Fragment 2 Scenes at Ninghang Batik

Ninghang Batik, located in Danzhai county, Guizhou province, is a batik workshop founded in 2010 by Madame Ning, a native of Anhui province, who envisioned a space that could both preserve the traditional Miao wax-resist dyeing technique and innovate upon it for contemporary markets

Unlike small-scale family production often seen in the region before, Ninghang Batik operates on a more organized and larger scale, blending craftsmanship with design innovation. From the beginning, Ning invited many Miao women from remote villages near Danzhai, such as Paidao—places where traditional batik skills still exist but are no longer practiced due to the availability of cheaper factory-made clothes, and the widespread use of synthetic dyes. For these women, who were living in poverty, batik had become a skill with no economic value. But persuaded by Ning, these women were brought to the county town and given the opportunity to earn an income using their inherited craft.

Today Ninghang Batik is home to over 40 "painting ladies" (known locally as huaniang画娘). Many of them have never attended school; some are living with disabilities. Yet through their work here, they are able to live a life more stable and prosperous than before.

This fragment doesn’t show the women themselves, but allows the audience to listen. In the absence of the Miao women—the viewer is drawn into the empty but resonant spaces of Ninghang Batik: the empty studio room with the Miao women who are away during lunch break, the dyeing chambers, the courtyard, and the hallways filled with fabrics hung out to dry. Each space has its own ambient soundscape, revealing a choreography of absence and presence.

Even when the Miao women are at work, the atmosphere is never overly serious. They often paint while listening to music on their phones, watching Douyin (Chinese Tiktok) videos, or chatting and laughing with each other, as the viewer could hear in the videos.

The video closes at the front entrance of Ninghang Batik. The walls are covered in plaques and honors—titles such as "Poverty Alleviation Consumption Pavilion", "Intangible Cultural Heritage Employment Workshop", "Guizhou Provincial Women’s Handicraft Creative Design Demonstration Base".