Patterns on blue calico. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Yu Xiang, associate professor at the Nantong College of Science and Technology, has taken years to protect the patterns on blue calico using digital means, local media outlets recently reported.

With a history of more than 1,000 years in Nantong, blue calico is untreated cotton often used for wrapping, tablecloths and bedsheets.

"I expect what I did will not only preserve the beautiful patterns, but will also display the cultural meaning behind them," said Yu, who realized 10 years ago that many Chinese people know nothing about the cultural meanings conveyed by traditional patterns.

For example, a magpie perching on a branch of a plum tree means happiness and blooming peonies represent riches and honor.

As a computer teacher, Yu was inspired to digitalize the patterns on blue calico and their meanings to help interested people learn about relevant knowledge more efficiently.

Over the past 10 years, Yu has visited such provinces as Henan and Guizhou to collect as many blue calico patterns as possible and input them into his database, which currently has more than 50,000 such patterns.

The professor is not satisfied with a database anymore and he expressed hopes that these patterns will be used in more scenes and will be accepted and understood by more people.

Yu said that he will do his best to promote these traditional patterns and design more using artificial intelligence technology.