China History Travel

Silk Production in Wuzhen

During my previous trip to Wuzhen (an ancient canal town near Shanghai), I was lucky enough to come across an old silk production factory which was still in active use, albeit mainly as a living museum these days. The process of turning a silkworm cocoon into the fabric, known as sericulture, is fascinating so I took some photos and videos to show how it’s done:

Silk Ladies

Silkworms (moths) are cultivated in controlled environments with a female laying up to 400 eggs at a time. Once hatched, the larvae are fed huge quantities of mulberry leaves (up to 50,000 times its initial weight!) for around six weeks after which it spins a silk cocoon around itself (pupating). During this time it produces about a kilometre of silk filament in 3-8 days. At this stage, the silkworm cocoons are ready for use and are sorted by hand with the bad ones being removed.

Silk Harvesting Process

Next, the cocoons are boiled in water to soften the silk and prepare it for unwinding. The immersion in hot water also kills the silkworm larvae (predictably animal activists don’t like this bit).

Boiling Silk Worms

Multiple strands of silk from 4-8 cocoons are joined to create a single strand making it much stronger. Amazingly around 5500 silkworms are required to produce just 1 kg of silk.

Silk Spools

Each thread is then spun onto a reel by a machine (known as filature). Raw silk contains sericin (a binding protein) which needs to be washed out at the same time before it can be used commercially.

The video above also shows the traditional manual method by which the spinning wheel was operated and more of how the automated machine operates.

Weaving Machine

Once spun into a yarn the thread can then be woven into a fabric. The contraption above is so complicated it has to be operated by two people with a woman sitting on top to allow the weaving of complex multi-coloured patterns. It strangely reminded me of a church organ with foot pedals and complex patterns to be followed. No computer-aided design around here!

The end result is a highly desirable and expensive fabric that is popular around the world with most of it coming from China and India. The next time you buy something silk bear a thought for all the silkworms which died to make it for you 😉

Author

Originally from the UK, David is designer and wanderer currently based in Kamakura. Prior to this, he lived in China and longs to explore more of this vast and varied land. He started Randomwire in 2003 to chronicle his travels and occasional musings. Feel free to drop him a line.

2 Comments Add New Comment

  1. Ling says:

    Hi David,

    Need your advise on the mode of transport.

    From Shanghai — Wuzhen — Hangzhou — Shanghai.

    Can we take a train from Shanghai to Wuzhen ?

    How about Wuzhen to Hanzhou ?

    Where did you stay in Wuzhen ?

    Not much infor from the website. Need your help !

    Ling

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