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History in the making as weaver keeps tradition alive
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On September 1, 77-year-old Wang Chunjuan sat in front of a loom to showcase the craft of weaving at Jiading New Town Community Cultural Activity Center.
“Technology is advancing and old-type looms are seldom seen,” she said. “The craft is being replaced by automated systems. However, each thread, each needle and each shuttle are all recorded in my mind.”
Wang was born in Pengzhao Village, Malu Town, in 1936. When she was 12, her elder brother married a woman who could operate the loom. Wang’s family then asked a carpenter to make a loom out of the wood leftover after building their house. It was the first loom in the village and was taller than a grown-up, requiring two people to carry it.
All the villagers came to see the loom and three of the young women, and Wang herself, started to learn how to work on the loom from Wang’s sister-in-law.
At noon and during the evening when she had a break from her farm work, she would sit at the loom weaving cloth. At that time, Wang mainly used the loom to make towels. After making enough for use at home she would sell the towels for 20 to 30 cents (now equivalent to 3-4 US cents) each. In a month she could earn more than 20 yuan, compared to working in the fields which paid at most 15 yuan a month.
In 1953, Pengzhao Village founded a cloth textile cooperative, dividing more than 200 people into 12 groups to work. Wang, then 17, was already one of the best weavers in the village, so she was appointed as weaving team leader. At 7am she would sit down at her loom and have her work finished by 5pm. Though she didn’t need to work in the fields, the work at loom was no less tiring.
At that time, there were no air conditioners or electric fans, but the clever workers found a way to make winds. They installed a curtain at the top of loom, when operating the loom, the motor would push and pull the curtain, so as to generate a light breeze.
In 1961, the Jianbang Commune Towel Factory was founded and Wang worked there as a quality inspector. The factory used semi-automated machines to produce towels sold at home and abroad. In 1987, when Wang retired, she took out the loom at home, which had been stored away for many years, and started weaving again in the traditional way.
Relatives brought her cotton thread to be made into articles including towels and diapers. The things she made were all of cotton, soft and skin-friendly, so a lot of people asked her to make these things.
In 2009, when Jiading New Town Community Cultural Activity Center was preparing to set up a traditional cultural pavilion, community officials asked Wang if she would allow her 60-year-old loom to be exhibited at the pavilion. In 2010, during the World Expo Shanghai 2010, Wang was invited to the pavilion to showcase her weaving technique.
“A lot of visitors surrounded me and praised me while watching, which made me recall the days when the loom had just been made and the villagers came to see how the loom was operated,” she said.
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