Visit China's "Chunlian Village": Behind the boom is the adherence to traditional customs

Source: China News Network

Visit China's "Chunlian Village": Behind the boom is the adherence to traditional customs

Gaomi, Shandong, China News Network, February 12 Title: Visiting China's "Chunlian Village": Behind the red fire is the adherence to traditional customs

Reporter Sha Jianlong

"Rich and noble, home and everything are prosperous" "The source of wealth is all over the world, and the spring color is full of people"... Just after the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, Li Shanqi, a villager in Donglijia Village, Gaomi Xiazhuang Town, Shandong Province, began the production of the Spring Festival of the new year. Under the action of the screen mold and fader, the red paper instantly becomes a spring league printed with auspicious sentences and neat battles. They will be shipped to markets around the world for the next New Year.

East Lijia Village, where Li Shanqi is located, is a well-known "Chunlian Village" in China, enjoying the reputation of "the first village of red paper in Jiangbei". From the Ming and Qing dynasties onwards, families were engaged in the production of red paper spring joints, which continued for hundreds of years as a family business passed down from generation to generation. Today, this village with only more than 170 households accounts for more than 50% of China's annual spring market.

In the first month, the construction of red paper, printing spring union, stocking, the fifth and sixth months of the lunar calendar according to the order law of production, the lunar calendar in October successively received merchants from all over the world, delivery. Entering the Waxing Moon, the production of Spring League is basically over, but it is the hottest season for sales. This family business, which has been passed down from generation to generation, is a string of production, wholesale and retail processes.

Engaged in the production of traditional handmade red paper Spring League for more than 40 years, Li Shanqi also found that with the progress of society, the spring league material has been changed several times, and new materials such as coated paper and flocking cloth have gradually occupied the market, "it can be seen that people's consumption quality and aesthetics have improved." But in the hearts of the older generation, the red paper Spring League with frosted texture is clean and simple, and has the most annual flavor and cultural heritage. This is the main reason why he has been doing this for decades.

From the Peach Symbol of Blessing and Disaster extinguished in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, to the Spring League of Battles engraved on the Peach Symbol a thousand years ago, to the creative trend of the Spring League in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the form of Spring League, which is dominated by red paper and ink characters, has been preserved to this day, and has been continuously given new cultural meanings in historical evolution, becoming a fixed annual custom covering the whole territory of China.

Yong'an Road is the largest wholesale area of Chunlian in Gaomi, including Dongli Village, and the locally produced Chunlian is basically sold to all parts of China through here. Whenever the Spring Festival is approaching, it is full of products that carry the atmosphere of the Spring Festival, such as red paper Spring Festival, New Year paintings, clay sculptures, etc., like a theater full of New Year's flavor. People pass by like flowing water in front of the stalls, and the joyful atmosphere and strong New Year flavor are overflowing.

The Spring League posted by Xia Naifu, a villager in Haojialouzi Village, Gaomi City, was purchased from the Yong'an Road Spring Festival Market. Once the Spring Festival came, cleaning houses, posting Spring Festival, offering ancestors, welcoming the New Year, and sending the New Year became his regular actions for decades. Over seventy years old, he told reporters that the Spring Festival is the most solemn festival of the Chinese nation, and sticking to the Spring Festival is one of the traditional customs, "the most year-round scenery."

Sticking to the Spring Festival is one of the traditional customs of the Spring Festival and is the most yearly scenery. Photo by Shami Long

"The New Year Red Paper Spring Festival Can Best Reflect the Taste of the Year and cultural heritage, but it is 'not fun enough'." "Post-80s" Wang Gang is a native of Donglijia Village, in his impression, grandpa brushed red paper, printed New Year paintings, handwritten Spring League, father's generation began to use screen printing Spring League. Subtly, he witnessed the changing and unchanging livelihoods of his ancestors. But as the village craftsmen gradually grew older, he also saw that the handmade Spring Festival production that had lasted for a hundred years was declining.

Whether in villages or modern cities, Chunlian has always connected people's emotions and nostalgia. In 2013, Wang Gang, who graduated from university, resolutely returned to his hometown to start a business, opened a factory, introduced mechanized printing technology, and carried out an "industrial revolution" transformation of Chunlian production. The dedication of a new generation of returning young people has made this small village in northern China stage an intergenerational flow of new and old, tradition and innovation.

In the eyes of the younger generation, the Spring Festival is the most important "festival IP", which not only symbolizes festivity, reunion, resignation and welcome the new, but also a "big stage" to show traditional folklore. In the past, Wang Gang's factory production of Chunlian was greatly affected by the "order" orientation, and now he constantly "inquires" about market information, "faces" the demand side through Internet e-commerce and other channels, re-understands and examines what Chunlian means to people, and he wants to boldly guide the "market" trend.

"Although this is a traditional industry, it is not a sunset industry." Three years ago, Wang Gang set up a team to "enter" e-commerce, and most of the employees were young "post-90s". Compared with other villages and towns where young people go out to work more, the young people here in Wang Gang are slowly "gathering". He wants to dig deep into the cultural value of Chunlian and build Chunlian into a high-density and exclusive cultural symbol, "hoping to create good Chunlian products and meet people's diversified needs."

At present, there are more than 4,000 people in Gaomi engaged in the operation of Yanglian brushing, and more than 8,000 tons of traditional paper products are sold from here to various parts of China every year, with an output value of more than 100 million yuan. In order to accelerate industrial development, Xiazhuang Town, Gaomi City, relying on the advantages of "China's Yanglian Industrial Base", digs deep into the cultural elements of red paper couplets, so that "old trees sprout new shoots" at the same time, and stimulates new vitality for rural revitalization.

Whether it is production, procurement or consumption, in the view of Li Ran, vice president of the Gaomi City Yanglian Artists Association, behind the prosperity of the Spring Festival, is people's unchanged adherence to traditional customs. (End)