Editor's note: Flowers bloom like flowers, illuminating the way forward. On the stage of the new era, thousands of "she" write a resolute chapter of life at home and at work, and gradually become an important force to promote social development and progress. In this spring full of hope and strength, we ushered in a festival that belongs exclusively to women - March 8 International Women's Day. The Hunan Provincial Women's Federation and the Red Network jointly launched a special report on "Xiang women have 'for'" to walk into these women who exert their wisdom and passion in all walks of life and feel that they actively embrace the responsibility and responsibility of the new era.
Zhou Jialin, who lives in a silent world, relies on her own hands to "weave" her own happy life.
Red Net Moment reporter Wang Shiying and Li Saifeng reported from Changsha
Zhou Jialin has a pair of white and slender hands, which can weave a delicate and detailed "grasshopper" with palm leaves in two minutes. These hands are also covered with thick cocoons, which are precious "memories" left by 34 years of continuous weaving and training.
Deaf due to illness at 8 months old, Zhou Jialin has been living in a silent world. At the age of 12, she was exposed to palm leaf weaving, and since then, she has "knitted" her own happy life with her own hands.
As the representative inheritor of the Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Project "Changsha Palm Leaf Weaving" in Hunan Province, Zhou Jialin not only inherited and innovated in her skills, but also made the palm leaf weaving shine again. It also teaches brown weaving skills to other disabled people to help more people find a way out of their livelihoods.
Zhou Jialin's brown woven works.
Ancient craftsmanship that has been passed down for thousands of years is revitalized
At the age of 12, Zhou Jialin studied with the brown weaver Wu Fuqiu and began to learn brown weaving skills. Brown weaving, one of Changsha's "three musts", is a handicraft made of palm leaves as raw materials, with Hunan brown weaving toys and Sichuan Xinfan brown weaving daily necessities the most prestigious, and its skills and techniques have been passed down for thousands of years.
Hearing the voice did not become an obstacle for Zhou Jialin to learn brown weaving, but it made her sink her heart more down to study. In order to keep up with the pace of the times, Zhou Jialin changed the old weaving method and created the ring knot weaving method, the fish scale cover feather weaving method, etc., not only that, with the help of his stepfather Song Guoqing, Zhou Jialin began to combine painting with brown weaving, enriching each brown weaving work through props, scenes and other elements.
In order to make his works more vivid and vivid, in addition to more than ten hours of training every day, Zhou Jialin will also intentionally observe the living habits of animals in life, and apply what he observes to brown weaving works, so that palm leaves can express the appearance of the works more carefully, and imitate insects, fish, birds and beasts vividly. So in her works, there are chickens with crooked heads and curious eyes, mice crouching in the corner, and tigers waiting for opportunities, these vivid images are loved by the citizens, and they are always sold out every time they are just on the shelves.
Zhou Jialin brown edited the work "Rats Become Parents".
In April 2013, at the "11th China Folk Art Mountain Flower Award and Folk Arts and Crafts Works Award" in Kaifeng, Henan, a group of brown weaving works called "Rats Become Relatives" created by Zhou Jialin won the gold medal, which is also the largest brown weaving carrier chassis and the largest number of weaving individual works in China.
Zhou Jialin creatively used rhinestone paste to make the image of the peacock opening screen more gorgeous and dazzling.
In Zhou Jialin's home, there are two lifelike "peacocks", the peacock body is woven from palm leaves, but at the covert feathers, Zhou Jialin creatively uses rhinestone paste, making the image of the peacock opening the screen more gorgeous and dazzling. In order to make the peacock's feathers stand up more upright, Zhou Jialin placed a wire between the two palm leaves and compacted it for one to two months to have what it is now. This work has also gone abroad and exhibited abroad, further promoting traditional Chinese culture.
Zhou Jialin and her husband innovated the home employment cooperation model, using brown weaving as a link to help more disabled people find a way out.
Help with technology to lead more women with disabilities to employment
The combination of a single brown woven small piece, these large works of literary creation with themes and stories, have won more than 20 awards at all levels of provinces and cities, and have also gone abroad for exhibition exchanges many times. Zhou Jialin also expressed his hope in sign language, and could make more people like brown weaving by creating brown weaving. Only in this way can it be better passed on.
Her life is good, and Zhou Jialin also hopes that people who have the same experience as her can find a way to make a living, teaching workers and students hand in hand, and guiding the disabled to make brown crafts. "At first, just two or three friends around her imagined her learning brown weaving, and then more and more people joined in." Song Guoqing said.
In July 2012, Zhou Jialin founded the "Changsha Tianxin District Brown Art Hall Jialin Weaving Workshop" to actively promote and popularize the brown weaving intangible cultural heritage in major primary and secondary schools. It also preached skills to poor villagers, used techniques to alleviate poverty, and taught brown weaving skills to poor women to get rich together.
In 2014, with the support of changsha disabled persons' federation, Zhou Jialin and three other disabled people formed a brown entrepreneurship team. They innovated the home employment cooperation model, using brown weaving as a link to help more disabled people find a way out.
Recently, Zhou Jialin won the honorary title of 2021 National March 8th Red Flag Bearer. For this honor, Zhou Jialin was very excited and surprised, and she excitedly told reporters in sign language, "This honor is an encouragement for me, but I also know that I am still far from the requirements of this honor." As always, I will continue to teach the disabled people to learn brown weaving skills for free, help them find employment and start a business, and let more women with disabilities find employment and live at home. ”