When it comes to cloth shoes, most people are not unfamiliar, but with the changes of the times and the needs of fashion, there are not many people wearing them, and the manual skills of handmade cloth shoes have gradually been marginalized. And in the "Unity Beizhuang Handicraft Workshop" in Beizhuang Village, Xibaipo Town, Pingshan County, under the leadership of the "post-85" girl Wang Yamei, several big ladies and aunts picked up needles and threads again, and took the "thousand layer bottom" needle by stitch. The majestic song "Unity is Strength" reverberated in Beizhuang Village, and they integrated that red history into a needle and a thread in their hands.
Wang Yamei has incorporated more Beizhuang elements into the handmade old cloth shoes.
Shijiazhuang Daily Rong Media Reporter Yang Huiling/Wen Zhang Xiaofeng/Photo
Walking into a renovated exhibition hall in Beizhuang Village, Xibaipo Town, Pingshan County, Wang Yamei is busy arranging exhibits, and a pair of cloth shoes of different colors and styles in the exhibit cabinet is very eye-catching. There is a big earthen kang on the side, several big ladies and aunts or sitting cross-legged on the kang or sitting on the mat under the kang busy, wearing, cutting shoe samples, na soles, uppers... "Our 'Unity Beizhuang Handicraft Workshop' is in contact with the design company, ready to integrate the elements of Beizhuang Village into the handmade old cloth shoes, so that the style is more diverse, but also allows tourists to have more choices." Wang Yamei said that the red culture of Beizhuang Village has attracted more and more people to visit and visit, and in the future, they will also carry out the original design of art derivatives.
"In 1943, the classic song 'Unity is Strength' was born in our Village of Beizhuang." When introducing Beizhuang Village, the light of pride filled Wang Yamei's face. A native of Beizhuang Village, she left Beizhuang in 2001 to study in Shijiazhuang and stayed in Shijiazhuang to work after graduation. At the beginning of this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping's reply to all party members in Beizhuang Village made Wang Yamei feel as energetic as all Beizhuang people. "Now more and more people come to Beizhuang for tourism, I am optimistic about the vast world of my hometown, and young people must have great potential when they come back."
Wang Yamei founded the "Unity Beizhuang Handicraft Workshop" to promote the employment of women in the village.
Wang Yamei returned to Beizhuang Village to start a business, and immediately thought of traditional cloth shoes. "During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when the Pingshan regiment came to our Village of Beizhuang, the women of the whole village made cloth shoes for them overnight. Now that we have made the old cloth shoes worn by the children and soldiers, there must be a market. Wang Yamei, who made up her mind to return to her hometown to start a business, returned to the village and found that many elderly women were idle at home, but they all had the craft of making cloth shoes. Wang Yamei also grew up wearing cloth shoes made by her mother and walked out of Beizhuang Village: "The older generation like my grandmother and mother will make cloth shoes, and the shoes of the old and young people are from their hands." "Homemade cloth shoes are not only economical but also comfortable for the feet." Why not organize everyone to make cloth shoes? The aunts and sisters came to me to make shoes, and they could increase their income. This has strengthened Wang Yamei's choice to start her own business. To this end, she visited a number of cloth shoe production bases, from raw materials to design, from process training to sales channels, she has done in-depth research and investigation. Under her leadership, more than a dozen rural women in the village were trained to make cloth shoes in the handicraft workshop. "Some of these cloth shoes are sold to tourists who come to Beizhuang, and some of them are ordered by the company as souvenirs." Wang Yamei did not expect that the old cloth shoes were welcomed as soon as they were listed.
"These cloth shoes are all handmade, and it takes dozens of processes to make a pair of traditional old cloth shoes in three or four days." Wang Yamei smiled and introduced their cloth shoes to tourists, and did not forget to introduce the red history of Beizhuang Village.
According to research, the earliest mille-feuille soles in China began in the Zhou Dynasty. From the soles of the kneeling statues of Zhou Dynasty warriors unearthed from Houma City, Shanxi Province, a line of regular stitches is clearly visible, which is exactly the same as today's Nadi cloth shoes, which indicates that in the Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, the Nadi cloth shoes were already used.
Wang Yamei introduced that the mille-feuille bottom cloth shoes are an important handicraft technology of Our people and also the intangible cultural heritage of our country, which carries the wisdom and emotions of the Chinese working people for thousands of years. Mille-feuille bottom cloth shoes are made of cotton, environmentally friendly and health care, all handmade, can improve people's skills and aesthetics, not only can pass on the ancient technology, but also conducive to the development of folk culture.
