"A lot of people think that making kites is a hobby of the elderly, and I thought so more than a decade ago. In fact, it has not been, over the years, it has also had vitality in the vibrant campus. Speaking of kites, Liu Hongjun, head of the Kite Culture Innovation Laboratory of Songjiang Experimental Middle School (Huashi Junior High School) of East China Normal University, is quite proud. Not long ago, the school was selected as the third batch of national primary and secondary school Chinese excellent traditional culture inheritance schools because of its kite characteristic curriculum.
Delve deeper into the past and present lives of kite culture
At the beginning of the interview, Liu Hongjun took out a pile of yellowed white paper from a black cloth bag, and some transparent plastic plates were sandwiched between the white papers, and various kite samples were drawn on the plastic plates. "These are treasures." Between words, he casually pulled out a few pictures, each of which was tightly circled by a regular circle, some shaped like a swallow, some like a dragon's head. Liu Hongjun highlighted a picture of the human body with open arms. Leonardo da Vinci's The Vetruvier Man, also known as the Divine Proportions, is known as the 'most beautiful human body figure'. The composition of the swiftlet kite and the dragon head kite is similar to it. Liu Hongjun said.
In addition to comparing the configuration of traditional Chinese kites with internationally recognized aesthetics, Liu Hongjun also focuses his exploration on the field of literature. In an exploration manuscript of "Cao Xueqin and ShaYan" of nearly 5,000 words, he boldly deduced that Cao Xueqin was a master of making Shayan kites based on his knowledge and feelings of familiar literary works such as "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Waste Art Collection", and "Bottle Lake Maozhai Jisheng". "To make a kite, you must also understand as much as possible about the cultural knowledge related to the kite, only in this way can the kite be 'spirited'." Liu Hongjun said that in Huashi Junior High School, the past and present lives of kites and strange things are often interspersed with kite teaching.
Innovative thinking Traditional skills can also keep up with the times
Making a kite is like embroidery. "Although the sparrow is small and complete, it takes about 13 hours to make such a small kite in 72 steps." On the day of the interview, Liu Hongjun took the palm of the sand swallow kite as an example and told reporters.
In the kite exhibition hall specially set out in the school, the reporter saw that from the text to the pictures, from the invention of the ancient kite to the innovation of modern kites, from hard wings, soft wings to plate harriers, from single, long strings to three-dimensional, the huge exhibition hall is full of decoration.
"The exhibition hall is not only a display of kite works, but also the inheritance of the kite spirit." After 12 years of studying kites, Liu Hongjun often plans for the future of kites. In his view, with the development of the times, traditional skills must also keep pace with the times. In recent years, he and his colleagues have tried to incorporate new technologies and materials into kite making and teaching. "The use of acrylic paint to paint colorful flowers, not easy to fade, is beneficial to collection; equipped with a camera for kites, can play the role of drones; kites that incorporate rubbing elements are more expressive..." Liu Hongjun said, in the school's kite production innovation laboratory, teachers often brainstorm with students.
Discipline integration Kites have become the school's development genes
How can old craftsmanship be revitalized? At Huashi Junior High School, Liu Hongjun was pleased to see that kite making is not only the inheritance of traditional skills, but also reflects the characteristics of discipline integration. Yao Yufang, general secretary of the party branch of the school, said bluntly: "Kite culture entering the campus is by no means a lively and fresh picture, it is a soul-building project and a background color project." In the process of in-depth development, each stage must have new bright spots and new breakthroughs. ”
After being selected into the third batch of national primary and secondary schools for the inheritance of Chinese excellent traditional culture, the school has begun a new round of "planning layout". At present, the school is taking the "Liu Hongjun Art Studio" as the leader, on the basis of the community expansion curriculum, integrating kite culture into basic disciplines such as language, mathematics, physics, art, labor technology, etc., and has set up a kite course research and development team, which clarifies the teaching division of labor positioning that history teachers focus on kite history, physical education teachers focus on kite sports, art teachers specialize in kite painting, labor technology teachers focus on kite making, and language teachers build kite stories. In addition, the school also tries to connect kite culture education with family education and community education, forming a good atmosphere of home-school interaction and community linkage participation.
■ Photo by reporter Wang Meiwen Wang Mei
■ Text editor Yang Shuhan Xu Ping
■ Column Editor-in-Charge Shu Zhengyu ■ Column Editor-in-Chief Zhang Jinzhou