Modern Express News (Correspondent Qi Xia Reporter Zhuang Jianxiang) On February 14, several villagers in Huainan Village, Shugang-Slender West Lake Scenic Area, Yangzhou City, were rushing to make a paper lantern that has been passed down for 600 years - descendant lanterns. During the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, the demand for future lanterns is particularly large.
△ Gu Keliang is splitting bamboo
First split the bamboo grate, then weave it, paste the paper, brush the red, cut the paper, decal, install the lantern plate... Gu Keliang, 75, and his wife Zhu Aiqing, who is the same age, are busy. "I sold a lot before the Spring Festival!" Lao Gu said that this year compared with previous years, sales have increased. They kept tying lamps all year round, all of which were taken away by hawkers years ago, a few dollars a lamp, more than 5,000 lights a year, and made a small profit.
△ Zhu Aiqing is weaving
The reporter learned from the Yangzhou Municipal Archives Department that according to legend, the Hangjia Brigade in Huainan Village used bamboo to weave paper paste lanterns during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and then lost them one after another, and the skill of ducks into bamboo baskets to weave lanterns has been passed down to this day.
△ Zhu Aiqing in pasting paper
In addition to farming, some villagers are busy with splitting and weaving various paper paste lanterns of different sizes, such as "descendant lanterns" and "little red lanterns" handed down from their ancestors. As soon as you enter the Layue Gate, there are old customers from other places who come to the door to pick up the goods, and sell themselves in the surrounding villages and surrounding cities around the Spring Festival. The lantern is red throughout, which means that the children and grandchildren are full of halls, which is very auspicious.
Gu Keliang began to follow his father to learn to tie the lamp of his descendants when he was more than ten years old, and it has been 60 years now. "When I'm older, I divide the work with my wife and two people, I can tie five or six lamps in an hour, and if I have fast hands, it is no problem to tie ten lights an hour." Cantaloupe-sized lanterns, painted with red paint, affixed with golden letters, lit candles, and exuded festivities from the inside out.
△ Descendant lamp
In the surrounding Jiangdu, Gongdao and other places, the children's lanterns are very popular, but Lao Gu is more and more worried. "No young man wants to learn!" Many young people in the village have their own jobs, in the eyes of Lao Gu, which industry is not stronger than the lamp of za descendants? "Bricklayer carpentry earns more than this."
Lao Gu said that at present, only about six or seven families in the whole Zhuangshang are still making children and grandchildren, the oldest is 76 years old, and the youngest is 60 years old. In another twenty years at most, the craft will be lost. "The lanterns we tie, like hundreds of years ago, have also thought about changing shapes, but people still like traditional styles."
In the memory of the villagers, the longest tradition of making lanterns has been passed down for four generations, nearly 200 years. "We take it with us all year round, sometimes while watching TV and chatting." Here, every family uses lanterns as a pastime. Around the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, some people will pull the lanterns they have hoarded this year to the market for sale, with a unit price of about five yuan, and the wholesale price of two or three yuan can be obtained.
The staff of Huainan Village also said that they hope that there is a good way to pass on this traditional craft. The Modern Express reporter learned that at present, the sun and grandson lamps have sold a lot better than a few years ago, and have been written into the zhishu. Chen Zhikang, a non-hereditary inheritor of Yangzhou lanterns and senior arts and crafts artists, also said that he has been paying attention to the current situation of future and grandchildren' lanterns, and this traditional craft is expected to "rejuvenate".
(Edited by Chen Haijing)