Chinese Venice(2)
Besides lodgings, Xizha’s main street is home to a variety of workshops housing artisans crafting daily items like painted folding fans, wooden buckets and cloth shoes, as well as a traditional wine shop with large jars of different varieties of rice brew.
Bustling Xitang demarcated the boundary between the ancient states of Wu and Yue 25 centuries ago. One of the most well-known products of Wuzhen is an indigo-dyed fabric used to make everything from clothes to shoes to pouches. We breezed through a spiffed-up “factory” with dyeing vats and drying baskets while our guide explained the various stages of production.
Three years ago, I had an opportunity to observe how the patterns are made at Wuzhen’s eastern divide (Dongzha) which has similar workshops, including one making hand-spun cotton for the dyeing works. Unlike batik which utilises wax, the artisans use a bean flour paste to handprint designs on white cotton fabric prior to immersing it in blue pigment, after which the paste is dissolved to reveal intricate reverse-white motifs on a deep navy background.
The long bolts of blue and white cloth drying on tall posts in the yard displayed a profusion of floral patterns. That so many different designs can be created using just one colour is testament to the skill and ingenuity of the people who live in this 1,200-year-old water town.
Due to the inclement, weather we spent some time in Xizha’s Footbinding Museum which has a mind-boggling collection of tiny shoes to fit the “three-inch golden lotus” imposed on Chinese women since a concubine named Yao Niang started the practice in the 10th century.
There were single engagement shoes made to display the fine needlework skills of the bride and gorgeous red wedding shoes; coffin shoes with a ladder motif on the sole to help the deceased climb up to heaven; outer-shoes worn over sleeping shoes, and even rain shoes brushed with oil.
