Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter Li Jing
Have you ever seen a six-meter-tall "tiger"?
Walking into Niejiazhuang, Jiangzhuang Town, Gaomi City, the hometown of Chinese clay sculptures, you will see a six-meter-high clay sculpture tiger, which is majestic and graceful.
"Little children, don't cry, your father went to Dengzhou Capital, flower sticks, mud tigers, gollum and gollum." Folk songs about the mud tigers in Niejiazhuang have been circulating for many years. Nie Jiazhuang mud tiger grinned, the corner of the mouth left two small holes, round eyes, full of spirit, there is a whistle in the stomach, the head and tail are pushed and pulled, can make a "whine, whine" sound, so it is also called "mud call tiger". The mud tiger is the most distinctive clay sculpture in Niejiazhuang, the most distinctive folk artwork in Gaomi, and has also become a national intangible cultural heritage.
Gaomi, Shandong is famous as the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Art", and "Hometown of Three Sages and Four Treasures , Mo Yan" is its cultural brand. The Year of the Tiger is approaching, and Niejiazhuang's "Mud Tiger" products, as one of the "Four Treasures of High Density", are selling well. The small mud knots become "golden knots", driving the people to start a business and get rich, becoming the strength and confidence of the development of Gaomi Niejiazhuang, and "adding wings to the tiger" on the road of rural revitalization.
Best-selling mud tiger
Mud bumps turn into golden bumps
The Year of the Tiger is coming, and there is an endless stream of people who come to Niejiazhuang from the north of the South China Sea to buy mud tigers.
While packaging mud tigers of different sizes and patterns, Nie Peng introduced the craftsmanship of Nie Jiazhuang mud tigers to customers. "In the past, most of the buyers came from the Shandong Peninsula, and in recent years, with the growing fame of mud tigers, more and more people have bought from all over the country and even abroad." This year, because it is the Year of the Tiger, compared with the same period last year, sales have increased by about 40%. Nie Peng's face was full of joy.
Nie Peng, 32 years old this year, has been dealing with mud tigers for exactly 12 years, and he calls this year the "year of his life" in the mud tiger business. Nie Peng is the 22nd generation inheritor of The Clay Sculpture of Niejiazhuang and the youngest inheritor at present.
In Nie Peng's childhood impression, almost every household in Nie Jiazhuang will make clay sculptures, and the mud tiger naturally becomes the toy that accompanies him the longest in childhood. Nie Peng said: "The image of the mud tiger contains the meaning of blessing peace, so every Spring Festival, the elders of the family will buy a pair of mud tigers for the children, both as decorations and toys. ”
Nie Peng's grandfather and father would both make mud tigers, mainly to supplement the family. Nie Peng's father, Nie Chenxi, is 57 years old and has been learning to be a mud tiger since he was 7 years old. In his eyes, "mud things" have long been unable to play new tricks. So in the Year of the Tiger in 2010, when Nie Peng plunged into the mud tiger with great vigor, both his father and the villagers felt that "this young man has no future in eating handicraft rice." However, Nie Peng still showed his determination, "a bit of a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers."
His father could not resist him, so he taught him with his own hands. "He insisted on learning, so I taught harshly, but I didn't expect him to be real." Nie Chenxi said. Nie Peng had not studied art, and making clay sculptures was almost from scratch, and he really tasted the difficulty of it. Nie Peng said: "Sitting for at least eight hours a day, every day is repeatedly dealing with mud. In winter, the mud dries slowly, and a 20 cm high mud cannot dry out for a week. The cool mud in your hand will freeze your hands. And now, Nie Peng was holding a paintbrush and swinging freely on the clay sculpture.
Initially, Nie Peng's annual sales were only 1,000 or 2,000, and in recent years, the sales of mud tigers have reached 30,000. His father, Nie Chenxi, became a provincial non-hereditary inheritor, and Nie Peng also became a municipal non-hereditary inheritor. They sighed: "The spring of the craftsmen has come."
A mud tiger that will "bark"
Craftsmen pass it on from generation to generation
Behind the favor of the Niejiazhuang mud tiger is the inheritance of old craftsmanship from generation to generation. This small lump of mud kneaded into a mud tiger is not a simple thing.
Nie Peng said: "To do traditional crafts, you need patience and skill. The so-called "three points of plastic, seven points of color", from taking soil, mud, making blanks, repairing billets, making whistles, bonding, powdering, coloring, drying, etc., after more than a dozen processes, a vibrant mud tiger can be formed. "A simple-looking mud tiger is actually stained with the handprints of countless craftsmen."
Compared with the clay sculpture tigers in other places, the mud tigers in Niejiazhuang can not only be watched and played, but the biggest feature is that they will "bark". Whistles pay attention to a lot of doorways. Nie Peng said: "Generally speaking, it is to use a round reed pole and use a knife to cut a slope at the end, and the larger the slope, the crisper it is." Mud tigers are different in size, and the length and thickness of the whistles required are also different, and the larger mud tigers have longer and thicker whistles. ”
Niejiazhuang mud tiger has the four characteristics of "sound, shape, color and movement". Nie Peng said: "Sound, that is, through pushing and pulling, the mud tiger makes a cry; the shape, that is, the shape of your tiger is very realistic; the color, that is, the use of pink, light yellow, scarlet, dark green, black mud tiger five primary colors, big red and green is very gorgeous, become a regional cultural characteristics; moving, is through the use of leather adhesion, the tiger's head and tail can be pulled back and forth." ”
There are more than a dozen sizes of mud tiger works on Nie Peng's workbench, and the smallest mud tiger is 6 cm high. In addition, there are more than a dozen sizes of mud tigers that are 10 cm high, 20 cm high, and 30 cm high. Mud tigers have different colors and patterns, such as paper cuts, New Year paintings, idioms, custom copywriting and so on.
