In Xinlian Village, Liguo Town, Ledong Li Autonomous County, there is a farmyard shaded by dense green shade. The yard is large and the house is very short. Even in the hot summer, you can sit under the shade and drink. Chatting over tea will not make you feel unbearably hot. Under the courtyard wall, there are many stone mills, stone foundations and stone tablets. The owner, Zhou Changzheng, is a middle-aged man who is not tall but neatly dressed and looks very smart and capable.
As a private collector, Zhou Changzheng began collecting old objects in 1989, covering a wide range of categories. He collected all the remaining local building components, living utensils, working tools, Li costumes, and Han homespun cloth. After establishing the Yazhou Cloth Museum in his home in 2011, Zhou Changzheng’s collection and research focused on local homespun cloth, namely the “Yazhou cloth” produced in Qiongnan.
Zhou Changzheng dedicated a room to store “Yazhou cloth” and traditional Li brocade. In the cabinets and display cabinets against the wall, there were rolls of cloth of various colors and stacks of neatly stacked Li brocades. A few dragons Quilts and outfits hang on walls and coat racks.
Zhou Changzheng said that after the reform and opening up, people could easily buy ready-made clothes produced on factory assembly lines, and “Yazhou cloth” gradually became a “useless” thing at the bottom of the box. These homespun cloths were collected by him from village to house. Yes, in his eyes, they are “treasures”, not waste.
When the weather is humid, Zhou Changzheng will dry the cloth from time to time; when friends come to visit, he will hang some representative “Yazhou cloth” under the iron shed in the yard for everyone to appreciate and communicate.
By searching ancient books, Zhou Changzheng discovered the “Weaving Shell” from the Han Dynasty, the “Zhenzhou Banbu” from the Tang Dynasty, the “Hainan White Cloth”, “Hainan Checkerboard Cloth”, “Hainan Blue and White Cloth”, “Jibei Cloth” and “Ji Bei Cloth” from the Song Dynasty. “Beisha” and “Jibei flower cloth” refer to cotton textiles produced in Hainan Island. In the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daopo brought Yazhou’s cotton textile skills to Shanghai, which then affected the whole country and greatly promoted the development of the cotton textile industry in my country and the world.
“In modern times, with the advent of the industrial revolution and the changes of the times, the traditional handicraft production of cotton textiles in the ancient Yazhou area began to decline, and gradually some textile techniques were lost. Today, only some of the tangible historical culture is left. The people are silent and the fabric is facing disappearance.” Zhou Changzheng sighed.
What kind of historical existence does “Yazhou cloth” have, and what kind of practical significance does it have that makes Zhou Changzheng pursue it diligently and enjoy it?
“Because they reflect the long cotton textile history of the Li and Han ethnic groups in physical form, and we can also see the exchange and integration of textile technology and culture between the Li ancestors and Han immigrants on Hainan Island. I believe that these “Yazhou cloth” is an important carrier of humanistic history and ancient crafts. It is also a study of Huang Daopo’s exile in Yazhou to learn Qiongnan cotton textile technology. After returning to Shanghai, he innovated cotton textile tools and spread techniques, making significant contributions to domestic and even world cotton textiles. physical data of contribution and impact.” Zhou Changzheng said.
In 2018, Zhou Changzheng applied to the National Intellectual Property Office to register the trademark “Yazhou Cloth” and was approved.
Currently, Zhou Changzheng is using the more than 1,000 pieces of homespun cloth relics that he has collected to do two things around the theme of Yazhou cloth. The first is to organize and produce physical materials of Hainan’s ancient textile cultural relics with an innovative exhibition system—— “Cultural Mummy”, the second is to create a 6-volume album “One Hundred Relics of Yazhou Cloth” with physical data of cultural relics.
He said that the reason for doing this is to facilitate visitors to understand “Yazhou Cloth” intuitively, and also to make it easier for them to carry it out for communication and study.
However, his roof leaked recently during heavy rains, which posed a certain threat to the safety of Zhou Changzheng’s collection, especially the “Yazhou Cloth”. He had to take anti-seepage measures for the house as soon as possible.
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