When asked by a reporter about whether you think you are an artist, Lang Jiaziyu replied without hesitation: "Don't feel like I am an artist." ”
| Author: Yin Jie wang zhening
Colorful handmade, NBA star posters, and fitness equipment are scattered throughout the room, forming an atmosphere of time and space interlacing with the courtyard outside the window, the Beijing Bell Tower and the flocks of pigeons flying from time to time.
If no one initiates it, it is difficult for strangers to associate these with intangible cultural heritage. This is the studio of Lang Jia ziyu, who is the third generation inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of Beijing".
The plaque of "Face Man Lang" is placed high on top of a cabinet near the entrance of the studio, where face sculptures and award certificates are displayed in a regular manner. In front of the cabinet was a workbench that was not much larger than a desk, and the tools used by the dough kneader were neatly arranged.
100 years ago, Lang Shao'an, a poor man's son, learned the art of kneading noodles from folk artists, and decades later, he became one of the few masters in the industry, and was given the name "Face Man Lang". Today, this skill has reached the hands of his grandson Lang Jiaziyu.
"I want to make the 'Face Man' famous all over the world"
The Lang family ancestors were bannermen, and after the Xinhai Revolution, there was no "hardcore crop", and they had to rely on their own strength to make a living. Born in 1909, Lang Shaoan was in the midst of family decline, and from an early age he made a living selling food in the streets and alleys. When he was 12 years old, he saw someone on the side of the road kneading dough, a ball of colorful noodles being kneaded around, and in a moment he pinched out a small person who came alive. Lang Shao'an developed a keen interest in the craft, and formally studied it with his family's consent.
Lang Shaoan from the fat doll, small rabbit pinch, one piece can be exchanged for a copper, and later the skills became more and more exquisite, the opera characters and peddlers who were pinched out came to life, and the fame of "Noodle Man Lang" became bigger and bigger, and "Noodle Man Soup" and "Noodle Man Cao" were called the three major schools of noodle people in Beijing.
Lang Shao'an (left) and his daughter Lang Zhili study the face of people.
In the early days of the founding of New China, "Noodle Man Lang" was already a household name, but Lang Shaoan could not maintain the livelihood of a family by only pinching noodles, and he also had to sell baked sweet potatoes on the street "part-time".
In 1956, one of his face-to-face works participated in the Beijing Handicraft Exhibition, which attracted many audiences, including Zhu De, the national leader who came to see the exhibition. When he learned that Lang Shao'an still made a living from doing small business, Zhu De suggested that the relevant departments organize these skilled folk artists to preserve and pass on the traditional crafts.
Soon, the Beijing Municipal Institute of Arts and Crafts was established, and Lang Shaoan won the title of "Old Artist", and became the first batch of researchers with a group of folk handicraft masters such as Ye Fengqi, a painting pot artist, Lu Jingda, a shadow puppet artist, and Chen Zhiguang, a porcelain engraver.
Lang Shao'an's youngest son, Lang Zhichun, was born in 1960, the ninth in the family, and was taught by his father from an early age that "you all grew up with 'eating' noodles".
Lang Jia Zi Yu was Lang Zhichun's son. When he was born, Lang Shaoan had just died two or three years ago, and Lang Jia ziyu had grown up listening to his grandfather's story, and naturally had a sense of closeness to the other person.
When he was three or four years old, Lang Jiaziyu often moved a small bench, sat next to his father, and watched him pinch the noodles intently, which was an hour or two. "It's incredible that a very small ball of dough becomes a character in my father's hands in two or three clicks."
At the age of four or five, under the guidance of his father, he officially began to learn to knead noodles, from the traditional image of "dolls", after pinching hundreds of thousands, he gradually realized some doorways: first conceive the image in his mind, and then draw it on paper, and follow the structural order of first inside and outside, from top to bottom.
When he was a teenager, Lang Jia Ziyu created with his father.
Although he practiced over and over again, Lang Jia Ziyu did not feel bored. This family craft did not bring him a sense of heaviness, but added a lot of fun.
On the one hand, he likes it himself, learns quickly, always completes a work with a bang, and then challenges the more difficult ones, and gets a great sense of accomplishment from the finished products. On the other hand, he has a good master- Lang Zhichun is a typical Chinese father in other things, and he has to train his son twice at every turn, but in the matter of the face-pincher, he is always encouraging his son.
When Lang Jiaziyu was 6 years old, Lang Zhichun asked him to pinch a sitting doll. Two and a half hours later, Lang Jiaziyu looked at the ugly doll he had pinched out, and was so angry that he wanted to knead it into a ball, but he was stopped by Lang Zhichun.
