Modern Express news Tiger Year New Year is coming, buy a zodiac flower lantern, is a traditional Custom of Nanjing people. Recently, the Lantern of the Year of the Tiger made by Cao Zhenrong, the representative inheritor of the Qinhuai Lantern Color of The Intangible Cultural Heritage of Jiangsu Province, has been "updated". The Modern Express reporter interviewed and learned that while the 2022 Tiger Year Flower Lantern is more energetic, cuteness is the main feature. So far, Cao Zhenrong has made 200 Chinese zodiac lanterns of different shapes and sizes, and he hopes that everyone will take out the tiger strength in the year of the tiger, and move forward to the future together.
"This year's Tiger Lantern is more energetic than the previous one!" Cao Zhenrong said that the tiger flower lantern made 12 years ago now seems to be "too fierce", many children do not like it, and the year of the tiger in 2022 has deliberately made innovations.
However, innovation means constantly trying and experiencing failure. "This is the failed version, it looks too dull and doesn't look like the color of a tiger." Cao Zhenrong picked up a golden yellow tiger flower lantern with golden brown stripes and introduced it to reporters. Then, he picked up a brownish yellow tiger flower lamp with black stripes, "You see this color and pattern is a bit similar, and it is also a bit vivid, but it is not very satisfied." ”
To make a lifelike Lantern for the Year of the Tiger, coloring is an important step. "The previous tiger stripes and colors were all hand-drawn after the frame was made, which was not very natural and very dull. Later, I tried to print the tiger stripe on the cloth before making it, and it looked really more tiger-like. "Cao Zhenrong revised the six or seven editions before and after, and finally decided." You see, the head of the final version of the tiger flower lamp is a little angled, slightly inclined, it looks very vivid, and this version of the color is natural, and there are transition colors. ”
It is understood that since the start of construction in October 2021, Cao Zhenrong has made 200 flower lanterns and named them "Tiger Tiger Shengwei". The "Tiger Tiger Shengwei" series of flower lanterns vary in scale, with seven or eight forms, small ones can be held in the hand to play, and the large ones are nearly one meter long.
There is a saying in Nanjing: "Not looking at the lamp in the New Year is equivalent to not having a New Year's Day; not buying a lamp at the Confucius Temple in the New Year is equivalent to not having a good Year." And buying flower lanterns and visiting lanterns will be the traditional "program" of Nanjing people for the New Year.
Cao Zhenrong told reporters that due to the impact of the epidemic, the sales of flower lanterns in 2022 will mainly take the network sales model, and a small number of flower lanterns will be sold overseas. Although the overall sales were affected, Cao Zhenrong did not stop. "After the Spring Festival in 2021, lantern artists will start to make traditional lotus lanterns and rabbit lanterns, and in the months before the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, they will concentrate on creating lanterns in the Year of the Tiger, because the inheritance of craftsmanship cannot be broken." Buy a flower lamp, for Nanjing people, the New Year has a New Year's flavor. ”
Cao Zhenrong is 79 years old this year, born in the family of lanterns, is the representative inheritor of Qinhuai lanterns, he has helped the adults in his family to make lanterns since he was five or six years old, and has insisted on it for more than 70 years in the blink of an eye. "The new year is the Year of the Tiger, and I hope that we can all show our strength in the Year of the Tiger, make a career, and move towards the future together." Cao Zhenrong said.
Modern Express + reporter Wang Xinyue Xu Hongyan / Wen Zhao Jie Qian Nianqiu / Photo