Blue Nankeen Fabric Museum

In the same week that I went to the propaganda poster museum, I also thought that it would be opportune to also go to a fabric museum that I had been passing by for at least a year.

I followed the signs through a convoluted alley way. It twisted and turned through a residential block. I shamelessly looked through people's windows and in their yards. When I finally arrived at the "museum", I was a little disappointed. It was much smaller that I thought, there was opportunity for hands on work (ok- so I don't really know if I was thinking that there would really be a factory there), the cases and displays were a little shabby, and there was the ubiquitous shop where visitors could buy all kinds of goods made with the indigo colored fabric. It took longer to get there than to go through the museum. However, the workers had done a wash of some of their product, and it was, rather charmingly, hanging outside to dry. Ended up with a couple of good photos to show for my efforts.



There is quite a bit more to the story of this fabric, so I thought I would share what I found after being intrigued by the museum. Nankeen is a description applied to a particular weave of cotton; it is typically light yellow in color (natural color) and used for the making of shirts and men's trousers. It originated in the city of Nanking which is also part of the ancient silk road, over three thousand years ago (I mention the silk road reference because all the sites do, but there additional information about the fabric traveling on the silk road as a product of lesser commercial value in the quick searches that I conducted). Blue Nankeen refers to the use of indigo in the hand printed, sometimes described as primitively simplistic fabric.

The pattern is applied to the fabric with hand-carved stencils, originally made from wood but now from heavy paper. A mix of soya bean flour and slaked lime is applied through the openings of the stencil onto the 100% cotton fabric. When dry, the fabric is then dipped numerous times into the large tubs containing the indigo dye. After the right color is achieved and the fabric has dried, the paste is scraped off, revealing the white patterns on the blue cloth. The fabric is then washed, dried, and ironed. In a way, this is a bit like batik. It is said that this is a fast-disappearing historic art form which embodies ancient Chinese culture and traditions. The stores around China carry many reproductions which can be spotted by the weight of the fabric and the even markings of the patterns.

I saw some clothing made with a commercially produced version of this famous fabric last year and was completely attracted by the color and the patterns. So much so that I bargained for about fifteen minutes with a woman and ended up with two qipao (pronounced chi pao- traditional Chinese dresses) for a real bargain.