Xie Huiru, a 77-year-old veteran master weaver of Shu Brocade, one of China's oldest 'four schools of silk brocade,' was orphaned at the age of eight and his illustrious career began at nine.

It was necessity that led him to become a weaver, he says.

"To find a bowl of rice to fill my hungry stomach was the only reason I learned brocade weaving," says Xie.

But today it is not hunger that drives the old man... it is a steely determination to preserve a beautiful skill he has come to revere.

Fifty years ago the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, where in ancient times the Silk Road of the South began, had 2,000-plus weavers. Today their numbers can be counted on two hands.

Most days Xie takes the bus to the Shu Brocade Academy in the city's western suburbs. Opened last year, the one-story building serves as both a makeshift museum where visitors can get a basic idea of the history of the Shu Brocade and buy silk works.

"It is my hope to help save this more than 2,000-year-old craft from extinction and to demonstrate and pass on the ancient technique of hand brocade weaving," says the dedicated weaver.

The average age of the weavers at the academy is 72, and Xie's partner at the loom is 67-year-old Cao Fuchun, who also began his weaving career aged nine.

While Cao sits on the top of a traditional wood and bamboo loom -- six metres long, five high and 1.5 wide -- his delicate fingers pick out the end of a single fine dyed silk thread, while Xie, seated in front, weaves the other end into the silken tapestry.

It usually takes them one day to weave between five and six centimeters. "We spend one week finishing a brocade the size of a small handkerchief," explains Xie. "Because it took time to weave, in ancient times it was said a fine work of Shu Brocade was as expensive as gold," he adds.

The average piece of brocade, most of which follows traditional designs, takes 7-8 months and when finished is truly a work of art. More complex weaves can take even longer. It takes several years to master the basics.

Weaving history

Together with the Song Brocade of Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province, the Yun Brocade of Nanjing in Jiangsu and the Zhuang Brocade in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Shu is the oldest and the school from which the other three evolved.

The history of sericulture in China can be traced back to the ancestors of Sichuan more than 4,000 years ago. Known as Shu in ancient times, Sichuan is one of the cradles of China's silk industry.

In the Warring States Period (403-221 BC), Shu Brocade became a major export. And with its thriving silk industry, Chengdu's silk products, including Shu Brocade, were exported across Asia.

So important was the trade that by the time of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) a special official, bearing the title Brocade Officer, had been appointed by the emperor. His role was to supervise the highly lucrative local industry which during its heyday operated more than 20,000 looms.

And in spite of the decline, Chengdu continues to be called "Brocade City," and the moat which runs through its heart, and where in bygone days finished brocades were soaked to prevent them from losing colors and prevent their different colors from mixing, is still known as the Brocade River.

In the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Chengdu, which had more than 2,000 private workshops and more than 10,000 looms producing brocades, had become a famous production and distribution center for the country's silk trade.

Soon after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chengdu set up a State-owned Shu Brocade Factory in 1951. Like all the other weavers in the city, Xie, who had worked in a private workshop, joined the factory.

To cater to the needs of the public, the factory specialized in mass producing silk for clothing and bedcovers. "It introduced mechanical production in the early 1960s because manual weaving took more time and its cost was higher. Eventually, hand weaving was replaced with mechanical production in 1966," recalls Xie.

From the early 1950s until the early 1990s, the factory's products sold well. But after 1995, market changes led to the shutdown of the factory the next year.

"People in Sichuan used to present a brocade bedcover with the design of the dragon (traditional Chinese symbol of male) and phoenix (symbol of female) to a newly-wed couple as a precious gift. But with the popularity of duvets, people no longer want to buy them. Few young people are interested in the patterns of traditional brocades," says Wang Guilin, chairman of Chengdu Shu Brocade Cultural Development Co Ltd.

Another market that dried up was in neighboring Japan. "A large number of brocades from Chengdu were exported there, but as the number of Japanese dressing in kimonos dropped, so too did their demand for brocades," explains Wang.

With the aim of saving the ancient craft from extinction, the Chengdu Silk Corporation, which oversees the city's silk industry, restored mechanized production at the former Chengdu Shu Brocade Factory, which it had merged with and opened the Shu Brocade Academy, where traditional wooden hand looms are used.

"At present only three looms in the factory have resumed production, but the company hopes more will follow suit," says Xie.

The factory, a short walk from the academy in the west of the city, has a large, softly lit workshop where three middle-aged weavers, surrounded by many idle, dusty looms, each operate an old mechanical loom. On one , the image of a Giant Panda was taking form on a piece of unfinished brocade.

Looming large

The dahualou -- which literally translates as big jacquard platform -- is a wooden loom built in the Qing Dynasty and considered the most representative of traditional Chinese looms. There are not many original dahualou looms still in existence in the country. The academy has made five replicas which are operated by seven retired employees of the former Chengdu Shu Brocade Factory, including Xie.

"Because of the dull routine and low pay, only poor people learned brocade weaving in the past. Nowadays, few young people want to be brocade weavers," he laments.

The two youngest hand brocade weavers in Chengdu, and both employed at the academy, are He Bin, 39, and Cao Daiwu, 37. The sons of retired weavers, He began to learn the trade when he was 17 and Cao aged 13.

Only hand looms can produce the finest Shu Brocade -- and in an effort to preserve the tradition, the Chengdu municipal government has decided to offer apprenticeships to students from local textile and design or technical schools to learn the craft from old masters like Xie.

And the local government plans to raise 30 million yuan (US$3.6 million) to invest in a series of schemes so that Chengdu can properly live up to its accolade of Brocade City.

Among the proposed programs is the creation of more readily marketable new brocades which can be used for interior decoration, garment trimmings and luxury lining for expensive goods, the publication of an all-encompassing book on "Chengdu Brocade," the establishment of a Shu Brocade Street near the academy, a museum and shops built in traditional Chinese style where brocades can be bought.

The brocade museum, which will be built on the basis of the Shu Brocade Academy, will introduce the variety, colors and special craftwork of Shu Brocade, exhibit historic documents and replicas of cultural relics pertaining to art and give demonstrations of hand brocade weaving.

Researchers, meanwhile, are collecting literature, Shu Brocade patterns from different dynasties and locating Shu Brocade relics from museums and universities across the country.

An application will be made for Shu Brocade to be included on the UNESCO list of Human Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage. Much work, however, still needs to be done before such an application, which requires very high standards can be made, says Wang.

(China Daily December 18, 2004)