Image source: Provided by the interviewee
A sign in the National Museum reads: "The world's earliest flying machine is a Chinese kite." The Chinese history book "Continued History" records that "flying a kite, opening your mouth and looking up, you can vent heat." Flying a kite is also a mentally strong exercise that requires total dedication.
For Deng Jing, who enjoys the reputation of "Southwest Kite King", playing kite is more of an art. Since he wants to play, he has to play to the extreme! Enlightened at the age of 6, he became famous at a young age, and became famous in all directions, and is now a director of the China Kite Association, the deputy director of the Referee Committee of the China Kite Association, and a national kite referee. Deng Jing regarded kites as life for most of her life, and was known for her creativity in the shape of dragon kites. Deng Jing believes that Chinese regards himself as the descendant of the dragon, the dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation, and the dragon-shaped kite should soar in the sky and be harmonious and unified with other kites.
Deng Jing yearns for higher and farther skies, and is committed to pushing Sichuan kites to the world.
1. Young fame
Deng Jing was born in 1973 in Shaheyuan Street, Jinniu District, Chengdu, near today's Phoenix Mountain Sports Park. Because her ancestors were engaged in handicrafts, Deng Jing had a very high talent for handicrafts from an early age. At that time, the material conditions in the countryside were not very abundant, and most of the children's toys came from their parents or their own dexterous hands, among which the kites in the sky when the spring flowers bloomed were the children's greatest expectations. When she was more than 6 years old, Deng Jing began to learn to kite. Deng Jing recalled: "At that time, my family was busy and had no time to tie a kite for me, so I had to find fun by myself. Without the raw materials for kites, Deng Jing tore a few pages of paper from her sister's homework book, and secretly took out the thread used to sew quilts at home, and then found a few thick bamboo strips, imitating the shape of the kite to make a "clothes kite" with a king-shaped structure. Deng Jing excitedly led it and ran sweaty, but unfortunately the kite either dragged on the ground or swirled in the air... The first time I made a kite, I failed.
But Deng Jing did not give up, has been groping for the skill of kite, and finally at the age of 9, she tied the first kite in her life that can only fly. Since then, he has become the "little kite prince" among the children because his homemade kites always fly higher than his peers.
After graduating from junior high school at the age of 16, Deng Jing has been engaged in traditional kite hand-making since then, with good craftsmanship, good quality and high flying, and Deng Jing's kite has become a sought-after commodity around Phoenix Mountain Airport. At first, his family did not agree with him to make a living, so he secretly studied in the fish shed under the pretext of "guarding the fish" at night. There was no electric light in the fish shed, and Deng Jing used candlelight, a knife, and a lighter to unselfishly tie a kite, often returning to her room at 3 or 4 a.m. to rest, and sometimes even staying up all night unconsciously.
Those kites that fly in the wind carry the time of youth and make dreams colorful. The "Five Blessings Linmen" composed of five bats, the "Golden Jade Mantang" composed of several goldfish, the "Hong FuQi Tian" composed of a group of red bats, and the "more than every year" created by the fish playing lotus leaves... Each theme is filled with the artist's pride in traditional Chinese culture and yearning for a better life.
And the work that made Deng Jing famous and established the status of the jianghu was his dragon kite.
2. Worship the master
In 1992, the news that Phoenix Mountain will host the first kite festival has not gone away. Deng Jing, who wanted to emerge, felt that the opportunity had come, so he took his kite work to the competition and easily won a third prize. But this award did not bring much surprise to Deng Jing, but made him secretly determined to win the first place in the next competition. To this end, Deng Jing began to look for a teacher to learn the art, and later he learned that the kite master Zuo Ming's dragon kite was vivid and decided to learn from him systematically.
Deng Jing still clearly remembers the scene of learning art from his teacher at that time: "When Teacher Zuo made the dragon kite, his dragon head was very beautifully tied. I asked for advice after I inquired about his address. At that time, it was the hottest time in the summer in July and August, and Deng Jing rode a bicycle from the North Gate to jiuyanqiao Zhimin Road, which took 1 and a half hours each way, and every time she rode it was sweaty. For more than two months in a row, Deng Jing enjoyed herself on the way to learn art from her teacher. Because Teacher Zuo usually stays at home alone to study kites, Deng Jing will knock on the door once or twice every time she goes to visit, and then call "Grandpa Zuo". In the gap between Zuo Grandpa's doors, Deng Jing glanced intently at the dragon head hanging on his wall, then said a few words of greeting and then turned his head to leave, very satisfied. After returning home, Deng Jing repeatedly pondered the practice of Zuo Grandpa's dragon head. Deng Jing's persistence finally impressed Zuo Ming, and almost two months later, Teacher Zuo's door was opened for Deng Jing and invited him to enter the door to drink tea and sit down, and the teacher-student friendship between the two began.
