Aesthetic flowing between islands: migrating loom, traded cotton, mountain of dye

Abstract

The political isolation and environmentally vibrant of Hainan Island fostered interactions between humans, non-humans, and islands. Li brocade, crafted by the interaction between Li women and Hainan, embodies the cultural essence of the Li ethnic group, spanning daily life to beliefs. It is hypothesized that, besides the indigenous Li, Austronesian groups also dispersed to Islands Southeast Asia (ISEA) with textile techniques. Then, exchanges among island communities with the transformation of Li brocade started. However, since Song Dynasty and the 1980s with UNESCO's involvement, Li brocade has been detached from its original context, symbolized as “low-tech” and heritage artifact, with Li women instrumentalized for Han Chinese-focused industry and nationalism. By examining the aesthetics of textiles through Austronesian migration with looms, the cotton trade with India, and the tropical plants for dyeing, this paper argues that Li brocade, beyond human-made object, is a temporal life. It connects and shapes weavers’ aesthetic of sensing the world in the creative reinvention in every encountering built upon past experiences. By shifting focus from Hainan-Mainland China to Hainan-ISEA, it seeks to uncover obscured histories and foster imaginative future of Li brocade’s own life direction and interaction with Li women, transcending the borderline of modern nation states.

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