Summer Equipment: Intangible Cultural Heritage Enabling "Cool Business"

"The weather is hot, so my friends recommend coming here and choosing a piece of clothes that belongs to me. The clothes here are fashionable, comfortable to wear, and very suitable for summer!" Recently, Wu Min, who lives in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, came to a clothing store in Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District to choose "summer equipment" for herself.

Under the influence of the national tide wind, bamboo mats, fans, kudzu gauze, ice reading... In the hot summer days, the "ancients' fancy cooling" method is popular with young people. One of them is Shuanglin silk, which is made in Huzhou, as light as morning fog and as thin as cicada wings, and has become a new favorite of sunscreen in summer.

Then, why can the gauze singlet, which contains the wisdom of the ancients, "poke at" the aesthetic points of contemporary people and set off a new trend of fashion? Chinanews.com visited Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District, the origin of Shuanglin silk fabrics.

"The flower is silk, and the plain is silk." Silk is the first traditional silk textile in China, known as "the flower of oriental silk weaving". The silk weaving technique in Shuanglin Town, Huzhou, has a history of more than 4700 years and was included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008.

"Since summer, our offline stores have been able to sell about ten pieces of silk summer clothes every day, and the online studio is popular and in short supply." Zhang Jianqiang, the head of a lake silk shop in Nanxun, Huzhou, said that silk is light, soft, breathable, comfortable to wear, and in a sense, it also caters to the fashion trend of young people.

Silk clothing in the Lake Silk Museum. Courtesy of Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District

As the origin of Shuanglin silk, in Shuanglin Town, in addition to the increase of silk clothing sales, the sales of silk fan also increased by 30% to 40% year on year. "The weather is hot, so there are more people buying round fans, and many tourists buy round fans to match cheongsam and hanfu, which are very beautiful for taking pictures and dancing," said Mo Jianqiang, the head of another local silk handicraft company.

At present, the colors and patterns of Shuanglin silk have been customized, and a series of cultural and creative products popular with young people, such as silk decals, silk refrigerator stickers, silk envelopes, have been derived.

Double forest silk fan. Courtesy of Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District

"By tapping into the traditional weaving skills of silk, we have formed a team to develop ancient flower silk, ancient Geng silk, etc., and launched antique imitated silk that is specially used to repair ancient calligraphy and paintings and silk relics in museums. About 95% of the museums around the world are our customers." Zheng Xiaohua, the inheritor of "Shuanglin silk weaving skills", added, Shuanglin silk was used to produce the award certificates for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, and went abroad.

In fact, whether it is delicate round fans or lightweight summer clothes, silk products echo the current consumers' desire for the integration of traditional culture and innovative technology.

In recent years, Shuanglin Town has reproduced the silk style by establishing a silk weaving skills inheritance and experience museum, holding silk culture and art festival, and school enterprise cooperation in intangible cultural heritage into the campus. According to the relevant person in charge of Shuanglin Town, with the help of modern cultural creativity, silk can also be used to make theatrical costumes, kites, scarves and other arts and crafts and daily necessities, which has really come into the public's sight.

(Source: China News Network)