The Study Of Dai Brocade’s Pattern Art And Weaving Technology

Dai brocade is traditional folk artifact mainly used by Dai ethnic group in China. This ancientweaving process has a long history recorded from Han dynasty, and was rapidly developed laterduring Tang and Song Dynasty. In both Song and Yuan dynasty, the Dai brocades were treated astributes to the emperor for their features of delicate weaving, unique pattern and gorgeous colors.First，Differing by the residential areas of Dai people, Dai brocade is separated into two styles:Xishuangbanna and Dehong. Those two styles show characteristics of both unity and diversity,which indicate the subtle difference of culture and life in between two areas. Dai brocades’ uniquestyle comes from their distinctive patterns, which cover various themes from daily life such asplants, animals, people and buildings, and combined with geometric figures by simplify andabstraction. Also exist kinds of formation of patterns, including independent pattern, and continuouspatterns like two sides pattern and four square pattern, which mirrored every aspect of life for Daipeople. The usage of colors also played a important role in representing main features of this ethnicgroup, and thus becomes another key factor to make Dai brocade different. It is because of the veryfact that Dai brocade is well related to the living environments, ethnic customs and belief, thistextile is not only a kind of nice-looking crafts, but also reflects the diligence and wisdom of localpeople, and becomes a epitome of Dai people’s life and culture.Dai brocade is comparable in its delicateness with the fancy homespun in the Jiangnan regionwell-known for its proven techniques. This paper takes the fancy homespun in Nantong as aexample to compare with Dai brocade in their patterns, colors and implied meanings of ethniccustom, and further analyzes on the possible factors that affect these features. From the analysis, wefind that even though the two kinds have many differences in representing cultures of people indifferent areas and ethnic groups, they also have some similarities in the source of patterns,structure of figures and color assortment, indicating the unity of Chinese culture. This is a importantclue for later application of using traditional Dai brocade to modern women’s fashion. At this timewhen most of the ethnical crafts that come from the agricultural society are withering away, Daibrocade becomes even more distinctive and precious. Since the brocade weaving technique of Daipeople has been listed as the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, newopportunity is beckoning to inherent and to develop Dai brocade in the modern life. In this paper westart from our theoretical research in Dai brocade’s history, pattern themes, color assortments andethnic meanings, and make further discussion about the designs of Dai brocade in modern womenfashion and accessories, as well as some measures to make it match modern aesthetic standardwhile keep its unique cultural deposits.