There is a village named Chou Cheng in Dali basin, Yunnan, China where indigo-blue tie-dyeing is prosperous. Chou Cheng is a village about 2,000 meters above sea level. The people who live in this place are the Chinese minority group called Bai (white) people. Women in the village work very hard day after day tying cloths with thread and needles. Today, more than 90% of the indigo-blue tie-dyed products produced in the factory are exported to Japan. From February to November, 2001, we exhibited indigo-blue tie-dyeing in a former Temporary Exhibition showing the relation between its technique, its history, and the life of the people. Since April, 2002, fresh exhibits of indigo-blue tie-dyeing have been displayed as a thematic exhibit within the East Asia Regional Exhibition of the Permanent Exhibition.
Ms. Dong Gen Yun, who lives in Chou Cheng is now in her middle 80s. Before she got married she worked hard tie-dyeing cloth to bring to her future husband's home in the same village. She and her father dyed more than twenty pieces of cloth each
forty centimeters square to be used as head scarfs. They also added to her trousseau three pieces of
tie-dyed towel to be also used as head scarfs. In addition they made two
pillowcases,
a hanging partition for the doorway of the newly-married couple's bedroom, two
sheets and one large and one small
square cloth to be used for wrapping a baby or for covering furniture.
This exhibition will display five of the articles from the Museum's collection.