"My dad said I pinched well and told me to keep it." Lang Jia Ziyu recalled to reporters. Sometimes Lang Zhichun invites friends to his home as guests, and he will greet his friends in advance and let them take the initiative to ask for a face person that Lang Jiazi pinches, in order to encourage his son's enthusiasm.
Under the influence of his family, Lang Jiaziyu unconsciously had a sense of mission. In the second grade of elementary school, the teacher asked the students to make sentences with "world-famous". Lang Jiaziyu, who usually does not like to answer questions, has been raising his hand, and finally was named by the teacher and got the opportunity to express his dream: "I want to make 'Mian Ren Lang' famous all over the world!" ”
The class was silent, and no one knew what the "Face Man" was. In order to alleviate the awkward atmosphere, the teacher asked Lang Jia Ziyu to explain the meaning of "Face Man Lang", and after the explanation, the whole class was still silent. That scene made Lang Jia Ziyu still unforgettable.
"I felt bad about that time. Looking back now, it is not so uncomfortable, and I remember the sense of mission that I wanted to carry the banner of 'Face Man Lang' at that time. ”
Lang Zhichun once said to his son: Read well, and when you go to school, you will be able to see the writer Bing Xin's article "Interview with your grandfather" in the language textbook, "Interview with the Face Man Lang". However, in the 1990s, the article was removed from language textbooks. After growing up, Lang Jia Ziyu searched for this article on the Internet, looked at the self-statement of his grandfather in the text, especially before the founding of New China, dragging his family around with his mouth, being beaten and bullied by officials and bullies, and worrying about eating and wearing, and realized how rare the era he lived in was for a traditional craftsman.
In 2010, Lang Jiaziyu and her father participated in the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Beijing Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature. Before he was on the stage, Lang Zhichun said to him: "I am not performing today, you sit here to perform." Lang Jia ziyu took the stage to pinch an old birthday star, received a wave of admiration, and was immediately absorbed by the Beijing Folk Writers Association, becoming the youngest member at that time.
When asked by a reporter about whether you think you are an artist or not, he replied without hesitation: "Don't think, I am an artist." ”
Do whatever you want and put it into action
On the road of the noodle kneader, Lang Jia Ziyu was not unshakable. To be precise, his initial career choice was not a dough man.
Lang Jia ZiYu is doing the dough kneading.
"When I was a child, people thought of traditional handicrafts and they thought it was very earthy." Lang Jia ziyu recalled that when he first went to high school, his classmates introduced themselves, mentioned their artistic expertise, either learning ballet or piano, only he stood up and said: "I am a dough maker." "Like in elementary school, my classmates were indifferent.
"At that time, you had to post a video of the person who pinched the noodles on the Internet, no matter what kind of kneading, there was no one to scold you, because no one paid attention." Lang Jia Ziyu said. For a while, he felt that the material of noodles limited the space for artistic play, "the volume is too small, the meaning expressed is not exaggerated enough", and even the question of "how did I learn to shape the face" was raised.
The transformation occurred during college. Once he went to an art exhibition, he was attracted by the aroma of bread baking before he could make it into the shape of various hands, covering the entire wall, and when the bread was dried, it took on a texture similar to a palm print, which had a special beauty.
"I suddenly realized that the so-called material limitation is actually due to its own lack of talent, and the biggest 'disadvantage' of the material you use may be precisely where it is most powerful." From then on, Lang Jia Ziyu no longer doubted the artistic expression of face sculpture, but tried to do it to the best.
After graduating from the School of International Relations with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Lang Jiaziyu experienced the blow of the failure of the first examination and began to rethink the future path, and found that he still liked traditional arts in his bones. In his second graduate school, he applied for the art theory major at the Art College of Peking University.
"At that time, I couldn't even tell the difference between art and fine art." Lang Jia Ziyu said. Although he learned to shape his face from an early age, his creation mainly relied on intuition, and basic skills such as painting were not systematic. In more than 3 months of preparation time, he found a variety of theoretical books, "nibbled" without sleeping, and learned from 8 a.m. to 1 o'clock in the evening every day, and finally succeeded in fighting again.