In order to improve his skills, Deng Jing ran almost all the temples in Chengdu with dragon heads, drawing while recalling, and then going back to compare until he basically mastered the making skills of dragon heads. Deng Jing and Zuo Ming's master and apprentice were also teachers and friends, and the dragon head produced by the two at that time could be described as exquisite and exquisite.
In 1995, at the age of 23, Deng Jing took her own 88-meter-long three-dragon kite weighing less than 1 kilogram to the second Kite Competition in Sichuan Province, and won the gold medal in the dragon category. After that, Deng Jing also participated in the "Kite Competition of the Fourth Kite Art Festival in Chengdu, China", winning the second and third places.
In 1996, he participated in the "Sichuan Dayi Wangsi Cup National Kite Invitational Competition" and won the fourth place.
In 1997, his works were selected into the "97 National Panda Festival Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Chengdu, Sichuan, China".
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However, Deng Jing is not satisfied with the competition in traditional skills, and he is always looking for the "soul" of the kite. To this end, the two masters and apprentices also began new explorations and research. The birth of the nine dragon head ideas made Deng Jing excited, and he wanted to create a kite with his own style!
Unfortunately, in 1997, Teacher Zuo Ming died of illness. In order to commemorate the teacher, Deng Jing established a kite team in the same year, named "Ming Jing Kite Team". In order to complete the ideal of "nine dragons flying together", Deng Jing picked up her sadness and selflessly threw herself into the production of kites.
For a whole year, Deng Jing focused on the production of dragon kites. "Painting, tying, pasting, and putting, known as the four arts (i.e., painting, lashing, pasting, and flying), are the whole process of making kites, and everything is the goal of his lifelong excellence." Deng Jing said that it took more than 3,000 bamboo strips to make the "Nine Dragons Fly Together" and tied more than 10,000 times; flying kites is not only a technical work, but also an artistic work, but also an intellectual work - the dragon head is at the mercy, the dragon body balance, the wind resistance calculation... After a kite activity, the physical exertion is no less than lifting a prefabricated board!
In 1999, the "Fourth China International Kite Festival and the 9th National Kite Competition" was held in Lianyungang, and Deng Jing surprised the audience with his "Kowloon Kite". A nine-headed dragon hovered in the air, imposing, attracting everyone's attention, and the media at the scene circled around the "dragon". With the attention of CCTV, Deng Jing's name of "Southwest Kite King" was remembered by people.
In the following nearly three years, Deng Jing's honor was added to his body, becoming the undisputed back wave of the domestic kite industry.
In 1999, he represented Zigong to participate in the "Fifth China International Kite Association and the Ninth National Kite Competition" and won 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal, and represented Chongzhou Jinji Township to participate in the "6th Kite Competition of Sichuan Province" and won 3 single first places and first place in the team.
In 2000, he represented Dayi in the "10th National Kite Competition" and won the first place in the longest category of kites; represented Sichuan in the "Fourth National Farmers' Games of the People's Republic of China" and won 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal; represented Chongzhou Golden Rooster in the "First National Kite Elite Competition" and won 3 gold medals, several silver medals and 5 bests; participated in the 10th National Competition and won three gold medals and three bests; and won 6 gold medals in the National Farmers' Games and the National Elite Competition.
In 2001, he participated in the "Third National Kite Theory Seminar" and won the first prize of the work "Kowloon Take-off"; represented Chongzhou to participate in the "Seventh China International Kite Festival and the Eleventh National Kite Competition" and won 3 gold medals and 2 best...
It was also from then on that Deng Jing, who bore the name of "Southwest Kite King", made Sichuan Kites play a world in the national kite industry.
3. Manned storm
Fast forward to 2003. One day, at the Airport of Taiping Temple in Tuqiao, Chengdu, a super dragon kite dragged a man weighing more than 50 kilograms nearly 3 meters off the ground, and the "kite carried people to the sky" caused the crowd to clap their hands. And the person who made this super dragon kite was Deng Jing.
