The fabric of Chongming cultural heritage is ho
Homespun fabric is more than just the stuff of making clothes on the island of Chongming. For women there, the cloth threads through their community life, serving as dowries, diaries and even family histories.
Chongming homespun can be traced back to the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) or early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). During the reign of the Ming Emperor Jiajing, the wife of the local Chongming magistrate, who came from southern China, taught locals the advanced spinning skills of her hometown.
After that, the textile industry flourished on the island through to modern times, when factory-made cloth supplanted homemade fabric.
He Yongdi, 49, is a native of Chongming. Known as “homespun addict,” she has collected homespun over almost two decades, amassing 25 tons in 578 different varieties and more than 4,000 patterns.
“My love for homespun is partly associated with my love of colors,” she explained. “I collected crayons when I was a child, and I used to spend more time contemplating color schemes for a piece of cloth than doing homework.”
She may well be the last generation making Chongming homespun.
It’s a skill she learned as a child from her mother. She made her first homespun cloth when she was 11 and began to collect the cloths for her own dowry long before she knew a Mr Right might appear in her life.
“I still remember my mother weaving cloth on a loom while I was doing homework beside her,” He said, with a glisten of tears in her eyes. “Being with her made me feel safe and at ease.”
She remembers the era when the marriage of a Chongming daughter required parents to provide at least 18 bolts of homespun in a dowry. It had to contain three essential patterns. One bore the character (Ӌ), an abbreviation of the idiom which described parental expectations that a daughter would be tidy and orderly.
A second pattern of plum blossoms signified independence and strength.
The third pattern, which resembles a Chinese weight scale, symbolized satisfaction.
“The homespun embedded parents’ love for their children,” said He. “It doesn’t compare with the material wealth of today’s weddings, but it does excel in craftsmanship.”
The dowry homespun was a sign to the groom’s family that a son wasn’t marrying just a pretty face, but rather, a woman who had weaving skills.
Homespun also symbolized a Chongming woman’s housekeeping abilities.
“My friend and I always visited brides’ families stealthily on wedding days to see what homespun they were giving as dowry,” He said. “If we liked a design, we even cut off a small piece. Returning home, we would think about how to improve it in color, size and design. At heart, every Chongming woman is an independent designer who draws inspiration from life.”
A meteor pattern was popular in the 1970s.
Chongming women wished for health, prosperity and good weather through the “longstanding meteor shower” on the homespun.
The everyday sights of life — begonias, osmanthus, butterflies, ants, lanterns, balls and reeds — also evolved into patterns on the fabrics.
One of He’s favorite Chongming homespun cloths from the 1970s features several Chinese words, translated as “double happiness,” “youth,” “Beijing,” “doing morning chores,” “Wang Dachun,” “Wang Meili” and “October 2.”
The references relate to a local weaver named Wang Meili, who worked in Beijing when she was young and met a man named Wang Dachun on October 2. They later wed.
“I collected this piece from Wang Meili,” said He. “Her children didn’t care for Chongming homespun, so she gave it to me after I paid several visits to her home. This is an example of Chongming women using cloth to tell life stories because paper is so fragile and can be easily lost or damaged.”
Unique patterns with distinctive features record different periods.
Homespun, in essence, becomes a family history that an older generation can pass down to younger family members.
For example, model operas, an art form that flourished during the cultural revolution, is reflected in Chongming homespun woven between the 1960s and 1970s.
Some homespun of that time also contains Chinese characters that refer to the “revolutionary cause,” “industry” and “working together.”
“My mother always told me that I could