In 2016, Nie Peng decided to try to challenge being a higher mud tiger. From spring to summer, Nie Peng's father and son spent more than five months making a 2.3-meter-high mud tiger. Such a high mud tiger, before there was no template, can only rely on hand a small piece of kneading. In addition, such a amount of work cannot be completed in one day, so maintaining moisture is also a challenge. "Making whistles also requires research, and it takes a lot of manpower to glue the tiger's head and tail." When the 2.3-meter mud tiger was presented in front of people, everyone was amazed.
There are mud tigers with history
Intangible Cultural Heritage projects inject innovative vitality
The Niejiazhuang clay sculpture originated in the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Dynasty, which has a history of more than 400 years. Thanks to the natural advantages of siltation in Baimai Lake, the local soil is better, viscous, and will not break after drying. It has the reputation of "Nie Jiazhuang, facing south, and every household kneading clay people". To this day, the villagers of Niejiazhuang still use clay from the fields when making mud tigers and clay sculpture crafts.
Originally, the Niejiazhuang clay sculpture was originally a mud coat for fireworks. During the Qing Dynasty, Niejiazhuang began to make clay dolls, mud lions, rocking monkeys, clay sculpture patterns increased, and more people made clay sculptures.
Clay sculptures gradually became a representative of Gaomi Niejiazhuang. In the year 2000, the Niejiazhuang mud tiger took another qualitative leap. Nie Peng said: "At that time, the connection part in the middle of the mud tiger was changed from kraft paper to leather, and the mold was also changed from firing to using a plaster mold. The name of the Nie Jiazhuang mud tiger was getting louder and louder. ”
In 2008, the Niejiazhuang clay sculpture was included in the list of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage expansion projects. "We have gradually gained a new understanding of intangible cultural heritage, and it is a matter of pride that the mud tiger of Gaomi Niejiazhuang has become an intangible cultural heritage." Nie Peng said.
"If you just keep holding on to this piece of mud, it will be difficult to go long in the future." As an intangible cultural heritage, how should the High-Density Niejiazhuang Mud Tiger break through? "The first thing Nie Peng did was to let the mud tiger have its own packaging." Originally, when people bought mud tigers, they used a plastic bag, and I thought that mud tigers should innovate from the inside out. Therefore, Nie Peng began to design packaging to make the mud tiger an intangible cultural heritage product.
In addition to packaging, Nie Peng also made some exaggerated designs for the image of the mud tiger, adding elements such as cartoons, high-density paper-cutting, and gray year paintings. "Although innovative, what remains unchanged is the most traditional face of the mud tiger, and everyone looks at it as the niejiazhuang mud tiger." Nowadays, the mud tiger also has the name of Xianghu, with the meaning of "Xianghu is called, and the blessing comes".
In order to let the mud tiger enter the daily life of the people, Nie Peng is also constantly producing grounded mud tiger derivatives. In addition, he has also traveled to more than 20 countries and regions for cultural exchanges.
"At first, I just wanted to learn traditional crafts from my father, learn skills, and then I wanted to learn how to sell, and then I wanted to innovate, how to let more people know, and how to attract young people to join us." The mud tiger is no longer just Nie Peng's childhood toy, but also a cultural symbol, and the responsibility on his shoulders.
A mud tiger that can "fly"
Rural revitalization "like a tiger"
At present, only about 20 households in Niejiazhuang are still making clay sculpture products. "In the past, my grandfather and father used to make clay sculptures to sell at the nearby market, especially around the Spring Festival. However, a mud tiger, before the Year of the Tiger, had limited sales and benefits. In addition, there are great challenges in doing intangible cultural heritage projects, young people do less, and it is difficult to pass on their craftsmanship. Nie Peng said.
In order to better protect and develop clay sculptures, Niejiazhuang West Village and surrounding villages have absorbed more than 120 clay sculpture craftsmen to form a joint society to unify standards and share sales channels. At present, the united society can process nearly 10,000 mud tigers per month, and the products are sold throughout the country. In 2021, the sales of intangible cultural heritage handicrafts in Jiangzhuang Town reached 50 million yuan.
Now, in addition to having door-to-door wholesale and customized customers, Nie Peng also promotes through the Cultural Exchange Expo. "We are also now developing sales channels such as e-commerce and short videos. Mud Tiger not only increased sales, but also 'flew' abroad. ”
"The sales channels are gradually expanding, and I really hope that the people in the village can pick up this old craft and develop together." Let the little mud tiger play a role in the road of rural revitalization. Nie Peng said.
The mud tiger became the "face" and "lizi" of Gaomi Niejiazhuang, and had a well-known name. Nie Peng said: "With the help of this Year of the Tiger, I hope that there will be a new transformation in traditional craftsmanship. In the next Year of the Tiger, I hope to make a small mud into a long-term project. ”
"Gollum." Nie Peng played with the mud tiger. "The Year of the Tiger is coming, and I wish everyone an auspicious Year of the Tiger, like a tiger adding wings."