Natural Wax Printing

About 2, 000 years ago, wax printing appeared in China, with batiks being found among the goods traded along the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). It was also found in the relics of the Northern Dynasties (386-581) unearthed in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. By the Tang Dynasty, wax printing techniques had matured, and scenes of batik making were reproduced in the murals of Grotto 130 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province.
Wax printing has long been a wide spread technique used in the history of Chinese fashion. It was applied across the country, from the northwest to the northeast, from the southwestern border areas to the lake regions south of the lower Yangtze River. Guizhou Province is where wax printing is the most widely used, and Guizhou women have a special love for batik. Today, in some parts of the province, women's clothing, headwear, aprons, and skirts are mostly made of batik. Batik is still loved by people today because of its natural, dynamic beauty.