BEFORE there were miracle fibers, polyester and synthetic blends, cotton was king. Now natural fibers are making a comeback and Fengxian District is celebrating its homespun. Tan Weiyun weaves the tale.

Seventy-seven-year-old Feng Yajun still spins cotton yarn, dyes it in a cauldron with indigo and a bit of rice wine, washes it in a river and eventually weaves cloth on her loom. And that's just part of the process.

"I've been weaving for more than 65 years," says Feng as she sits at her century-old bamboo loom inherited from her grandmother.

Feng has toiled on the land all her life in remote Dongfeng Village, Zhuanghang Town, Fengxian District.

She used to grow cotton as well, but now she buys it - she's too old to gin it and separate the seeds.

She still goes through the painstaking process of making homespun - the carding, spinning, bleaching, drying, dying, washing, sizing, more washing and drying and so on until she begins weaving.

"My fingers are still nimble and my eyesight is good," she says proudly.

Feng and other grandmas are among the last practitioners of what is fast becoming the lost art of cotton weaving in Zhuanghang, which was famous for centuries for its high-quality homespun.

Today the ancient town of Zhuanghang is preserving - and passing on - the skills of weaving to young women.

Zhuanghang homespun is to be included next month on the list of Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage.

"Like many other folk arts and traditional skills, Zhuanghang weaving needs urgent preservation," says Xu Jianjun, spokesman for the local government. "We started a protection plan in 2007 and hope it is not too late."

The town set up a homespun museum and demonstration center; classes are offered, experts such as Feng give demonstrations, and local models promote fashionable cotton. TV shows and Websites also promote homespun.

The cotton cloth is tightly woven and durable. Like all natural fibers it "breathes," keeps the wearer cool and absorbs perspiration. Cotton underwear allows air circulation.

Using cotton diapers helps prevent heat rash and eczema.

Zhuanghang, in the southern part of Shanghai, was known as the "hometown of homespun" in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Long ago Huang Daopo developed innovative spinning and weaving techniques and promoted weaving among the locals.

In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Zhuanghang was a large cotton trading center that helped drive the local economy. The almanac of Emperor Qianglong in the Qing Dynasty listed Zhuanghang's handwoven cloth as top-ranked in China.

The town is famous for cloth with its blue weft, red weft, gray yarn, plain cloth, jacquard cloth, checked cloth, terry cloth and many other cotton fabrics.

Before the 1980s, almost every household in Zhuanghuang Town planted cotton in a small plot and each family had a complete set of weaving implements, including spinning wheels, bamboo looms, carding brushes, dying vats, shuttles and racks for drying cloth. They could sew clothes as well.

From teenage girls to grandmas, women could conjure up shirts, dresses, bed sheets, scarves, sleevelets and diapers.

Blue and white pinstripes and checked cloth were mainly for men's shirts, while red, green and other colors were used for women's dresses.

Big checked and striped cloth was used for bed sheets and quilts.

The weavers also came up with patterns of cubes, reeds, chicken's eyes and many other designs.

A woman's skill in weaving - and other needlecraft - was long regarded as the most important skill for a wife.

The better she wove, the more useful she was and the more she was respected by her husband's family.

A bride used to bring chests of her own homespun to her husband's family as part of her dowry on the wedding day.

When the textile industry was mechanized, the old weaving skills faded away. Grandma Feng is one of the few who retain the skill and Zhuanghang locals still collect handwoven cloth.

To step into Feng's home is to get a glimpse of traditional Chinese village life. The two-story, brick house is set on a small plot of land where the family plants vegetables for all seasons. Ducks and chickens peck around the front courtyard.

Grandma Feng still keeps a spinning wheel, a loom, shuttles and a big vat and drying racks - things that have been discarded by most villagers.

"They still work very well," says Feng as she deftly passes the shuttle over and under the loom threads.

She started weaving at the age of 12, taught by her grandmother. Her family seldom bought clothes. She wove.

"It's easy and convenient to weave," Feng says.

It doesn't look so easy to a city dweller.

First there's ginning (separating raw cotton from seeds) - she doesn't do that anymore. Then carding, spinning, dying, sizing, drying, loading the loom. It takes a whole day to prepare the cotton for weaving and another three days to weave 10 meters.

The dying process alone is daunting.

Sapphire blue, purple, red, grass green and ginger yellow are common colors. Feng first boils water in a huge iron pot, soaks the yarn for five to eight minutes - stirring with long chopsticks. She removes it, cools it and wrings out the water.

Then dye (usually indigo), together with a little rice wine, are added to the boiling water and again the cotton yarn is put in the pot until the desired color is achieved.

Then Feng washes it in the nearby river.

It's a real eye-opener to see the elaborate process, including the carding or disentangling of the yarn, and the sizing process that involves vegetable oil and flour in a sticky paste.

Nowadays, however, few people have time to spin and weave, and colorful synthetics and cotton/polyester blends are popular and inexpensive.

Preservation

The Fengxian District government has invested 1.1 million yuan (US$161,178) to carry out research in villages, collect and repair old weaving implements, invite weavers such as 77-year-old Feng Yajun to give talks to young people. Classes are offered.

Homespun is also popularized through TV demonstrations of spinning and weaving, Websites and radio programs. Early this year, Zhuanghang Handwoven Cloth Center opened on Tengzhuang Road. It exhibits weaving tools and techniques through the ages and weavers such as Feng give demonstrations on weekends and holidays.

In Zhuanghang's recent Cauliflower Festival in March, more than 60 weavers from the town's 15 villages exhibited more than 1,000 meters of homespun. The town has established a team of young women models to present regular fashion shows for homespun.

"People's lifestyles have changed and some old traditions are lost," Xu Jianjun, spokesman for the local government, says. "But those of us alive today have a duty to record and preserve them for the next generation."

Zhuanghang Handwoven Cloth Center

Tel: 5746-0330

Driving route: A4-Nanqiao Exit-Huhang Rd-Nanting Rd-Zhuangliang Rd-Tengzhuang Rd