Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:49:16.946Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Survival, Revival and Continuance: The Menglian Weaving Revival Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2013

He Shuzhong
Affiliation:
Founder and Chairman, Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center; http://en.bjchp.org/
Lyndel Prott
Affiliation:
Hon. Professor, University of Queensland, Australia; [email protected]

Abstract

Recent efforts to ensure the survival of cultural diversity in a globalized world have led to efforts to preserve, revitalize, and continue craft traditions in marginal communities. This article records an effort to support the distinctive Dai culture in the province of Yunnan, China, by first establishing an archive of documents, photographs, and oral records of the traditions of a Dai community in the county of Menglian and following that by reviving and expanding the traditional weaving carried out by Dai women. It shows the complexity of this kind of activity, the need to encourage younger members of the community to learn the distinctive techniques of weaving and to develop a niche market for its products. Group crafts and traditions have often developed and varied over centuries; further adaptations may be needed to restore viability. Reinstatement of quality improved its value by adopting wider looms, better dyeing techniques, higher quality thread, and by encouraging new creative efforts in the development of the final product, thus providing better economic returns to the weavers and the community in general. In providing an exemplary process for isolated and dispirited communities to improve their economic circumstances and reinvigorate their ethnic traditions, it demonstrates the significant contribution that nongovernmental organizations can make to this kind of work.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anheier, H., and Isar, Y. P.. Cultures and Globalization: Heritage, Memory and Identity. London: SAGE, 2011. p. 3.Google Scholar
Blake, J.Commentary on the UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Builth Wells, UK: Institute of Art and Law, 2006.Google Scholar
Blake, J. ed. Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Challenges and Approaches. Builth Wells, UK: Institute of Art and Law, 2007.Google Scholar
India Must Revive Designs and Textures.” Frontline 19, no. 14. http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1914/19140780.htm (14–19 July 2002).Google Scholar
Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. “The Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China.” http://news.xinhuanet.com/zhengfu/2002-11/18/content_633166.htm (October 2001; accessed 10 September 2012).Google Scholar
Kruse Vaai, E.Women Weaving Traditions into Samoan Life.” Intangible Cultural Heritage Courier 12 (3 July 2012).Google Scholar
Lees, E.Intangible Cultural Heritage in a Modernizing Bhutan: The Question of Remaining Viable and Dynamic.” International Journal of Cultural Property 18, no. 2 (April 2011): 179200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prott, L. V.An International Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage?In einem vereinten Europa dem Frieden der Welt zu dienen … Lieber amicorum Thomas Oppermann, edited by Classen, C. D.et al., 645674. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2001.Google Scholar
UNESCO/World Commission on Culture and Development. Our Creative Diversity Paris: UNESCO, 1995.Google Scholar