In Xiangxi, the basket is the most basic tool for Xiangxi people to work. The mountains are many, the mountains are high, the mountains are steep, the basket is on the shoulder, the mountains are many, it does not matter, this mountain climbed the mountain; the mountain is high, it does not matter, the shoulder grabs the basket, the basket carries the weight, from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain; the mountain is steep, it does not matter, the people, the basket, the weight and the mountain into a parallel angle, the ants on the tree, even if it is the cloud can also go. The basket is the oldest symbol engraved on the back of Xiangxi, all the way from the ancient flood, through the vicissitudes of the world, one generation after another fell down, one generation stood up, the society and the times keep changing, but as always, the basket in Xiangxi's spine and shoulders stand, become the most profound and most vivid statue of Xiangxi.
As a kind of labor tool, Xiangxi basket has various forms, and the world may not be able to find another tool to fly down with it. A thumb-sized bamboo poles chipped smooth, was tied up in four directions, that is the back of the child's basket, Xiangxi dialect called sedan chair; thin gimlet walking flowers, beautiful, that is the relatives of the basket; finger wide thick gimlet weave up the thick shape, that is the basket on the mountain; a piece of gimlet weaving more than one person high, that is the tie cage. There is also a laundry basket backwater basket to catch the market basket ...... Linlin total, a wide range of uses, the same basket, it is a stool to watch the theater, to catch the market to sell mountain goods when it is a stall. If you want to collect the complete Xiangxi basket, you can do a large exhibition, you can build a beautiful and artistic taste of the museum.
A freeze frame - hanging footstools movie screen like silhouettes in our vision, pounding pestles and grinding rice on the back of the aunt sedan chair, sedan chair is our childhood learning to speak. This was sung by a singer named Song Zuying.
Another frame - from far and near, the skate and suona dance together, a row of backpack regiment rows in the depression appeared, the head and tail is not seen, just a dragon body in the meandering, backpack full of red and green quilts and the sweetness of the festivities. This is the most common marriage procession in western Hunan, becoming the most romantic scenery under the sun.
Another frame - the hustle and bustle of the bazaar, a slip, a cluster of basket combination into the unique Xiangxi bazaar flowers, bright red chili peppers, golden corn, snow-white winter melon, turquoise vegetables lying in the basket on the smile, their owners, dressed in their ethnic costumes, reciting poems, such as bargaining-hey! Just picked from the garden beds out of the spicy, fifty cents a catty; scale is the scale money is money, never short catty, three catty a piece of five; think less and then add half a catty, anyway, it is the production of goods ...... really aftermath of the sound.
In the history and reality of the broad picture, the basket is the most representative of Xiangxi, it carries the Xiangxi life scene, carrying Xiangxi heavy and light.
In the past, there was an industry called back foot in Xiangxi, and the organization of back foot was called foot line. Those folks with no body, only a basket to accompany their life. Every day before dawn, they gathered early at the door of the foot company, looking forward to their day's work schedule. Usually the basket is made of gabions, but theirs is made of thick bamboo, so thick and strong that one person can't hold it, and it is a close-up of western Hunan when it is placed at the door of the foot company. Their lifelong occupation is to help others carry goods, large barrels of tung oil, bundles of medicinal herbs, large roots of wood back out of the mountains; large boxes of daily necessities, large rolls of cloth, large pieces of machinery back into the mountains. All his life, he carried other people's wealth in the basket and carried his own day, rain or shine. After the liberation, the foot line still survived for a long time in western Hunan, only the name was changed to portering society. Even now, we are still able to see their shadows from the river dock back sand, field head of the street to play short-term labor.
Xiangxi people's lives are tightly bound together with the basket.
Xiangxi people's days can never leave the basket.
For Xiangxi women, it is even more so.
For Xiangxi women, it is even more so.