Yunnan: “Intangible Cultural Heritage + Tourism” Tourists Experience Bai Nationality Tie-Dyeing

During the summer vacation, Zhoucheng Village, Xizhou Town, Dali City, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, welcomed a large number of tourists from home and abroad. In the characteristic houses with green tiles and white walls, tourists listened to the history and culture of Bai tie-dyeing with great interest and experienced tie-dyeing skills in person. “Intangible Cultural Heritage + Tourism” has become a new hot spot for the integration of local culture and tourism.

Bai tie-dyeing skills are Dali’s traditional hand-made printing and dyeing techniques, which have a history of thousands of years. In 2006, it was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection list. In Zhoucheng Village, there are currently more than 300 tie-dyeing artists, 16 households engaged in tie-dyeing processing, and 286 households engaged in tie-dyeing sales. It is a well-known “Bai Tie-dyeing Hometown”.

“In its heyday, Zhoucheng almost had a dye vat in every household and every household produced tie-dyeing.” Duan Shukun, the inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Bai tie-dyeing, said that with the rapid development of the industry, Bai tie-dyeing is also facing many difficulties, such as the increasing aging of tie-dyeing workers and the gradual disappearance of traditional patterns.

“We must first ensure that the core skills can be passed on, and then seek market and product development and innovation.” In recent years, Duan Shukun and his wife Duan Yinkai (a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor) have regularly held tie-dyeing skills training. So far, more than 6,000 practitioners from inside and outside the province have been trained.

In 2015, the couple upgraded the family tie-dyeing workshop to the Puzhen Bai Tie-Dyeing Museum, and took the lead in launching the Bai tie-dyeing live experience project.

With the rapid development of Dali’s tourism industry, the Puzhen Bai Tie-Dyeing Museum has created a comprehensive platform integrating tie-dyeing production protection, tie-dyeing cultural display education, tie-dyeing skills experience production, and tie-dyeing tourism product sales through the innovative model of “intangible cultural heritage + tourism”, and has taken a new path for the protection, inheritance and innovative development of tie-dyeing.

Entering the museum, the Bai courtyard is decorated with tie-dyeing, full of a strong tie-dyeing cultural atmosphere, and the dazzling exhibits exude the unique charm of Bai tie-dyeing. After visiting the museum, tourists can learn to tie-dye in the production experience area under the guidance of inheritors or folk artists, and experience the whole process of Bai tie-dyeing.

Duan Shukun introduced that the Puzhen Bai Tie-Dyeing Museum currently receives about 30 tourist groups every day, up to 60, and receives about 180,000 tourists per year, and has initially embarked on a path of integrated development of intangible cultural heritage and tourism.

“Culture is the carrier and soul of tourism, and tourism is a way to display culture and a channel for communication and exchange.” Duan Shukun believes that only by correctly handling the relationship between culture and tourism and always maintaining the cultural characteristics of Bai tie-dyeing can Bai tie-dyeing remain vital.