Fish skin culture is the material wealth and spiritual wealth created by the northern hunting peoples in the social and historical practice. In 2006, the fish skin making skills of the Hezhe people were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Yan Siting, the representative inheritor of the fish skin handmade technique of the intangible cultural heritage project, devoted all her energy to the inheritance and development of this skill, and won the title of "Heihe Craftsman".
Yan Siting is a Manchu, who grew up with her grandmother to learn weaving, paper cutting, pasting painting, etc., and also likes to draw. By chance, she met the inheritor of Heilongjiang's fish skin skills.
Yan Siting, representative inheritor of fish skin handmade skills of intangible cultural heritage projects: There was a training opportunity, I came into contact with Liu Sheng and Zhang Lin, who are well-known in fish skin skills, and I was fortunate to become their students, and under their infection, I embarked on the road of inheritors.
In 2021, Yan Siting combined the dynamic bionic structure patent with the handmade technique of fish skin to create a large-scale intangible cultural heritage work "Soaring Chinese Dragon", the dragon body is 6 meters long and 2.5 meters high, and the dragon scales, dragon head, dragon fin and outer packaging are all made of fish skin.
Yan Siting, representative inheritor of the handmade fish skin craftsmanship of the intangible cultural heritage project: Using about 600 pieces of salmon skin, hand-sewing more than 10,000 pieces of scales, which lasted more than eight months, let the Chinese dragon take off and let the intangible cultural heritage fire, this work expresses our deep blessings to the motherland.
Yan Siting has long been committed to training, promoting and passing on the handmade skills of fish skin and cultivating seed trainees. Up to now, nearly 8,000 trainees have been trained. She also raised her own funds to establish a non-genetic inheritance base and a fish skin skills and cultural exhibition hall, so that foreign tourists and Heihe citizens can more intuitively understand the fish skin culture of Heilongjiang.
Yan Siting, representative inheritor of fish skin handmade skills of intangible cultural heritage projects: In the future, I will use traditional intangible cultural heritage to drive the "fingertip economy", form a cultural innovation industrial chain that reflects the spirit of the times and the characteristics of the times, and contribute to increasing the cultural and tourism resources in the Heihe region and driving the development of the Sino-Russian cultural tourism industry.
Reporter: Feng Wei, Lu Zhaokai
Editor: Jiang Haoran
First Instance: Yang Yang
Second Instance: Tianchong
Third trial: Wu Weidong