Workers at Xinhui Kwai Expo Garden paint paintings on Aoi fans. Photo by Chen Pingsheng
National inheritor Liao Huilin is depicting a painting of Aoi Fan. Courtesy of Jiangmen City Cultural Center
Xinhui Aoi Art
Intangible Cultural Heritage Encyclopedia
Xinhui Kui Art National Intangible Cultural Heritage
From the harvesting of sunflowers to the completion of sunflower products, it must go through nearly 20 processes such as cutting, drying, baking, cutting, bleaching, blending, weaving, hooking or intarsia, printing, embroidery, and branding. Among them, the branding fan, whose production process is to burn the iron pen red with charcoal fire on the surface of the Aoi fan, is known as "a must in southern Guangdong".
There are more than 500 kinds of sunflower art products
Xinhui is a famous Aoi Township in the mainland, and the art of Aoi has a long history. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty 1600 years ago, the Guxinhui began to plant sunflower trees and process sunflower materials.
Xinhui sunflower art products have a wide variety of kinds, there are more than 500 kinds, can be roughly divided into three categories: one is the category of daily necessities, including sunflower, sunflower brush, sunflower sweep, sunflower clothing, etc.; the second is the weaving process, including flower baskets, hats, rattan mats, cushions, painting curtains, etc.; the third is the widely renowned sunflower fan, calligraphy, painting, embroidery, painting and other processes and the combination of sunflower fans makes it unique.
The glass fan in Xinhui Aoi Art is made of Xinhui local specialty pukui as raw material, through intricate and meticulous processing, the fan surface is smooth, cheap and practical, and a large number of ordinary people's homes.
Xinhui Kui Fan Ming Dynasty has become a tribute
The History of the Ming Dynasty records that the Xinhui Aoi fan had become a tribute at that time. From the Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, Xinhui Kui Art was more prosperous, with many workshops and rapid improvement of skills, and became famous at home and abroad. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xinhui became the world's largest sunflower industry base, of which the sunflower fans were exported overseas. After the establishment of the prefectural sunflower craft factory in 1965, Xinhui Aoi Art entered its heyday.
From the harvesting of sunflowers to the completion of sunflower products, it must go through nearly 20 processes such as cutting, drying, baking, cutting, bleaching, blending, weaving, hooking or intarsia, printing, embroidery, and branding. However, with the large-scale production and sales of modern scientific and technological supplies, sunflower products are withering away, the sunflower art industry is shrinking, the area of sunflower trees is greatly reduced, coupled with the cumbersome production process of sunflower art, sunflower art masters choose to change careers. At present, Xinhui KuiYi has gradually transformed from daily necessities to handicrafts, and because of its exquisite craftsmanship, it was included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects in June 2008.
Branding fan is known as "a must in southern Guangdong"
The main representative of Xinhui Kui art is the branding fan, also known as the fire painting fan, which is rumored to have been founded by Chen Wan, a famous painter in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, whose production process is to burn the red iron pen on the surface of the Aoi fan with charcoal fire. With his superb skills of mastery and exquisite wielding, the Kwai artist branded a series of exquisite and elegant poetry paintings on the fan surface, which was known as "a must in southern Guangdong".
Guo Moruo exclaimed, "The cool world comes from the hand." More than a ghost, a masterpiece. Fly all over the world and overwhelm the west wind."
Inheritance
How can I paint on a sunflower fan with fire without burning it?
The New National Master tells you the mystery
As the tip of the fire pen moves deftly on the Aoi fan, only to see the rolling mountains jump on the fan surface, outlining a wonderful "ink painting" - a simple and unremarkable Aoi fan passed through Liao Huilin's hand and became a delicate handicraft, glowing with new brilliance. As a representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage, Liao Huilin has been engaged in the creation of fire branding fans (commonly known as "fire painting fans") for 45 years.
"Aoi fan shakes the wind around the tree, and the evening cool new bath katsu clothes are light." The poems of the Qing Dynasty Dongting poet Yuan Jinglan record a summer memory. A sunflower fan, fan to remove the sweltering heat, send cool. Xinhui is a famous Aoi Township, Xinhui Aoi Fan carries the childhood memories of many older generations, and still attracts many overseas villagers to come back to order.
After Liao Huilin's inheritance and innovation, Xinhui Kuiyi has successfully transformed from being eliminated by the market to a craft boutique. Nowadays, Liao Huilin hopes that through his own exploration and practice, he can find a way to integrate the market and cultural heritage, so that Xinhui Kui art can be further inherited and developed.
