Xiangyun's hometown keeps the original intention with ingenuity

Workers in Lan nuan town are drying incense yarn. Courtesy of respondents

On a sunny day, walking into Hesha Village, Lannuo Town, Nansha District, a vast meadow is covered with reddish-brown satin and shines. This is the "prototype" of the national intangible cultural heritage Xiangyun yarn.

From March to August every year, the workers in Lannuo Town begin to get busy: a piece of raw cloth, soaked and dyed by hand, dried in the hot sun for an hour, re-dipped and dried, and repeated several times until the sun goes down. This process has been operated about 40 times in total, and if it goes well, the process takes about a week, and then after the mud fixation, a piece of xiangyun yarn is born.

Xiangyun yarn is the crystallization of sunshine, river mud and sweat, condensing the aesthetic and unique oriental charm. After a hundred years of vicissitudes, Lan Nuo Town has a unique xiangyun yarn dyeing and finishing "gene". In recent years, Lan nu town attaches great importance to the inheritance and development of Xiangyun yarn dyeing and finishing skills, adhering to the original intention and ingenuity of Xiangyun's hometown, and building the Xiangyun yarn brand into a new cultural business card of Nansha New Area.

Written by: Liu Shan, Zhang Yuyi

"Watch the sky eat" of the fragrant cloud yarn

In the large drying field of Xiangyunsha Cultural and Creative Park in Hesha Village, zhang Jinyou, a worker, immersed the 20-meter-long gauze embryo into the potato liquid, repeatedly stroked and flipped, and when the yarn fully absorbed the potato liquid and then quickly fished it up, another group of workers relayed to dry it.

"It's too hard to do this, and a lot of young people don't want to do it." Zhang Jinyou's ancestors made a living making xiangyun yarn. He has been engaged in sunburn work in Lan Nuo Town for more than ten years, about 400 pieces of sunburn per day, working an average of more than 12 hours. Under the scorching sun, Zhang Jinyou's skin is dark, and his hands, which have been soaked in potato juice for many years, have turned yellow.

The dyeing and finishing technique of Xiangyun yarn is very complicated, which is different from other "exquisitely carved" independent handicrafts, and the production of Xiangyun yarn is the art of "watching the sky eat and collective labor". A drying field, generally operated by 18 workers at the same time, only when the sun comes out, can ensure the smooth production of a fabric.

Under the strong sunlight, the workers unfolded, tightened and straightened the soaked yarn on the grass of the drying field, and then pressed the bamboo poles to expose the yarn to the sun for 1 hour.

"Xiangyun Yarn needs to watch the sky to eat." This is the reason why Xiangyun yarn cannot be replaced by machines for mass production. The production of Xiangyun yarn is not closed, but intertwined with natural elements such as sunlight, earth, vegetation, and river water.

"When the weather is good, it can be dried for a week, and when the weather is bad, it takes a long time to dry, and as soon as it feels like it is about to rain, we have to immediately 'grab' the yarn on the lawn." Factory director Mo Gangxing said.

After three washes, nine boils and eighteen drying of the yarn, and then the river mud is carried out, and the river mud needs to use the mineral-rich river mud unique to the town of Lan Nucleus.

The gray-black pure river mud is stirred into a paste, thinly applied to the silk surface that has been soaked in many times, and the tannins in the potato and the high-priced iron ions in the river mud have a chemical reaction, and the silk surface is dyed black-brown and lasts for a long time.

It is understood that Lan Nu Town has more than 400 years of production history of Xiangyun yarn, as a typical Lingnan characteristic Sha tin water town, with potato, river mud, grassland, sunshine these four indispensable elements of Xiangyun yarn production, especially the river mud rich in iron elements, but also for the production of high-quality Xiangyun yarn fabric to provide natural guarantee.

Xiangyun yarn is a living intangible cultural heritage. Almost no fabric needs sunlight, mud and lawn like Xiangyun yarn, and different yarn blanks, sunlight and soil also make the quality of Xiangyun yarn different. Uncontrollable natural conditions directly affect the cycle and output of Xiangyun yarn production, which also makes the finished products of Xiangyun yarn unearthed in Lannuo Town more precious and exported to all directions.

