Nantong blue calico printing and dyeing has been practiced for centuries in most parts of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, China. At the beginning of Qing dynasty, people began to produce blue calico. In modern times，blue calico is used to make daily clothes, mosquito nets, pillowcases, baggage cloth, etc.
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One of China's most popular and enduring styles is the blue and white printed calico from the city of Nantong. Nantong is on the north of the Yangtze River with the Yellow Sea on the east. The soil and climate are especially suitable for cotton planting. The calico was first worn by local farmers and fishermen. Among Nantong citizens, it is famous for its handmade printing and dying process, native and simple design. The patterns on the blue clothes are originated from animals, plants, and fairy tales to express the good wishes of the future life.
Printing and dyeing skill
The most typical feature is its design: blue background with white flowers or white background with blue flowers. The folk techniques maintained basically hundreds of years of the traditional process. A series of complicated processes is needed to produce blue calico, mainly including selecting cotton material, soaking into water, backing up, drawing designs, enchasing, being coated with tung oil, dyeing, cleaning, and sunning.
Historical evolution
During Song (song 宋) Dynasties, blue calico was called Yaoban Cloth(yào bān bù 药斑布), and during Ming (míng 明) and Qing (qīng 清) Dynasties, it was called Jiaohua Cloth (jiāo huā bù 浇花布). The patterns on blue calico are all from civil society, and they reflect the seeing and hearings of the common people. With the development of the textile technology during Qing Dynasty, there are quantities of dyeing and weaving workshops.
Legend
The blue calico has a long history of the traditional manual printing and dyeing products and it has a very special legend. The legend said that a man (his family name was Mei) accidentally fell in the mud, and the color of his clothes became yellow and it was very difficult to drop the color, but when people saw that clothes was, most people said they liked that clothes. So he told one of his good friend whose family name is Ge this accident. Later they specialized in the cloth stained yellow, and have a very accidental opportunity, they put the cloth in the branches, air dry accidentally by the wind to the earth, and the earth there was just a heap indigo Grass, which is now called Indigowoad root grass, it has a composition called indigo, can the cloth dyed blue, and they found that the cloth,Yellow cloth Has become a piece of cotton print, "black and blue a piece of" they want to this mystery must be in the grass, and since then, both people and after DuoCi research, finally the cloth dyed blue cloth, MeiGe Mr. Two will become Blue allover the ancestors.
Museum
In order to preserve and develop this art, Nantong Blue Calico Art Gallery was set up in 1997 near Haohe River (濠河) by Wuyuanxin (吴元新), Nantong one thousand antique blue calicos and drawings were collected here. Also the traditional hand-making process is shown in the art gallery.