A special handcraft experience class for Jiangnan traditional textiles was held in the Qing Dynasty Post Office in Zhujiajiao Town. International students from Ghana, Ethiopia and Afghanistan of Donghua University attended this class.

On the experience class, Yue Wenmin, the innovator of the handmade craft of old cloth, introduced that homespun cloth is a beauty belonging to folk culture in the south of the Yangtze River and has inherited the poetic culture of Jiangnan for over 900 years.

She showed the international students the old cloths collected from the surrounding villages of Shanghai, such as Zhujiajiao, Chongming and Qidong, which were woven forty years ago, as well as her handmade works designed using these old cloths.

The "Secrets Spoken by Cloth" Jiangnan Old Cloth Art Exhibition, jointly organized by the Qing Dynasty Post Office and Yue, officially opened on December 2, 2023 and will last through January 18.

The most eye-catching display at the exhibition is the "Bai Zi Bu (One Hundred Characters Cloth)" hanging in the center of the exhibition hall. To weave old cloth with plain patterns needs two to three foot pedals, but to weave the "Bai Zi Bu," twelve foot pedals are needed simultaneously. This reflects how much time and effort is needed to create this piece of old cloth.

The simple characters woven on the cloth "Xi" (happiness), "Mei Li" (beauty) and "Zhong Hua" (China) are all the weaver's longing for a better future.

"In the future, I hope more young people will come to understand and fall in love with old cloth; the culture, history and value of old cloth are worth being seen by more people," Yue said.