The art of Batik in Ancient Phoenix Town

There is a beautiful legend about batik in folk. Long time ago, a Hmong girl was depressed at her dress always being one single color, often facing clusters of flowers in a daze. One time, a beautiful flower fairy in pretty clothes took her to a garden hazily. There are numerous plants, flowers and busy bees and butterflies. The girl in the garden was fascinated, even unaware that her dress was covered with the bees. When woke up, she realized that she fell asleep just now. When she looked down again, it was true that the bees were flying away and left dots of honey and beeswax on her dress. She had to get the dress into indigo dye barrel，intending to re-dye it to cover off the wax track. When she finished it, there occurred a miracle: beautiful white flowers appeared on the deep blue dress where dipped beeswax! Since then, batik was born.

Wax printing at Fenghuang has a long history. Batik is pure and elegant, original of primitive simplicity, which is the high-quality goods in folk handicrafts of Fenghuang. Because of the rich design, elegant color and unique style, it shows simpleness, generosity, pleasingness and rich ethnic characteristics when used to make costumes and various kinds of articles for daily use. Meanwhile, batik is also a kind of primitive simplicity folk art. It has over one-thousand-year history in Fenghuang. Batik and its unique national style with rich national inside information get deeply favor of tourists. At present, wax printing art has generally spread in the ancient town of Fenghuang. The refined extraordinary handicrafts can be seen in large streets and small lanes. It also becomes one of indispensable artworks for tourists to take home when they travelled to the ancient town of Fenghuang. What’s more, according to the need of design, batik can be made into hanging, screen, bedcover, table cover and clothing, etc. The finished products are unique, with distinctive national style and strong ethnic flavor.