Wang Yamei invited experienced masters from other places to teach handmade cloth shoes making skills.
Wearing the gown is the first process of the sole. Wang Yamei said that the quality of the pleats determines the flatness and durability of the thousand-layer bottom cloth shoes, so making the pleats with the same flatness, hardness and moderate thickness has become the first step in the production of thousand-layer bottom cloth shoes. Winter is the agricultural leisure season, sunny days, the big ladies and aunts move out of the dining table, lift out the wooden board, brush a layer of paste made of noodles on the dining table and wooden board, and then spread the cloth blocks and rags that are usually accumulated on it, so repeatedly six or seven layers, get dried under the sun, you can make the sole of the billet, so the shoes made are figuratively called "thousand layer bottom". "Now that the living conditions are better, we use brand new cotton cloth for wearing, and the shoes we make are more comfortable and beautiful."
"To make a mille-feuille cloth shoe, you must first cut the gown, sew the hem, the padding, the sole, the circle bottom, and the sole." Wang Yamei introduced that the manual bottom requires more than 81 stitches per square inch, a pair of shoes to at least 2,000 stitches, and the hemp rope is thick, the needle eye is thin, and the processing should be tightened by hand, and the stitches must be evenly distributed. When sewing shoes by hand, it is required that the last must be tight and flat. The stitch size of the shoes is more neatly spaced, and the combination of the upper and sole should be tight and full. The production of the sole of a thousand-layered cloth shoes has to go through several processes, and each process has clear and strict and meticulous requirements. "A pair of mille-feuille bottoms usually takes a day or two to complete."
The sole of the shoe should also prepare several indispensable "equipment", needles and threads, thimbles, awls, and small pliers. Because the sole is thick, it is not easy to penetrate with a needle, and you need to use an awl to prick an eye on the sole first, and the needle can be easily passed. The role of the thimble is to top inward, the role of the small pliers is to pull outward, this side of the top in, that side of the pull out, this needle is the end of the matter.
The sole of the shoes should also be put into hot water to soften, and then use a mallet to hammer flat, shape, dry, so that dozens of layers of cloth and more than a dozen layers of pants composed of soles become a whole, wear soft and comfortable, and sweat-absorbing, not out of shape.
"Now due to the development of industrialization, the traditional handmade cloth shoes skills are gradually lost with the decline of old craftsmen, so it is important to record and pass on this folk craft." Wang Yamei said.
A pair of manual soles must hold at least 2,000 stitches.
Beizhuang Village has a deep red history and fine traditions. In 1947, the Central Working Committee came to Xibaipo and set off a vigorous land reform movement in the Liberated Areas, and Beizhuang Village became a pilot village for land reform; during the Period of the Party Central Committee in Xibaipo, Beizhuang Village became the seat of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Central Confidential Office and other organs, leaving a shining red history for Beizhuang Village.
On the wall in front of the Beizhuang Village Committee, the hand-painted "Unity is Strength" song is particularly eye-catching; the often echoing "Unity is Strength" song makes people full of strength; in the Beizhuang Village History Museum, the old photos printed with the traces of time are exciting...
"We in Beizhuang have such a proud red history and glorious tradition, we are proud of it, and we also have the responsibility and obligation to pass it on and carry it forward." Wang Yamei said that the current Beizhuang Village, with its smooth and clean asphalt roads and patchwork of farmyards, has made the villagers feel that life has a head and a spiritual pursuit.
78 years ago, "Unity is Strength" was sung in Beizhuang Village; today, Beizhuang Village runs an agricultural park, develops red tourism, and runs handicraft workshops... The villagers' lives are changing day by day, and the changes in Beizhuang Village over the years have made the people more and more hopeful. "I remember a song with such a lyric - the favorite shoe is the thousand-layer bottom of Mama Na, and we want to let the old cloth shoes made by Beizhuang people awaken people's warm memories." Wang Yamei said that now the handicraft workshop is in contact with the design company, ready to integrate the elements of Beizhuang Village into the old cloth shoes, so that the style is more diverse, but also allows tourists to have more choices. "I hope that through our efforts, the red culture of Beizhuang Village will be publicized and the traditional handicraft skills of cloth shoes will be passed on."