From a factory to a string of industrial chains

Lan Nu Town aims at the intangible cultural heritage industry chain and has a lofty vision. In 2021, Lan nu town introduced Hangzhou Runxiang Silk Co., Ltd. and The Yunsha Xingyun Xiangyun Yarn Industrial Park in Banmei Village was jointly settled.

"There are so many intangible cultural heritages, and there are really not many that can be made into industries." Luo Zhaorong, an investor in the Yunsha Xingyun Xiangyun Yarn Industrial Park, is sure that Xiangyun Yarn will be able to do so.

In fact, as early as before settling down, Luo Zhaorong and Lan Nu town have been "passing through the mud" for more than ten years. Luo Zhaorong told reporters that he has about 100 acres of Xiangyun yarn drying field in Xiqiao Town, Nanhai, Foshan, and since 2008, he has opened an indispensable process of Xiangyun yarn in Lan Nuo Town. Semi-finished products of Xiangyun yarn soaked in the South China Sea of Foshan will be transported to the mud field in Lan Nuo Town for "passing mud" and undergoing a "baptism" of the Lam Nucleus River.

Luo Zhaorong specially calculated an account: At present, the average market price of Xiangyun yarn fabric is about 200 yuan / meter, the market value of finished clothing products is about 5 times the market value of the fabric, and the market size of xiangyun yarn finished products is about 25 billion yuan, but the current output of fabrics can only meet the needs of about 50% of the market.

"This is an industry that has both economic and social benefits, and it is necessary to gather the production, research and development, design, promotion, sales and other links in the industrial chain." Luo Zhaorong said.

In recent years, Lannuo Town has made every effort to promote land circulation, increase land intensification, revitalize rural inefficient land, and achieve centralized operation, on this basis, continuously introduce professional teams to develop the Xiangyun yarn industry in a professional, standardized, industrialized and large-scale manner.

"The determination of industrial development and the red cultural soil of Lannuo Town have infected me." According to Luo Zhaorong's recollection, from the project settlement site selection, the processing of enterprise licenses, the handling of water and electricity facilities, to the problems encountered in the production process, the expansion and development of enterprises, etc., Lan Nuo Town is following up in an all-round way and serving to the end.

The Yunsha Xingyun Xiangyun Yunsha Industrial Park in Banmei Village is now under intensive construction. "In another month, the banana field in front of you will be transformed into a fragrant cloud yarn drying field, and pieces of fragrant cloud yarn ready-to-wear will go out from here." Luo Zhaorong pointed to this land of more than 200 acres, full of starlight.

Infrastructure such as the Xiangyun Yarn Museum, Product Release Center and Research and Learning Experience Center in the Yunsha Xingyun Xiangyun Yarn Industrial Base is also under construction, and the first phase is expected to be put into operation in May. In the near future, young fashion designers at the national and provincial levels will enter the industrial park, and use the idle houses of farmers to establish clothing design studios, set up live broadcast rooms on the drying field, and hold fashion shows.

"We will promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry from the original pure processing to a marketing and cultural exchange center, and give it higher economic value and social benefits by creating a whole industry chain." The relevant person in charge of Lannuo Town said that it will be built into a whole industrial chain of Xiangyun yarn integrating production, drying, processing, exhibition and sales production, private customization and brand incubation.

Lannuo Town regards the promotion of the development of the Cultural and Creative Industry of Xiangyun Yarn as an important measure to implement the rural revitalization strategy, not only pays attention to the inheritance of the traditional dyeing and finishing process of Xiangyun Yarn, but also actively combines non-genetic inheritance with modern aesthetic innovation, leading the intangible cultural heritage industry to "go global".

Intangible cultural heritage "live" up

It has been on the fashion stage of China International Fashion Week for four consecutive years; Hesha Xiangyun Leyuan has successfully created "Guangzhou Agricultural Park"; Xian Xinghai Culture and Art Creation Center's Lan Nu Xiang Yun Yarn Exhibition Hall has officially opened to the public... As a symbol of culture, the cultural brand of Olive Core Xiangyun Yarn has gradually started.

