Lychee news from the end of the year, the taste of the year is getting stronger. In Nanjing, Qinhuai flower lanterns are an intangible cultural heritage favored by citizens during the Spring Festival, and hanging flower lanterns and visiting lanterns will be a folk culture feast loved by citizens.
On the 27th day of the lunar month, in the Lantern Workshop located in the GanXi Mansion, Cao Zhenrong, a non-hereditary heir who is nearly eighty years old, is making New Year flower lanterns. More than a dozen lifelike tiger lanterns are displayed on his workbench, with round eyes and pointed teeth, which are both majestic and festive, decorating the twenty-square-meter studio with full flavor.
Strive for excellence Intoxicated with flower lanterns for more than 70 years
Qinhuai Lantern Illumination is one of the most representative folk arts in Nanjing, which has been passed down for about 1700 years. Coming from a family of flower lanterns, Cao Zhenrong has been exposed to this craft since he was a child. At that time, the shape of the flower lantern was relatively traditional, and the most famous was the lotus lamp. Cutting petals, splitting bamboo, painting lamp faces... He gradually entered the door under the guidance of his elders.
As an adult, he entered the factory and worked as an electrician for a while, but he was born in the door and never forgot the ancestral craft of flower lanterns. In 1982, Cao Zhenrong left the factory and became a full-time lantern artist, and was awarded the representative figure of Qinhuai Lantern, the intangible cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province, and the master of arts and crafts in Jiangsu Province.
When it comes to the knack for success in art, Cao Zhenrong believes that it is "excellence". If you want to make the flower lantern visually eye-catching, you must first ensure that you are meticulous in detail. After the lights fall on the eighteenth day of the first month of each year, the artists will begin to prepare for the next year's lanterns. Drawing, preparing materials, racking, gluing... Every process must be treated strictly. Cao Zhenrong said that this is called "slow work and fine work", if you wait until the New Year and then start to prepare, you can't catch up, and you can't do the lanterns.
Repeatedly, Cao Zhenrong's hands were covered with calluses and scars, and even his fingerprints were worn off, but he did not care, only in this way could he make each work exude a unique charm and be loved by the citizens.
Introduce the old and the new, and create the first zodiac flower lantern
Tiger Lantern is one of the twelve zodiac flower lanterns pioneered by the elderly Cao Zhenrong, which is popular with its vivid appearance and beautiful meaning. Cao Zhenrong told reporters that in fact, the traditional Nanjing Qinhuai lantern color is not the type of lantern of the zodiac, more than ten years ago, he has been engaged in the production of lanterns for decades, he thought that there was no similar work on the market, and began to try to create.
In the first few years, the innovative zodiac lights did not get the recognition of the market, people will still choose mature lanterns, such as lotuses, rabbits, airplanes and other shapes, Cao Zhenrong once doubted his own ideas. Before the Lunar Year of the Pig in 2007, he rushed to make hundreds of pig lanterns with suspicion, and sure enough, he was cold again. Just when he was about to give up, a team in Hangzhou took a look at his unique pig lamp and directly wrapped him in a circle, and Cao Zhenrong realized that some people think that pigs represent laziness, and some people think that pigs symbolize wealth, and the key is to adjust their thinking, find the right direction, and seize people's aesthetic preferences.
"At that time, in order to change the appropriate samples over and over again, my father really forgot to eat and sleep," Cao Zhenrong's daughter Cao Hong, who is now also a representative inheritor of Qinhuai lanterns, recalled the process of her father innovating the lanterns, she summarized it with four words of "like obsession", "At that time, my father's workbench was installed next to the bed, sometimes he was asleep, and suddenly thought of a good idea, immediately got up and did it, often until midnight." ”
From the shape of the skeleton, to the material of the lamp shell, to the color of the fur and eyes, the tiger lantern created by Cao Zhenrong this year has undergone as many as eight major changes, "This tiger lantern can not be too fierce, but also has to look very imposing, this measure must be grasped well." Cao Zhenrong said that almost every time he looks at the finished work, he can always find the place where he is not satisfied, and then adjust accordingly, and only in this way can he make a qualified new trick.
Pass on the torch Bring The Qinhuai lanterns to the classroom
Nowadays, Cao Zhenrong's flower lantern has become a golden signboard, online and offline have opened sales channels, but also exported to overseas, in addition to completing each work, this elderly man has a new mission.
Cao Zhenrong's daughter Cao Hong is teaching children lanterns
In cooperation with the Nanjing Folk Customs Museum and the Qinhuai Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, he brought lanterns into the museum and demonstrated the skills of lanterns on the spot; he and his family went into kindergartens, middle schools and even university classrooms to teach the historical origin and production methods of lanterns; they also went to remote villages to let people there not only understand the cultural treasures of Nanjing, but also learn a craft for a living...
Cao Zhenrong told reporters that the overall lantern market in Nanjing is thriving, but the talent of the lantern club is relatively scarce, and he is communicating with some colleges and universities in Nanjing, opening classes in schools, cultivating talents in the lantern club, so that the entire Qinhuai lantern color can develop better.
"I am the provincial inheritor of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Qinhuai Lanterns, and I have the obligation to pass on our craftsmanship." I'm 78 years old and may not be able to do anything anymore soon, but I'm still holding on because I'm holding our Nanjing business card. Cao Zhenrong called on more citizens, especially young friends, to learn and make flower lanterns, and then use such a traditional art to decorate Nanjing more beautifully and more beautifully. (Reporter/Shi Yanan, Chen Hui, Wang Zhiyong, Liu Juan, Chen Cheng, Videographer/Quan Liancheng, Summer Editor/Zhou Shengnan)