The Love's Keepsake---Tongnian Shoes of Mulao Ethnic Group

Self-spun, Woven and Dyed Traditional Cloth

For generations, the Mulao people (仫佬族) have spun, woven, dyed and sewn all their clothing and fabrics by hand. Their cloth dyeing technique is particularly distinctive.

First, they cut plain nankeen into strips around 6.67 meters long and soak the strips in indigo dye vats. The cloth is repeatedly lifted out and dyed again to create an even blue-green hue. Next, it is soaked in liquid extracted from Chinese yam to turn mauve. Afterwards, a thick mixture of rice porridge and ox glue is spread over the fabric surface. Once fully dried, the glue hardens. Finally, workers flatten the cloth with a roller stone and pound it gently with a mallet to soften the texture.

Fabrics made in this way boast vivid, lustrous colors and outstanding durability, winning great popularity among local people. This finely processed nankeen is widely used for Mulao girls’ wedding costumes, Tongnian shoes (同年鞋), burial garments for the elderly, and suspenders that grandparents make for their grandsons.

Varieties of Traditional Cotton Shoes

Mulao women, even those living in urban areas, are skilled at making handcrafted cotton shoes. There are a wealth of styles, including cloud-head shoes, cat-head shoes, single-vamp shoes and double-vamp shoes.

Tongnian Shoes: Love Tokens of the Mulao People

Craftsmanship Features

As society develops and living standards rise, most traditional handmade shoes have gradually faded from daily life. Nevertheless, Tongnian shoes, cherished as love tokens among Mulao young people, remain popular in the mountainous Mulao settlements. Crafting them demands complicated, careful and exquisite workmanship.

The sole is made of printed calico, while the vamp uses indigo-dyed cloth. Dozens of calico layers are cut into the shape of a shoe sole and pasted layer by layer. Then the whole sole is stitched tightly with white cotton threads. The stitches must form neat horizontal and vertical lines, with every stitch kept exactly the same in size. After the indigo cloth vamp is attached to the sole, the shoes are steamed for over ten minutes and then taken out to dry. Only after this final step is a pair of delicate Tongnian shoes completed.

Cultural Connotation and Romantic Custom

Mulao girls learn to make Tongnian shoes from an early age. When they grow up and prepare for the traditional "slope walking" activity to seek lovers, they stay at home quietly to make the shoes stitch by stitch, infusing each pair with sincere affection.

During slope walking, a girl will first express her fondness for a young man through folk songs. If the two develop mutual affection, the girl will present her handmade Tongnian shoes to him as a symbol of deep love. For this reason, the skill of making Tongnian shoes has long been an important standard for young men to judge a potential spouse.