At the scene of the "Qingxi National Tide New Year Goods Festival", Cao Zhengxin made a 5-meter diameter "Qingxi Tide" oil-paper umbrella that made people shine, attracting countless citizens and tourists to take photos and punch cards, its short video exploded on the Internet, "Qingxi Tide" became a real net red umbrella, how did it work? With the questions of netizens, on the afternoon of January 20, the reporter came to The Morning He Village, Longguangqiao Town, Heshan District, Yiyang Morning He Arts and Crafts Umbrella Industry Company, to visit the production process of Yiyang Ming Oil Paper Umbrella.
Cao Zhengxin, 60 years old this year, is the twelfth generation of Yiyang Ming oil paper umbrella and the provincial non-hereditary inheritor of Yiyang Ming oil paper umbrella. He came from an umbrella-making family and learned to make umbrellas with his grandfather and father from an early age. With his efforts, Yiyang Ming Oil Paper Umbrella successfully applied for intangible cultural heritage in Hunan Province in 2016.
Cao Zhengxin said that from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the beginning of liberation, almost every family in the south area of the bridge made oil-paper umbrellas.
From the selection of materials (no. bamboo) - saw bamboo - planing green to paste umbrella edge - painting to the sleeve - knot top to make a complete oil paper umbrella before and after to go through 72 processes. Even a "veteran" like Cao Zhengxin, who has decades of experience in making umbrellas, it takes a whole day to make a paper umbrella for one person.
Today, Cao Zhengxin, who is the year of flower armor, still insists on making oil umbrellas, he said, I don't want this craft to be lost, I want to pass it on forever. The second son, Cao Jun, has become the thirteenth generation inheritor of this ancient craft.
When he met Cao Jun, he was doing an important process - cutting paper, a knife down, 500 pieces of paper neatly cut open, not only a technical work but also a physical work.
Oil-paper umbrellas accompanied Cao Jun's entire growth, and in 1991, he officially learned the production of oil-paper umbrellas with his father since 2012. He has his own views on the inheritance of oil-paper umbrellas, saying that today's young people are reluctant to do this business, but the craft still has to be passed on.
In order to make the oil-paper umbrella popular again, Cao Zhengxin and his son Cao Jun set their sights on the innovation and optimization of the process.
"In the past, only the traditional oil paper umbrella was made, but now we have developed umbrellas such as batik, tie-dye, brand painting, embroidery umbrella, celebrity calligraphy and painting, and there are silk umbrellas and silk umbrellas on the materials." Cao Zhengxin said that the father and son have made new innovations on the basis of inheriting the skills passed down from family to family.
Kung Fu pays off, over the years, through continuous exploration, Cao Zhengxin Cao Jun father and son not only in various exhibitions and competitions, repeatedly won awards, oil paper umbrellas have also been sold to more than 30 countries in Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, etc., with an annual output value of more than 20 million yuan, driving the employment of nearly 200 people in the village.
In order to add highlights to the "Qingxi National Tide New Year Goods Festival", Cao Zhengxin decided to make the country's largest oil-paper umbrella, and it uses traditional craftsmanship, and the skeleton is all made of bamboo. Cao Zhengxin ran through countless bamboo forests, spent 3 days, looking for a bamboo that weighed 80 pounds for more than 5 years, and the bamboo was found, and he had a score in his heart.
The raw materials of the umbrella skeleton are found, and then it is the key production procedure, cutting the bamboo, digging the groove, each step must take into account the force of the umbrella, the knife must be stable and accurate, if it is wrong, the bamboo is invalid, and the umbrella cannot be done. There is more than one difficult process, for example, the posting of umbrella paper is also very elaborate process, if you are not careful, you have to start again.
Before and after, it took more than 1 month, and this giant umbrella was made.
Seeing that everyone likes the oil paper umbrella so much, Cao Zhengxin is very pleased: "In the past, the Yiyang Ming oil paper umbrella had brilliant, and after the appearance of this umbrella, it can get so many people's likes, which makes me more confident, I hope that more people can understand the Yiyang Ming oil paper umbrella, love the oil paper umbrella, and work together to inherit." ”
Source: Dayiyang
Author: Lu Pengxiang Huang Yun Zhang Qingru
Editor: Zhou Mingyao