China · Surface Design / Embroidery
瑶族扎染与刺绣 (Yáozú Zhārǎn yǔ Cìxiù)
The Yao people — an ethnic group of over 3 million spread across Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, and beyond into Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand — maintain a distinctive textile tradition combining tie-dye (zha ran — stitch-resist indigo dyeing) and embroidery in a tradition that varies significantly across Yao subgroups (Panyi Yao, Chashan Yao, etc.). The Yao tie-dye uses a stitch-resist technique — small stitches sewn through the fabric in specific patterns that, when pulled tight and the fabric tied, resist the dye to produce negative patterns. After dyeing and stitch removal, Yao women then embroider over and around the dye patterns in a technique that integrates the resist pattern as the background structure of the embroidered composition — the resist pattern and the embroidery forming a single integrated design.
Risk level: Endangered · Within China's national ICH system; also within Vietnamese and Laotian ICH systems (trans-national tradition)
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