Guiyang, March 2 (Xinhua) -- What does the "Tang Doll" of the intangible cultural heritage handicrafts unveiled in the Winter Olympic Village look like? How are these dolls made? The reporter recently visited the Tang Renfang Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance College of Guizhou Shenghua Vocational College and found the answer in the hands of a group of secondary vocational students.
Clay molding, molding, turning molds, grinding, sizing, painting faces, combing hair... Combined with the costumes and accessories tailored for each character image, after a pair of skillful hands assembled, four exquisite Tang dolls Sun Wukong, Yang Guifei, Mu Guiying, and Hua Mulan are presented to us.
Assembled Tang dolls were filmed at the Tang Renfang Industry-Education Integration Base in huishui County, Guizhou Province, on March 1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Wenbin
"These four Tang dolls were specially customized for the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and have been intensively produced since last November, and the first batch have been given as gifts to international friends and athletes participating in the Winter Olympic Games. There are still hundreds of Tang dolls in the batch that are being produced, and they will soon be sent to Beijing. Qin Zhenzheng, vice president of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance College of Tang Renfang, introduced.
Located in the Tang Renfang Industry and Education Integration Base in the Happy Immigrant Community of Huishui County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Long Yuanbi is inspecting and accepting the Tang dolls that are about to be completed. "I joined the school in 2012 as the first batch of students recruited by the Non-Genetic Inheritance College, and after graduating in 2015, I went to work for Beijing Tangrenfang Company, and at the end of 2018, I was assigned to the Industry-Education Integration Base in Huishui to be responsible for teaching and management." She said.
On March 1, Long Yuanbi (left) inspected the soon-to-be-completed Tang doll at the Tang Renfang Industry-Education Integration Base in the Happy Immigrant Community of Huishui County, Guizhou Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Wenbin
Long Yuanbi's hometown is in the countryside of Huishui County, and her father died in the year of junior high school graduation, and her mother had no skills except farming, and she was ready to work in the province. Knowing that Shenghua Vocational College not only provides free tuition and living subsidies, she went to a middle school, from having no art foundation, to learning batik, embroidery, pen, drawing and Tang doll making, Long Yuanbi liked handicraft making.
Qin Zhenzheng said that at the beginning of the cooperative education of non-genetic inheritance colleges, the enrollment principles for students from poor families were clarified in order to "cultivate poor students, inherit national skills, and drive families out of poverty."
On March 1, Long Yuanbi (left) inspected the soon-to-be-completed Tang dolls at the Tang Renfang Industry-Education Integration Base in the Happy Immigrant Community in Huishui County, Guizhou Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Wenbin
Today, more than 10 of the more than 40 classmates in the same class as Long Yuanbi stay in Tang Ren Fang, and some continue to pursue undergraduate studies in design. "I didn't spend a penny on studying, in the first two years, my family moved to a building in the county to help the poor, went home to do what I liked, earned more than 4,000 yuan a month, and could take care of my mother." Long Yuanbi said with a smile.
Since its establishment in 2012, The Tang Renfang Intangible Cultural Heritage Heritage College has enrolled and trained a total of 407 students, of which 95% are from poor families, and the employment rate in 2020 is 100%.
Zhang Huiwei, head of the school office of Guizhou Shenghua Vocational College, said that in the past two years, it is obvious that the family conditions of the recruited students have changed greatly, but the school still adheres to the preferential policies for poor households and families with special difficulties.
Covering an area of only a few hundred square meters, the industry-education integration base is not only a training base for intangible cultural heritage inheritors in Guizhou Province, but also a home employment skills training base for left-behind, orphaned and disabled women in Qiannan Prefecture and a puppet making poverty alleviation workshop for happy immigrant communities in Huishui County. In addition to the students of the Non-Genetic Inheritance College who can go to the base to practice making Tang dolls, many women from the immigrant community also come here to study and process doll costumes and accessories.
"I have been studying Tang doll making for almost a year, and I am most envious of my sister's skill of painting the face of the doll, and the almost face-shaped mold can draw a kaleidoscopic character." Next, I not only have to practice more, but also prepare to study higher vocational education, learn design and new media communication. Luo Jing, a 2019 student at Shenghua Vocational College, said.
Through the integration of industry and education, Shenghua Vocational College assisted Tang Renfang to complete more than 10 technological innovations, develop new products, especially Tang dolls based on the "Beijing Silk People" intangible cultural heritage technology innovation, and successively appeared in a number of major domestic activities and cultural tourism booths in many cities.
"Don dolls have developed more than 300 series in their hands, and they themselves are undergoing transformation." Qin Zhenzheng said that she was originally a designer in Tang Renfang, and in 2019 the company sent her to study the characteristic culture of Guizhou, not only to teach ethnic crafts and design knowledge to children in the mountains, but also to broaden the children's horizons. (Video: Zhou Xuanni, Yang Wenbin, Qi Jian, Reporter: Guo Jiao)