Fengtongyu

The Fengtongyu dye house was founded around 1848 in the Daoguang reign, a blue-calico workshop handed down through generations at Shimen in Tongxiang. For over a century it has kept to the old methods of hand-cut stencils, resist printing and plant-indigo dyeing, making it a key carrier of the Jiangnan blue-calico tradition.

Drawing on Wuzhen's tourism, Fengtongyu has opened shops across the country and carried Tongxiang blue calico to a national audience; its auspicious motifs of butterflies, fish, pomegranates and lions playing with an embroidered ball are widely loved, making the cloth one of Wuzhen's most recognisable heritage souvenirs.

The craft uses a resist paste of soybean meal and lime printed through stencils onto handwoven cloth, which is then repeatedly dipped in a plant-indigo vat; once dried the paste is scraped away to reveal white patterns on blue, every step guided by the artisan's hand and eye, the motifs rustic and elegant.