The Key Of Textile Power Innovation Opens The Door To New Qu

At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, when Chinese athletes wave the five-star red flag, few people know that a dazzling touch of Chinese red comes from the hands of textile workers in Keqiao District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province: after more than 10 processes, nano waterproof technology and engraving process are integrated, and they are not afraid of fading and rain.

Keqiao, thousands of kilometers away from Paris, has the East Zhejiang Canal comparable to the Seine River, and also has the world's largest textile distribution center - China Light Textile City.

This is the printing and dyeing industry cluster park in Keqiao District, Shaoxing City (information photo). Photographed by Jiang Han, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Xiao Xingshui, a Keqiao fabric manufacturer, laughingly claimed that he also deserved a "gold medal" - the clothing fabric printing of the Chinese delegation and the Canadian delegation was completed in his Qianyong Textile Co., Ltd.

Printing complex patterns on nylon fabric seems simple, but it is actually full of challenges. In the face of foreign high-level peers, Xiao Xingshui led enterprises with less than 100 people to "pull out" the world's leading nylon digital printing technology bit by bit over the past 10 years.

Not only Keqiao, China's textile "new" strength is closely "intertwined" with the Olympic feast, which is beyond many people's imagination:

When Liu Yukun "shot down" the gold medal of men's 50m rifle in three positions, the "champion" set on his body was developed by the team of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, with completely independent intellectual property rights, breaking the monopoly of western countries on shoes and clothing for shooting competitions;

When Deng Yawen helped the Chinese team win the championship of freestyle scooter for the first time, the bicycle that could not be broken was produced by Dongguan Taihe Composite Material Co., Ltd. and made of domestic carbon fiber;

When many athletes cried out because of the Olympic Village's "giving up air conditioning", Jiangsu Golden Sun Textile Technology Co., Ltd. blended jade nano powder into the "ice mat" produced by fiber, bringing cool comfort;

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Raw materials, ingredients, equipment, design, weaving, printing and dyeing... Today's Chinese textile industry is unique in the world with complete categories and complete industrial chain.

Xiao Xingshui, an old textile worker, believes that the traditional perception of a piece of cloth has been overturned. He can no longer look at "new" textiles from the old perspective.

Exploring the history of China, the brocade silk embroidery thread is intertwined with the brilliant longitude and latitude of Chinese culture; Look at the new era, the national tide and new rhyme weave a better life; To develop new quality productivity, "old textile" is still rising.

 This "cloth" is deeply involved in "weaving" Chinese civilization

Where there are people on the earth, there is the shadow of textile.

More than 6200 years ago, at the Neolithic Cultural Site of Caoxieshan in Suzhou, the earliest textile in China so far - Gro fabric was unearthed. Another textile representative of the Neolithic culture is the broussonetia bark, also from China, known as the living fossil of non-woven clothing.

"Textiles and clothing are an important symbol of why people are human beings," said Jia Yiliang, curator of Shanghai Textile Museum. "Textiles have never been absent in the process of human civilization."

All things can be spun, and civilization can be woven. Hemp, kudzu, silk, wool, cotton... are not only the raw materials for clothing, home furnishings, and artworks, but also serve medical and health care, engineering, and even military supplies, and even served as currency.

More than 1200 years ago, on an ordinary winter day in the Tang Dynasty, a narrow road in Mianchi, Henan, was very noisy. A cart full of pottery got stuck in the ice and snow, blocking the road.

As night fell, more and more passengers gathered behind. A man named Liu Po went up and asked, "How much is the jar on the carriage worth?" The answer was "seven or eight thousand yuan".

Liu Po opened the bundle, took out some fine silk and "bought" the jars, then ordered the servant to push the jars on the wagon down the cliff. The weight was reduced, the car finally moved, and the crowd cheered.

This is the story of "Liu Po's quick decision" - here, textiles play a monetary role.

In the Chinese context, "food, clothing, housing and transportation" is the most basic needs of people, and "food and clothing are enough to know the honor and disgrace" is the common sense of civilization. As for the idiom allusions such as "returning home in fine clothes" and "walking in fine clothes at night", they also represent the weight of "clothes".

Kong Yingda, a great scholar in the Tang Dynasty, annotated the word "Hua Xia": "China has great etiquette, so it is called Xia; and the beauty of clothing is called Hua."

In ancient times, the hierarchy of kinship was called "Five Clothes", and the peaceful alliance of the Chinese princes in the Central Plains was called "Clothes Association".

From the Warring States Period when King Wuling of Zhao dressed in Hu and rode and shot, to the reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, to the appearance of modern Chinese tunic suit... Small clothes, with ritual and music rules, are related to family and country governance.

The textile industry, which is deeply involved in "weaving" the Chinese civilization, is also deeply marked with cultural confidence.

In the spring of 2024, a special exhibition entitled "Clothes create everything, traditional reconstruction - colorful horse dress" will be opened to the public in Shanghai Textile Museum. Among the many exhibits, the most shocking one for the visitors is a jacket made from a horse face skirt.

This dress was donated by an American woman. Her ancestors came to China to do trade in the 19th century and brought back this Chinese dress embroidered with the sea, river and cliff patterns, cloud and dragon patterns, and phoenix and bird patterns that symbolize Fushan and Shouhai. It is their family's "heirloom".

The Horse Face Skirt Exhibition attracted more than 40000 people on site, with more than one million online browsing. Some men even went to the fitting area to experience it.

Jia Yiliang expected this grand occasion. "With the increasing popularity of Chinese traditional dress culture, the horse face skirt is very popular and keeps going out of circles."

This autumn, the butterfly pattern embroidery fabric created by Ke Qiao designer Gao Jing was made into fashion and sold in Shenzhen. The design inspiration of this fabric comes from a Xiang embroidery wedding dress seen by Gao Jing: the black bottom cloth is almost covered by butterfly and flower embroidery, "every thread and butterfly seems to carry a thousand years of cultural code".

This is the general manager of Shaoxing Jingyuan Creative Design Company. This year, he completed his undergraduate thesis - "Research on the Application of Xiang Embroidery Art Elements in Fashion Design". A few years ago, Gao Jing, who has been engaged in embroidery fabrics for many years, decided to return to the profession of "clothing and costume design" and focus on Xiang embroidery with a history of more than 2000 years - she always wanted to know where the origin of every stitch was.

The wedding dress is one of the answers she got. Gao Jing believes that the butterfly pattern wedding dress can be derived from the "mother butterfly" in the Miao legend. "The Miao people believe that everything is conceived by 'Mother Butterfly', so they embroider butterflies on their clothes to show their respect and worship for their ancestors, and also pray for the blessing of 'Mother Butterfly'."