During her master's degree, Lang Jia Ziyu had more thoughts on traditional arts. He asked his teacher a question: "Art must constantly break through its own boundaries, but many traditional arts have been almost no innovation for a long time, can it still be called art?" ”
The teacher replied without hesitation: "It's art." If there are no boundaries, what do you take to break through? Art needs someone to stick to the tradition, and only under the premise of full inheritance can it be possible to try new breakthroughs and break out of boundaries. ”
The development of new media has given a new generation of craftsmen more opportunities to show themselves. In addition to studying, Lang Jiaziyu began to do self-media, in addition to shooting videos, he also participated in some offline activities to promote the art of face people. In the second year of research, Lang Jiaziyu began to consider future career choices, struggling with the question of whether to start a business, and did not make up his mind.
Some of the face-shaping characters created by Lang Jia Ziyu.
One night in early 2020, Lang Jiaziyu's mobile phone was flooded with messages from friends — his childhood idol, the famous NBA star Kobe Bryant, was killed in a helicopter crash.
"When I saw the news, I was blindfolded." Lang Jia Ziyu loved basketball since childhood, once considered taking a career path, and finally gave up due to physical conditions and other reasons. Bryant is his favorite basketball player. "I finally realized that tomorrow and accidents don't know which one comes first, and if you want to do something, you can put it into action immediately." I chose to start a business. ”
This decision seems to be irrational, first of all, his master's degree is not over, and secondly, because of the epidemic, the entrepreneurial circle is already in the capital winter, but Lang Jiaziyu does not want to wait.
There is loneliness and comfort
A teacher who has worked with lang Jia ziyu introduced a cultural and creative industrial park next to the Drum Tower, which is where the current studio is located. Lang Jia Ziyu chose a room on the 5th floor with an annual rent of 200,000 yuan.
When he first moved in, the startup team consisted of him and an intern, and he couldn't afford office supplies, so the previous company left him with 12 sets of desks and chairs. A year later, the studio was officially established, and his two good brothers, high school classmate Feng Zhenjia and college classmate Li Qiyuan also joined in, and the 3 people left a lot of good memories here.
Lang Jia Ziyu (front row) and Feng Zhenjia (left) and Li Qiyuan in the studio.
The team's daily work content is rich and simple: Lang Jia Ziyu is responsible for pinching the dough people and showing the entire creative process in front of the camera, Feng Zhenjia is responsible for video editing and production, and Li Qiyuan is responsible for planning and operation.
Now, Lang Jia Ziyu's working hours are from 10 am to 12 pm, and he can't take care of eating when he is busy. In the most difficult times, the team can only rely on eating old money to maintain, coupled with many pressures, Lang Jia Ziyu sometimes parked the car in the underground garage, cried for a while and then went home.
His family once told him: "Making face molding a profession may not guarantee your life and future." If you want to choose other careers, we accept it too. But after going around, Lang Jiaziyu still chose this path.
For face sculpture, Lang Jia Ziyu has a complex emotion. "I can get a sense of ease escaping from time." He enjoys the process of expressing himself in the form of a face, and also enjoys the pleasure of "not following the crowd".
"It's an attractive thing for me and I'm good at it. And objectively speaking, traditional culture is recovering. In order to better promote "Face Man Lang", Lang Jia Ziyu has participated in programs such as "High Energy Player" and "The Strongest Brain" and gained many fans.
The increase in exposure has also brought some doubts to Lang Jia ziyu, such as "you only inherited the fur", "there is a difference of ten second generations between the third generation and the first generation", "I support traditional handicrafts, but what you do is not GOOD"... Seeing these negative comments, Lang Jia Ziyu was very uncomfortable at first, but gradually became accustomed to it, "Someone pointed out your problem, and you tried to correct it."
When attending the "Intangible Cultural Heritage" event, some people once recognized Lang Jiaziyu as the assistant brought by the guests, mainly because of his youth and fashionable dress.
"Some people think I shouldn't play basketball, play fashion, or post videos of us both playing games in the office." But Lang Jia Ziyu did not want to be limited by anyone's opinion, he wanted to experience more possibilities in life.
The reason why "intangible cultural heritage" needs to be protected is because of its rarity. Someone once asked Lang Jia ziyu what it was like to choose a niche profession, and he replied: "You have become a flat boat in the vast ocean, and you have also gained a sense of comfort and loneliness that you cannot have on an aircraft carrier." Sometimes, loneliness is also an honor. Still, he said he hopes there will be thousands of boats on the water and "one day fill the whole ocean."
On the first day of December 2021, Lang Jiaziyu wrote on Weibo: "Craftsmanship is two things: hard work and mistakes are wrong, and there is not much difference with life." ”
This article was originally published in the "@Z Generation" section of the 460th issue of Global People magazine, and was jointly produced by this magazine and People's Daily