Bai Tie-Dye (Zharan) Technique

The Bai tie-dye craft is centred on the village of Zhoucheng in Xizhou town, Dali, honoured as the "home of Chinese Bai tie-dye." As Dali's dyeing trade grew in modern times, Zhoucheng became a famed hand-dyeing village, where cotton cloth is patterned with wild woad (indigo) through repeated dipping; the craft entered the first national ICH list in 2006.

Tie-dye is wholly handmade, its heart the "flower-tying" step in which women stitch and bind the white cloth by needle and thread into myriad patterns; where the binding is tight the dye cannot enter and stays white, where it is loose the indigo seeps in, so that untying the threads reveals blue-and-white patterns with soft, natural halos—often butterflies, plum blossoms, fish and birds.

With its natural plant dyes and pure handwork, Bai tie-dye carries the aesthetic and everyday wisdom of the Bai and forms an important branch of Chinese dyeing and weaving; it remains central to the livelihood and identity of Zhoucheng's villagers, holding real craft, ecological and cultural value.

The core home of Bai tie-dye is Zhoucheng village, where visitors can see the dye-works and try tying and dyeing themselves.