The Meaning of Printing and Dyeing in China
2 min readThe Meaning of Printing and Dyeing in China
Printing and dyeing here refer to traditional folk handicraft of printing patterns on or dyeing various fabrics.In actual use，however，the term“printing and dyeing”may mean the folk technology of printing or the dyeing of fibrous fabrics inthe broad sense，whereas in the narrow sense，it means a specific printing and dyeing approach，namely，a method of printing colored patterns on cloth by applying wax on the part that is not to be colored with hard paper printing plate.In China，folk printing and dyeing have a long history with diversified approaches and techniques.
Having both practical and aesthetic value，printing and dyeing vividly reflect the simple，unaffected but profound cultural and artistic skills.
The Process of Wax-Dyeing
Wax-dyeing originated from ancient“laxie”，the principle of which is to make use of the dye-resistant property of beeswax or insect wax by tracing a patterndrawn on a white cloth in melted wax，and when the wax oil congeals，the cloth is soaked into the indigo vat for dyeing.When the cloth is properly dyed，the cloth is taken out for drying so that the dye will permeate into the fibre.
Finally the cloth is put into water and boiled until the wax is melted and removed from the cloth.Then the wax-dyed cloth is ready.As the wax is easily broken，the cloth is left with irregular cracks of color in the process of dyeing（commonly called ice cracks），creating a unique decorative effect.Wax-dyeing falls into two types:mono-colordyeing and doubledyeing.In some areas，four to five colors are dyed by means of process printing，with the colors natural and diversified.
