Wax Printing Culture

Wax Printing: It is also called wax plucking in ancient times. Wax printing is a common traditional printing technique shared by all the minor ethnic groups in Guizhou. The Guizhou Chorography records that the people “painted patterns with wax on cloth, dyed the cloth, and boiled away the wax. The patterns are very vivid as if they were painted directly.” Wax printing originated from the Spring and Autumn period and the period of Warring States, became popular in Han and Tang dynasties, and reached its peak in Song and Yuan dynasties. In the coffins of a cave tomb of the Liu family excavated in 1987 at Taohua Village, Pingba County, Anshun City, people not only discovered earthen kettles and wine containers in Han and Tang dynasties, but also colored wax printed pleated skirts in Song dynasty. The skirts are splendid in color and look as if they were new. The pattern is that of herons and the style is almost the same as that of the modern pleated skirts of the Miao people.

Anshun is famous as the hometown of wax printing. The Palace Museum in Beijing has among its collections a wax printed face of a fan by the Miao people in suburban Anshun.

Huangguoshu area has a long tradition of wax printing. Let us take the stone village for example. Here over 80% of the households have dying jars. Buyi girls start learning dying since they are 12 or 13 years old. As every woman knows how to wax print, the area is called the home of wax printing.

Wax printing actually takes the forms of wax painting and wax dying. In wax painting, the painter dips melted wax with a bronze knife (a tool for wax painting) and draws whatever patterns, be they flowers, birds, fishes, insects, rivers, or lakes. The painter then can fill the patterns in different colors. In wax dying, the craftsman dyes the painted work, boils the wax off the cloth, washes the cloth and dries it. The mysterious ice pattern also makes the wax printing patterns more abstract and charming. Wax printing is very popular among Buyi and Miao women in Anshun. Miao patterns are like historical records that resemble armors or characters. The patterns are either abstract or bold and free in style. Buyi patterns mainly consist of totems in the shapes of the sun, clouds, thunder, 回, and bronze drums. The patterns are symmetric and classic and elegant in style. Wax printed cloth is usually used for dresses, aprons, sheets, faces of fans, tents, satchels, hats, and fashions. Currently, various wax printing artifacts have been very fashionable among tourists both at home and abroad.