Batik Day in Taipei Features a Fashion Show and a Cultural Workshop

Taipei, On Sunday, the Indonesian minority in Taiwan celebrated National Batik Day, a celebration celebrating the ancient wax-resist dying method from Indonesia. Beautiful and colorful batik outfits were on display in downtown Taipei.

The Indonesia Diaspora Network (IDN) in Taiwan organized the Batik & Ecoprint Festival 2022, which took place at the National Taiwan Museum's Nanmen Park branch. The festival included a number of Indonesian cultural activities, such as traditional classical dance and music, sales of Indonesian food and goods, batik painting, and a fashion show.

35 models, mostly Indonesian migrant laborers, appeared in the fashion show wearing ethnic costumes and clothing with exquisitely coloured batiks and eco-prints.

Eco-printing is a method of coloring and printing that uses real leaves and flowers to imprint their mark on different types of media.

The yearly celebration with a batik theme, according to IDN Taiwan's Kartika Dewi, is meant to promote the custom on Indonesia's National Batik Day on October 2.

The day commemorates the year when the batik art form was officially included to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

To complement the batik exhibited each year since 2017, IDN has organized the festival. This year, it chose eco-print to emphasize the significance of environmental problems, according to Kartika.

"It is time for us to start caring about our planet because of global warming. All of the elements are natural since they come from our leaves and woodlands thanks to eco-printing. Chemicals aren't used here "explained Kartika.

Kartika explained the importance of the occasion by stating that batik was more than just a product.

Batik is very significant to us since every stroke has a distinct significance, which is why there are so many different theories about it, according to Kartika.

On the same day, Indonesian Mira Luxita demonstrated batik to her class of over 40 foreign participants, including Taiwanese, South Koreans, Vietnamese, Americans, and Europeans, at a separate event, a biweekly Indonesian culture workshop close to Taipei Main Station.

Participants learned how to count and utter basic words in Indonesian before participating in traditional activities during the event, which was co-organized by IndosuarA and the Indonesia Economic and Trade Office to promote Indonesian culture.

Mira, an Indonesian who has spent the last 11 years in Taiwan, told CNA that it was her responsibility as an Indonesian to promote and uphold the country's customs and culture, particularly batik.

Mira's comments were made at a time when Bintang Puspayoga, Indonesia's minister for women's empowerment and children's protection, urged people to wear batik apparel in order to protect the art form.

She was quoted as stating in a Sunday Antara story, "We should be proud and continue to sustain the preservation (of batik), one of which is by wearing batik on various occasions so batik may be conserved."

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