said. “The current generation can’t explain
what all the symbols mean and the stories
in the clothing.”
Chang is partnering with two NGOs to
pass on traditional textile-making tech-
niques. She’s also working on a new
Guizhou-inspired
collection,
which
requires establishing a proper supply
chain.
“You have to realize there’s no industry
there. They’ve never really sold to anyone
outside of their families. They don’t know
how to price these things,” she said. “It’s
not like I can just say I need 100 meters in
this color and it’s here in two days. It’s
really starting from scratch.”
Michael Jordan wins China court ruling after years-long case
By Louise Watt
The Associated Press
B
EIJING — Basketball legend
Michael Jordan now owns his
Chinese name, after China’s
highest court sided with him following a
years-long legal battle over a trademark
dispute.
The former National Basketball Asso-
ciation (NBA) star has fought a Chinese
sportswear maker since 2012 over the
name “Qiaodan,” pronounced “CHEEOW-
dan,” the transliteration of “Jordan” in
Mandarin.
Qiaodan Sports, a company based in
southern China, had registered the
trademark under which it was selling its
own shoes and sportswear.
Jordan has been known by the Chinese
characters for “Qiaodan” since he gained
widespread popularity in the mid-1980s.
He had previously argued unsuccessfully
in Beijing courts that Qiaodan Sports had
used his Chinese name, his old jersey
number 23, and basketball player logo to
make it look like he was associated with
their brand.
The Supreme People’s Court announced
it was overturning two rulings by Beijing
courts against Jordan from 2014 and 2015
that had found there wasn’t sufficient
evidence to support the athlete’s
allegations over the use of his image, and
that “Qiaodan” was the translation of a
common family name as the Chinese
company claimed.
It also ordered the trademark bureau to
issue a new ruling on the use of the
Chinese characters in the brand name
“Qiaodan,” effectively awarding the
trademark to Jordan. The company can
continue to use the Romanized spelling of
the name, however.
Chief judge Tao Kaiyuan said there was
an established link between Jordan and
the Chinese characters for “Qiaodan,”
which are commonly used by the public
when referring to the former basketball
player, meaning that Jordan was entitled
to protection under the Trademark Law.
The court’s judgement was shown live on
its website.
Jordan said in a statement that millions
of Chinese fans and consumers had always
known him by the name Qiaodan and that
he was happy the court recognized his
right to protect his name.
“Chinese consumers deserve to know
that Qiaodan Sports and its products have
no connection to me. Nothing is more
important than protecting your own name,
and today’s decision shows the importance
of that principle,” Jordan said.
In a statement after the ruling, the com-
pany defended its actions, but said it would
Continued on page 16
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