However, behind this hotly discussed incident is because of a storm, and Deng Jing still has lingering feelings when talking about this matter. The cause of the matter is this, the Sichuan media reporter once asked about the bearing capacity of the dragon kite, Deng Jing replied lightly at that time, "It is no problem to pull a person into the sky." The next day, the words "Southwest Kite King Carrying People to Heaven" appeared in the provincial media. As soon as the news came out, many people in the society questioned this, and some people said that "kites carrying people to the sky" is unrealistic fake news, because everyone has not seen it with their own eyes! At this time, the newspaper had to personally ask Deng Jing for verification. Deng Jingwan did not expect that a sentence he casually said would actually cause a storm of public opinion. However, for "carrying people to the sky", Deng Jing is very confident with more than 20 years of production and release practice. To this end, Deng Jing spent more than 5 months to produce a dragon kite with a total length of 150 meters and a weight of more than 20 kilograms, in order to prove the bold words of "kite carrying people to heaven".
On the same day, witnessed by many media, the kite, which Deng Jing called a "super dragon", successfully "grabbed a person of more than 50 kilograms into the sky". After this incident, Deng Jing suddenly became "quiet" and was no longer willing to "show her face" in the media. It was not until 2009 that he returned to the media with the label of "Southwest Kite Prince" after being persuaded by friends.
4. Let your dreams fly
The few years of "disappearing" were the peak period of Deng Jing's career development.
In 2006, the head of the marketing department of a supermarket intended to introduce Mingjing kites into the supermarket, and said that "at least 1,000 SKUs" should be required. The person in charge thought he was a big buyer, and was dumbfounded when he was taken to the kite production place by Deng Jing - 6 Futian trucks filled with kites drove by like a gust of wind under his eyes... What the person in charge did not know was that 95% of the commercial kites that were set up on both sides of the Yunguichuan Road came from Mingjing kites. Deng Jing said that the weight of bamboo consumed in peak production years alone was as high as 80 tons, and it also led to the development of the surrounding economy, and the income of workers increased.
In the following decade, Deng Jing, who returned to the media's attention, participated in dozens of national kite competitions and won numerous awards. In 2016, the China Kite Association of the State General Administration of Sport held the first simple "rolling, pasting, painting and putting" production technology competition in the history of Chinese kite competitions in Shanghai, and Deng Jing's "dragon kite" works stood out from the works of more than 40 kite masters from various provinces and cities across the country, won the highest score, and won the first prize.
Among the kite works displayed by Deng Jing, there is no shortage of elements with strong Bashu characteristic culture, such as the Sun God Bird and Liu Guan Zhang Taoyuan Sanjieyi: in 2004, he made the Liu Guan Zhang Taoyuan Sanjie Yi Kite, which won the National Kite Best Creation Award; the Sun God Bird Kite displayed at the 20th Sichuan Kite Championship and the First Kite Art Festival in Chengdu in October 2019; and the "Wuhan Refueling China Must Win" that helped Wuhan fight the epidemic in 2020! "Dragon kite, etc. At present, in the domestic kite industry, Deng Jing is a business card and a well-known brand.
As the deputy secretary-general of the Sichuan Kite Association, Deng Jing also shoulders the mission of carrying forward the Sichuan kite culture. In 2019, the International Kite Festival, co-organized by the Sichuan Kite Association, was held in Chengdu, with hundreds of thousands of participants and visitors. He hopes that through the way of doing activities, more people can understand the kite culture, witness a variety of kite styles, and experience the charm of kites.
In order to pass on the kite culture, Deng Jing often leads the team to do public welfare activities in schools and communities. They hold weekly kite culture classes in Schools such as Chengdu Phoenix Primary School, Chengdu Taiping Temple West Primary School, dayi Wangsi Central School, etc., and jointly establish a "Youth Kite Experiment Base" with Mianyang Xianhai Central Primary School and Qionglai Sangyuan Primary School to teach the history of kites and kite making skills.
"I hope that more people can understand the kite culture, and I hope that our kites in Sichuan can be famous in the country and even the world." Deng Jing said that at present, through the integration of Bashu culture, Sichuan kites have become unique and have a certain influence in China. In the next step, Deng Jing will continue to lead the team to strive for better results in various kite competitions and kite activities, so that Sichuan kites can go abroad and go international. At the same time, they will also strengthen the linkage with communities, schools, and government agencies, continue to promote kite sports and kite activities, and help the fitness of the whole people.
Author: Long Xiao
Editor: Xie Minglin
Proofreader: Xie Minglin
Review: Mei Yanping