Mini Guide Series | A Quick Look at the Exciting Summer 2025 Special Courses

Song brocade is one of China’s traditional silk‑woven crafts. Because its principal production center is Suzhou, it is also known as “Suzhou Song brocade.” With its sumptuous colors, exquisitely designed patterns, and a texture that is both resilient and supple, it has earned the title of “the crown of Chinese brocades.” Alongside Nanjing Yun brocade, Sichuan Shu brocade, and Guangxi Zhuang brocade, it is celebrated as one of China’s four great brocades. Song brocade first emerged in the late Northern Song period (around the 11th century AD), and its products are classified into heavy brocade and fine brocade—collectively referred to as “large brocade”—as well as box brocade and small brocade.

The round fan is a traditional craft and art form of the Han Chinese. Its fan surface is typically crafted from high‑quality fabrics such as silk, satin, gauze, or brocade, and may be further embellished with embroidery or hand‑painted designs depicting landscapes, pavilions, figures, flowers, birds, or elegant poetic verses. As a quintessential symbol of Chinese cultural heritage, the round fan embodies the aesthetic qualities and profound meanings of traditional Chinese culture, thereby fostering the popularity and development of the “elegant” cultural ethos in ancient China.

Tie-dye, historically known as zha xie or jiao xie, is one of the traditional dyeing techniques that has long been practiced in China. Among the common resist‑dyeing and printed textiles of ancient times were jiao xie, wax‑resist dyeing, and jia xie. In tie-dye, certain sections of the fabric are tightly bound with string or cloth before dyeing, preventing those areas from absorbing color. This method is a distinctive and time-honored craft deeply rooted in Chinese folk culture. Tie-dye boasts an extensive history; historical records indicate that as early as the Eastern Jin dynasty, large quantities of jiao xie silk—produced through the resist‑dyeing technique—were already being manufactured, demonstrating that this art had reached a mature stage by then. At that time, jiao xie fabrics featured both simple, small‑scale patterns, such as butterflies, wintersweet blossoms, and crabapple flowers, as well as more elaborate, full‑length designs—for example, “deer‑hide jiao xie,” whose white floral motifs on a purple background closely resemble the markings of a sika deer. During the Tang dynasty, jiao xie textiles enjoyed widespread popularity, with “azure‑green jiao xie dresses and skirts” becoming a staple of the era’s fashion.

Diancui is a traditional Chinese goldsmithing and jewelry‑making technique that originated in the Han Dynasty. It serves as an auxiliary craft, enhancing and embellishing gold and silver ornaments. Diancui represents a perfect fusion of China’s time‑honored metalworking and feathercraft: first, a base is fashioned from gold or gilded metal in various decorative patterns; then, the lustrous blue feathers from the backs of kingfishers are meticulously inlaid into the setting, giving rise to an array of exquisite jewelry pieces.