Text/Photo/Video Qilu Evening News Qilu One-Point Reporter Wang Yuan Intern Zhao Jing
The winter sun shines into the house, on the stove, and the sugar in the copper pot bubbles in the sun, emitting the sweetness of maltose. In Dalijia Village, Yaoqiang Street, Licheng District, Jinan City, 39-year-old Li Ying, dressed in a red Tang costume, sat next to the copper pot, gently scooped up a spoonful of sugar, cast it back and forth on the jade, and the wisps of sugar fluttered, a lifelike tiger appeared on the jade slab, and then glued a bamboo stick while it was hot, and a tiger candy painting was made. The Lunar Year of the Tiger is coming soon, and Li Ying has created several kinds of tiger shapes on scratch paper, including the upper mountain tiger, the lower mountain tiger, the cartoon tiger, the cloth tiger, etc., which are very popular with big friends and children.
Sugar painting is also sugar painting, which is considerable and edible. Folk customs are "pouring sugar people", "pouring sugar cakes" or "sugar lamp shadows", which are divided into two types: flat sugar painting and three-dimensional sugar painting. Li Ying's mother relied on this craft to support her family, Li Ying had heard about it since she was a child, and she also liked the craft of sugar painting, and soon learned to make sugar painting.
After the birth of the child, Li Ying began to make sugar paintings full-time in order to facilitate the care of the child. "It is better to go out to work", at first her parents did not agree, and did not want her daughter to follow their old path, but Li Ying was very insistent, she really liked this craft. She wasted a lot of material to improve the recipe of sugar; in order to create more shapes, she repeatedly practiced on scratch paper. In addition to making the traditional sugar paintings of the zodiac, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and birds and animals, Li Ying, who likes to paint, often innovates her shapes. What is popular nowadays, Li Ying will draw anything, such as cartoon characters or animal shapes that children like, Li Ying almost all have her hands on it.
She also often pulled a suitcase containing pots, spoons, jade slabs and other tools for making sugar paintings alone, and went around to catch markets, set up stalls, or participate in performances. Because she was doing what she liked, no matter how hard and tired she was, she was full of joy. Once in the community to engage in activities, the queue to receive sugar painting people lined up a long line, Li Ying did not expect sugar painting so popular, in one afternoon she did more than 200 sugar paintings, after the end of the activity, her arms were sour.
In addition to making sugar paintings, Li Ying likes various folk handicrafts and learns to make many folk crafts such as face molding, paper cutting, straw weaving, tie-dyeing and so on. "Don't you press your body!" She laughed. Today, she has thirty or forty students under her hands to study with her, including college students and baoma, and Li Ying unreservedly imparts her skills to them.
In the two months before and after the Spring Festival, it was Li Ying's busiest time, and various temple fairs, annual gatherings, and performances were held one after another. Although very busy, but Li Ying's favorite is to go to the campus, community or cultural center to do public welfare, whenever she looks at the children's pair of curious eyes, eager to try the small hands, Li Ying feels that what she does is very meaningful. Next year, Li Ying plans to open a studio in her hometown to let more rural children feel the charm of these folk arts.
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