The Origin and Development of Tie-dyeing

Tie-dyeing has two origins. First, it originated in the Qin and Han Dynasties; It is said that during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the cloth unearthed from the No.1 Tomb in the Sixth District of Astana, Xinjiang, is similar to Fang Sheng in today's tie-dyed patterns in Zigong. Unearthed fabrics have mature tie-dyeing technology and have been used in women's wear. The application of various tie-dyeing methods combined with various dyeing techniques in the tie-dyeing of extended materials makes the dyed patterns varied and have amazing artistic charm. Tie-dyeing has a history of about 1500 years in China. The earliest existing physical object is the twisted valerian printed silk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Tie-dyeing reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, and it became fashionable for nobles to wear twist clothes. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the tie-dyeing process was once banned by the imperial court because of its complicated process and labor consumption, which led to the decline and disappearance of the tie-dyeing process. However, the ethnic minorities in the southwest border still retain this ancient skill.

Besides China, Indian, Japanese, Cambodian, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian and other countries also have tie-dyed handicrafts. In 1970s, tie-dyeing became a popular handicraft, which was widely used in clothes, ties and wall hanging. Traditional tie-dyeing process can develop from monochrome to multicolor effect by using multiple tie-dyeing processes on the same fabric.