On weekends, the Xiangyunsha Cultural and Creative Park in Hesha Village is bustling with tourists. Walking on the sheep intestine trail, they can not only visit the complete Xiangyun yarn dyeing and finishing process, but also have a close contact with the most "fresh" Xiangyun yarn in the tanning field, and they can also travel with their families to pick food and drink in the Xiangyun Yarn Orchard, leisure and entertainment. In 2020, the Creative Park attracted more than 70,000 local and foreign tourists, driving the rapid development of rural tourism.

Lan nu town not only attaches great importance to the inheritance and development of Xiangyun yarn dyeing and finishing skills, but also promotes the culture of Xiangyun yarn, inherits the craft of Xiangyun yarn, and develops the combination of Xiangyun yarn industry with leisure, tourism and tourism industry.

As the hometown of Xinghai, Lannuo Town is trying to integrate the red culture with the intangible cultural heritage. This is also the original intention of Luo Zhaorong to come here, when the red note meets the intangible art of xiangyun yarn, what kind of spark can collide? Luo Zhaorong believes that Xiangyun yarn is no longer an intangible handicraft lying in the window, but a cultural aesthetic that infiltrates life.

As early as 2015, Lan nu town and South China Agricultural University to carry out industry-university-research cooperation, the establishment of Xiangyun yarn culture research center, the establishment of Xiangyun yarn R & D and design team, dedicated to the study and exploration of the cultural value of Xiangyun yarn. Since then, Lan Nu Town and South China Agricultural University have successfully applied for the "National Arts Fund Exchange and Promotion Funding Project", and held the Spring and Summer Fashion Conference of Xiang Yun Yarn, the Xiang Yun Yarn Summit Forum and the International Art Fund Xiang Yun Yarn Fashion Promotion Activities.

Xiangyun yarn is both a culture and an emotion.

Lan Nu Town cooperates with the professional design team of intangible cultural heritage to design and produce fashionable cultural and creative products such as sachets, handbags and bags. Through history and keeping up with fashion trends, designers have spent a lot of effort to make Xiangyun yarn "alive" again, showing the elegance of Chinese neoclassical.

In the "Intangible Cultural Heritage is Fashion" Xiangyun Yarn Static Exhibition, feel the quiet beauty of the years of Xiangyun Yarn; in the "Olive Core Intangible Cultural Heritage Cloud Yarn Sharing" parent-child visit to the Xiangyun Yarn Production Base activities, come to a "historical dialogue" through time and space; Xiangyun Yarn handicraft DIY production, Cloud Yarn model body training, let the light of the intangible cultural heritage shine into reality; the photography exhibition uses the lens language to show the beauty of Xiangyun yarn...

Relying on the characteristic regional venues, Lan Nuo Town has launched a series of high-quality and characteristic cultural services, vividly displaying the humanistic history, dyeing and finishing skills and craft products of Lam Nuo Xiangyun Yarn, so that a new generation of young people will fall in love with intangible cultural heritage.

In Lan Nuo, a number of kindergartens have set up a special course of Xiangyun Yarn, condensing the dyeing and finishing process into the classroom, and all 9 public primary and secondary schools in the town have promoted the education of Xiangyun Yarn culture and craft science, and the children have bathed and grown up in the intangible cultural heritage.

In 2021, Zhou Xiaogang, a 61-year-old non-hereditary inheritor of Lan Nu Xiang Yun Yarn, was hired as a senior engineer with his "sunning skills". Zhou Xiaogang believes that as an intangible cultural heritage, the promotion of Xiangyun yarn also needs innovation, "as long as we have more innovation, we can attract the attention of more people, especially young people, so as to better inherit traditional crafts." ”

Each urban area has its own cultural imprint. In the olive core, the rebirth of Xiangyun yarn is not only the activation of traditional craftsmanship, but also the excavation of the urban context, and also reflects the original intention of ingenuity to protect intangible cultural heritage. A group of modern "craftsmen" have adhered to the dyeing and finishing technology of Xiangyun yarn for decades, so that the Lan nuclear intangible cultural heritage has been rejuvenated in southern Guangdong.

A culturally charming town is gathering momentum in Lingnan.