In many old movies, we often see a shot of an old man or a young man wearing a small white short coat with a big sunflower fan in his hand. If the child does not listen to the adult's words, the adult is angry, and he will use the Aoi fan he is holding in his hand and "snap" on the child's head.
The last director of Xinhui Aoi Art Factory
In Jiangmen Xinhui, the flowers produced by it have large and tough leaves, uniform bones, bright colors, light and soft texture, and the elaborate production of skilled craftsmen makes the sunflower fans elegant and practical. Xinhui is therefore known as "Aoi City".
At its peak, Xinhui Aoi fans sold 120 million stalks per year. According to Liao Huilin's recollection, at that time, almost every household was making sunflower fans to subsidize their families. In 1972, Xinhui Kui Art Factory issued an announcement to recruit a group of workers to make sunflower fans. Because of his art skills, 16-year-old Liao Huilin successfully applied for a job as an apprentice in the Kwai Art Factory. The production process of a sunflower fan can be divided into two categories: "pre-process" and "post-process", including more than 20 processes before and after planting, harvesting, drying, cutting, baking, baking, bleaching, dyeing, combining, painting, etc. Liao Huilin was assigned to the painting group of the integrated workshop and studied with the master.
In 1988, Liao Huilin, then director of Xinhui Kui Art Factory, went to France with a delegation to participate in the French Communist Party Festival in Paris and performed a live fire painting sunflower fan performance, which caused a warm response.
After the mid-1970s, the fire pen was changed to an electric pen, and after the power was applied, the iron pen could be heated and the temperature could be controlled by itself. With the popularization of electric fans and air conditioners, Xinhui Aoi Art Industry began to shrink on a large scale in the 1990s. In October 1999, Liao Huilin's state-owned factory closed.
Recruit laid-off workers to form the Sunflower Art Development Center
When the Kwai Art Factory closed, Liao Huilin had been making Kwai Yi for 27 years, witnessing the heyday of the Kwai Art Market and the shrinking of the Kwai Art Market. "We are all confused," Liao Huilin made an incredible move while other workers were switching careers and making a living for themselves. In December 1999, he organized laid-off masters and artists to pay for themselves and established the Kuixiang Traditional Crafts Development Center for workshop-style operation. "I can't let Aoi break on my hand."
Due to limited funds, Liao Huilin took out an old house of about 60 square meters in Xinhui Yueyang Street as a workshop, and rented a small rental house as a warehouse for raw materials and finished products. In the 60-square-meter workshop, seven Aoi masters, including Liao Huilin, made one exquisite Aoi fan after another.
In 2002, at the invitation of Xinhui Kui Expo Park, Liao Huilin entered the park to operate and demonstrate various operating techniques of kui art processing on the spot. With the protection and inheritance of Xinhui Kwai Art by the Xinhui District Government, the public's understanding of Xinhui Kwai Art has gradually deepened. Liao Huilin received more and more orders. "The inheritance of Aoi art has been greatly developed."
The heritage of Aoi Art blooms with new charm
In 2008, Xinhui Kuiyi was included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. In 2009, Liao Huilin became the national representative inheritor of the "Xinhui KuiYi" project.
In Liao Huilin's creation, he embroidered the beautiful scenery of Xinhui to the embroidery fan of "Little Bird Paradise"; borrowed from Chinese painting, paper cutting, relief carving and other expression techniques to create the embroidery fan of "Longevity" in the form of stickers; and the core craft he was good at, "Branding Fan", was to make exquisite paintings on the surface of the sunflower fan with an electric flaming pen, so that the ordinary sunflower fan was revitalized, so that the sunflower fan had both use and ornamental value.
However, the shortage of raw materials and talents in Aoi Art has always plagued Liao Huilin. "The younger generation likes to go out into the world, and the handicraft industry needs heirs who can sink their hearts." Liao Huilin sighed.
"At present, the protection and inheritance of sunflower art has also encountered market bottlenecks. Handmade sunflower products have never been able to meet the requirements of market-oriented mass production. Liao Huilin told reporters, "Protecting and inheriting the sunflower art through the market is just an attempt on our part." I hope that through my own practice, I can find a better way to pass it on. Nowadays, in addition to receiving apprentices to teach Kwai art, Liao Huilin often goes to kindergartens and schools to teach Kwai art to teachers and students.
Written by: Nandu reporter Zhou Peiwen Nanfang Daily reporter Dai Huitian correspondent Wen Mu