【外刊英语精读】贵州侗布蓝靛染 （上）| the Dong cloth

A  tradition worth dyeing for

古艺新生:贵州侗寨蓝靛染

Ethnic  costumes in China combine rich colors and patterns with style, and their distinctive beauty and grace dazzle people entering a village inhabited by the Dong ethnic group. If they do, they may be fortunate enough to see women making monochromatic dark blue fabric with a metallic sheen that they themselves wear. It is known as liangbu (bright cloth), a special textile that takes a dozen steps to make, and which is a glittering example of handmade Dong cloth.

中国的民族服饰将丰富的色彩与极具风格的纹样相结合，其别样的美丽和高雅让进入侗寨的人们目不暇接。如果他们走运的话，可以看见侗寨妇女们正在制作她们身上穿的带有金属光泽的深蓝单色织物。这种织物被称为“亮布”，因其工艺特殊，需要经过十几道工序才能制成，是侗族手工织布中闪闪发亮的典范。

Located  primarily in Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei provinces, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the Dong people have developed a trove of arts and crafts over the centuries, among them Grand Song (dage), and wooden architectural structures, such as drum towers and covered wind and rain bridges.

侗族主要分布在贵州、湖南、湖北和广西壮族自治区，几百年来，侗族人民发展了丰富多彩的艺术形式和手工技艺，其中包括侗族大歌、木构建筑，如鼓楼和风雨桥。

Their  traditional dress-making craftsmanship is recognized as a form of national-level intangible cultural heritage, and apparent upon entering a Dong village. The costumes are mostly made of the Dong cloth, which is a gift of nature, dyed a dark, rich blue, using wild plants to make indigo. Both finished cloth and cotton threads are dyed. The former becomes liangbu, while the dyed threads are often woven with white threads to create a variety of patterns.

侗族服饰制作技艺被认定为国家级非物质文化遗产，走进侗寨就能看到靓丽的风景线。侗族服饰主要由侗布制成，侗布是大自然的馈赠，用野生植物制成蓝靛，染成深邃而浓郁的蓝色。成品侗布和棉线都要经过浸染。前者成为亮布，而染色后的棉线通常与白线编织成各种纹样。

Family bond

家庭纽带

For the Dong people, liangbu has a range of meanings. It is an embodiment of life experience, as well as of wisdom derived from nature, and it helps them cope with cool, moist weather. It continues a time-honored tradition of handicrafting. And it is also a bond connecting family members across generations.

对侗族人而言，亮布具有多种含义。它是生活经验的体现，也是从大自然中汲取的智慧，还能帮助他们应对凉爽潮湿的天气。它延续着历史悠久的手工艺传统。同时，它也是连接几代家庭成员的纽带。

" As a child, I often heard my mother saying that girls needed to learn to make Dong cloth, and that anyone who didn't know how was considered incapable," says Yang Shenghua, a resident of Dali Dong village in Rongjiang county, Guizhou's Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture.

贵州省黔东南苗族侗族自治州榕江县大利侗寨村民杨胜花说：“从小，妈妈就说每个女人都要学会做侗布，不会做侗布是很不中用的一个人。”

The  55-year-old began to learn the craft when she was about 12, under the guidance of her mother Yang Xiuying. She remembers that the process, which begins with spinning thread, was rather difficult for a young girl to learn. "I learned to weave a meter, and another meter, until I was able to produce a piece as long as my mother could make. I also went to the mountains to pick banlangen (indigo woad root), an essential ingredient in preparing the dye for the cloth," she says.

现年55岁的她在母亲杨秀英的指导下，从12岁左右开始学习这门手艺。她记得，这门手艺要从捻线开始，对一个小女孩来说相当难学。“我学会了织一米，再织一米，直到我能织出和母亲织的一样长的作品。我还去山上采摘板蓝根（蓝靛菘根），这是准备染布的重要原料，”她说。

The  finished dye is made using water from boiled cowhide, and egg whites. The cloth is wrung, scrubbed and pounded, before it is turned into traditional Dong garments — dark indigo outfits with a colorful flower trim for the women, plain for the men.

成品染料会加入牛皮胶浆和鸡蛋清。布匹经过浸染、捶布、晾布和涂抹鸡蛋清等十多道工序后，才能变成传统的侗族服饰——靛蓝色侗衣，女装带有彩色花边，男装则是素色的。