Xinhua News Agency, Guiyang, February 8 (Reporter Liu Zhiqiang) "Millet Le, cotton back basket, man carrying a horse with seven feet." This sentence has been circulating for many years in Mile Village, Dougu Town, Weining Yi Hui and Miao Autonomous County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province. The "millet" here refers to the village of Miller. For hundreds of years, the local area has made a living from sand pottery. Villagers carry the prepared sand pottery on their backs and horses, and walk the streets and alleys to sell.
During the Spring Festival, the cold wind in the mountains of Wumeng is cold, but in the home of Liao Liangqing, a villager in Miller Village, it is already a busy scene: excavation and storage have begun.
Liao Liangqing shows how to knead the shape of sand pottery. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Zhiqiang
The 45-year-old Liao Liangqing is the inheritor of The "Weining Sand Pottery Making Technique" of Guizhou Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the only craftsman in Miller Village who still insists on sand pottery making, known as the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Professor" in Dashanli. He has an almost obsessive love for clay pottery making.
From childhood memories, Sand Pottery has been integrated into his life. Liao Liangqing often stood by the fire pond and watched his father burn sand pottery. After a long time, he quickly learned to burn tea pots. Weininggu called it "Usa", and "Usa Roasted Tea" is widely spread in the area of Mount Umun, and many people use roasted tea pots from Miller Village to make "Usa Roasted Tea".
During the period of poverty alleviation, the silent "Wusa roasted tea" industry was revitalized, and Liao Liangqing, who had been working in Kunming for many years, was invited back to return to his old business.
In the past, he said, roasted teapots were the best-selling sand pottery products in the village. As the local saying goes, "The water rises and the tea can be spicy, and the skimmed tea is a good tea", which means that the tea cans used in the village of Miller are used to stir-fry tea, and the worst quality tea can also become delicious.
Liao Liangqing is showing off the sand pottery he made. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Zhiqiang
Liao Liangqing was thin and had deep eyes, sitting in front of the turntable to pull the blank, his expression was frozen, and he often sat for more than ten hours. A few changes in his body indicate his love of the craft: his arms barely straightened out, and some of his fingers were almost flattened.
At the age of 6, he was able to burn toy models such as cars by himself, and was considered by his neighbors to have a talent for pottery. Inheriting the art of sand pottery is not only an "obsession", but also a way for him to awaken his childhood. Unlike other quiet villages deep in the mountains, when he was a child, the night in Miller Village was filled with the sound of "banging" of bellows and firing sand pottery. In order to preserve his childhood memories, Liao Liangqing still keeps two earthen kilns in the backyard of the house, firing sand pottery in the most traditional way.
In 2005, in Zhongshui Town, Weining County, not far from Miller Village, archaeological excavations unearthed a number of Han Dynasty clay pots, proving that there may have been a tradition of making sand pottery in this area.
In recent years, with the help of his status as a non-hereditary inheritor, he has gone out of the mountains to study in Jingdezhen and other places, and actively participated in activities such as the Shenzhen Cultural Fair and the Guizhou Danzhai Intangible Cultural Heritage Week to communicate with his peers. Inheritance does not mean holding on to the lack of defects or making things behind closed doors, in his view, innovation is the best way to inherit non-genetically. For example, in the past, the roasted teapot did not have a mouth, and he pinched out his mouth when pulling the blank to make it more practical and more beautiful.
Liao Liangqing's family has been making pottery for at least 6 generations, and his father's local nickname is "small car plate", and uncle's nickname is "two-barrel can". Today, Liao Liangqing also has a nickname called "Liao Tea Pot". What worries him the most is that it is difficult to find a suitable heir.
He said that making sand pottery is a very test of people's patience, and it is not good to be impetuous and impatient, so it is necessary to be really interested. For novices, if you want to fully master, you need to learn at least 2 years, coupled with the low output of handmade production and poor economic benefits, few people are willing to learn from teachers. In order to better inherit the craft, Liao Liangqing touched the net in middle age and used the Kuaishou platform to shoot short videos and live broadcasts to show his skills.
Before the Spring Festival, he had just finished making more than 1,000 roasted tea cans and packing them for shipment. In the new year, he will continue to adhere to the sand pottery business he loves, and hopes that more young people will learn this craft and do a good job in passing it on.