Category Archives: What stakeholders’ say

What stakeholders' say

customise your zha-ran

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When I keep going with the journey of exploring all the possibilities of zha-ran innovation, I noticed that young generation is very fond of unique or customized designs to present their identities.

So now I came up with the idea of zha-ran 2020 Nature Collection. With the combination of tie-dye fabric and gold, the design conveyed the message of ‘the beauty of tradition’.

Processed with VSCO with g3 preset
Processed with VSCO with g3 preset

During the whole process of my exploration, I realized that there are a lot of opportunities to bring traditional tie-dye into our sight and Chinese zha-ran is not an “out-of-date” textile dyeing technique or a local craft but more like an art form and an expression that young generation can be interested and an organic lifestyle.

What stakeholders' say

feedback of workshops

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Shukun Duan told me there is around 50,000 to 60,000 young people come to visit the Bai Ethnic Group Zha-ran Museum each year since 2015 and there is around 10,000 among them are willing to know how to make zha-ran.

•“We see our museum as a very important workshop to attract young people come to learn. Some of them even build up their own tie-dye studio after learning the technique from our museum.”

•Wu Baiyu, the professor in Yunnan University

We always encourage our students to go to villages in China to get inspired with some new ideas and to learn their local traditional cultures. If Chinese tie-dye companies are willing to offer some training opportunities, I would love to recommend my students to go.

•HANMIN ZHANG, the owner of Lanxu Zha-ran Textile company in China

Last year, I was invited to be the guest speaker to Open MUJI in Kunming and I organized a small workshop with MUJI to show what is zha-ran technique. It was a huge success.

What stakeholders' say

Feedback of online museum

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•Shukun Duan, the owner of Puzhen Zha-ran Textile company in China

“During the Covid, we cannot open the shop or museum to allow people come to visit or buy our tie-dye products. But because of the online platforms, we attracted more young people and we did a successful live broadcast to sell our zha-ran products. And some of our followers left message to ask where they can learn zha-ran which made me so excited.”

•Zhoucheng Local Government

We strongly support all the creative efforts to promote our zha-ran technique and online platform is an important way to arouse more attention of our traditional zha-ran technique preservation.

Intervention?, What stakeholders' say

Innovate our tradition?

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During all these days, I did a lot of research about fashion design. And I found out a lot of luxury brands are combined their products with some traditional techniques, such as tie-dye.

Dior design has tie-dye style
LV handbag with the printing looks like tie-dye
Chanel chain bag with tie-dye printing

So this bring me an idea, can we innovate our traditional design and make it more diverse or fashionable?

So I interviewed Fanglu Lin, the designer of Beijing Zha-ran Culture&Arts, ltd. Apparently she did a lot of innovation about Chinese traditional tie-dye and some of her artworks won the recognition internationally.

I like to innovate our traditional tie-dye patterns and design something more modern. From the exhibition I had I can see young generation like our traditional techniques, we just need to find more ways to attract them and tell them all of these treasures are not old.

Fang lu said.
Intervention?, What stakeholders' say

Young talent is the future of our tradition inheritance

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HANMIN ZHANG（the left）, the owner of Lanxu Zha-ran Textile company in China

When I had the chance talk to Hanmin, I felt like she is such a good example of how young generation can inherit our cultural heritage

She was born in Dali where is the hometown of Chinese tie-dye. After she grown up, she found a job in Beijing and she stayed there for many years until she got pregnant. When she came back to her hometown, she felt sad that she was no longer seeing zha-ran everywhere like her childhood memory. So how to make the traditional Chinese tie-dye still alive in our lives became to her goal.

‘Are we really going to watch our traditions dying in front us? Zha-ran supposed to be one of our most proud of tradition that we need to keep it and pass by to next generation.‘

In the end of 2019, Hanmin was invited to be the guest speaker to Open MUJI in Kunming, China. And she prepared a small workshop to the audiences that day.

And then I proposed to her that maybe she can look for more chances to do more workshops in different cities with more brands.

Intervention?, What stakeholders' say

Museum is not only for tradition showing

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Shukun Duan, the founder of Bai Ethnic Group Tie-dye Museum

The young generation need to know their ‘root’, the history, the culture which bring them to today.

When I was having this interview with Shukun, I was impressed by his passion of zha-ran, the Chinese tie-dye technique.

As the first national Zha-ran textile museum, Puzhen Museum is not only a place to preserve all Chinese tie-dye traditions, but an important platform to attract more people come to know about zha-ran.

So my intervention idea is can we use the museum as a place to hold workshops for young talents who wants to learn about Chinese tie-dye?

During the conversation with Shukun, he told me that there is around 50,000 to 60,000 young people come to visit the museum each year and there is around 10,000 among them are willing to learn how to make zha-ran.

And during the lock-down, the museum had to shut down without any choices. So I was proposing to make some videos online to show the museum.

扎染文化传承之璞真博物馆游学记,大理旅游攻略- 马蜂窝
大理璞真扎染博物馆(第1页) - 一起扣扣网

Shukun said, he believes young generation has to come to really try to make tie-dye with them and they could understand how amazing of zha-ran textile.

What stakeholders' say

Who are my stakeholders

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First, I made a list of which area will be related to my stakeholders, then I started to reach out to talk about my ideas, my intervention plans and here is the draft of who responded to me in the past over two months and this could be a good start.

  • TEXTILES FACTORY

SHUKUN DUAN, the owner of Puzhen Zha-ran Textile company in China

HANMIN ZHANG, the owner of Lanxu Zha-ran Textile company in China

MAZDAK KHOSHDAMAN, Textile manufacturer in LA TEXTILE

  • DESIGNERS

AGNE JONYNAITE, the founder of Uped workshops

Fanglu Lin, the designer of Beijing Zha-ran Culture&Arts, ltd

  • TEXTILE EXPERTS

WENDY GARRITY the owner of Textile Trails

Educational Agency

Baiyu Wu, Yunnan University

  • FASHION CRITICS

MATT TRUEMAN, an arts journalist and theatre critic

ZARA KORUTZ , the senior account executive in The Washington Post, specialised in fashion critics

  • WEBSITE

LISA GREGG, the founder at LivingxLG, Limited

YERETH JANSEN, the founder at Gokunming.com

  • GOVERNMENT

Dali local government

Yunnan Provincial government