Qilu Evening News Qilu One-Point Reporter Wang Tao Wang Haoran
In Jiaxiang County, the hometown of Zengzi, in addition to the well-known Wuhou Ancestral Han Portrait Stone, Jiaxiang Stone Carving and Lu Jin at home and abroad, once upon a time, Jiaxiang wood carving was also famous for its long history and exquisite skills. With the change of the times and the development of science and technology, the Jiaxiang wood carving craftsmen who once carried the wooden toolbox to the south and north gradually disappeared, and the Jiaxiang wood carving was briefly "disappeared". Such a dilemma, so that the young man who grew up smelling wood fragrance Zhou Guangsheng is not willing, after he founded a wood carving enterprise, he is determined to pass on the craftsmanship of the older generation, so that the reputation of "Jiaxiang wood carving" will return to glory. Nowadays, his works extend from wooden combs and handlebars to charging treasures, smart speakers and even bicycles, and Jiaxiang wood carvings "go online" into fashion life.
Pioneering and passing on the skills of woodwork
"Because of the epidemic prevention and control, I came back early, otherwise I would still be studying in Zhejiang and Yunnan." Zhou Guangsheng said that a few days ago, he visited several top wood carving masters in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, and the caption of the circle of friends also showed his full of reverence.
In fact, in Jiaxiang, the Zhou family was once a small and famous carpenter family. Zhou Guangsheng introduced that by his generation, Zhou's wood carving has been passed down for the seventh generation. "I often tell people that I grew up eating a hundred meals." In his childhood memories, the most impressive thing is not only his father's thick palm and polished toolbox, which is the "incense" of a hundred meals. "At that time, whoever was going to make furniture, I would follow my father to eat and live in whose house for a few days." Although the young man did not understand, the main family would bring out the best meals to entertain the grandfathers, which was enough to make Zhou Guangsheng feel how respected his father was by the villagers.
To this day, when passing through the surrounding villages and towns, occasionally some villagers will pull him to "remember the old". "My family still has the furniture that your uncle and your father beat, and it is still as strong as ever after more than 30 years." Whenever he hears such praise from someone, Zhou Guangsheng has a sense of pride, not only because of the exquisite skills of Zhou's wood carving, but also because of the greatness of traditional Chinese woodworking. "I remember my father playing furniture, without a nail or a drop of glue, just relying on the mortise structure, the furniture made for people to use for thirty or forty years."
At the age of 18, Zhou Guangsheng, who was a teacher, went out early to work and worked in some furniture factories. "This decade of part-time work experience, although very exercised, but let me a little confused. Modern technology has almost replaced traditional carpenters, which makes Zhou Guangsheng aware of the crisis of the loss of traditional craftsmanship. "So I decided to go home and start a business, and I had to pass on the traditional woodworking skills." Zhou Guangsheng said.
Traditional woodwork "fashionable"
Most of the people who have just entered Guangsheng wood carving have the illusion that the "buzzing" machine tools in the factory are almost no one to operate, and they can produce five or six thousand wooden combs a day, which is obviously "different" from Zhou Guangsheng's idea of passing on the traditional woodworking skills.
"The two are not contradictory." In response to the questioning of the Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter, Zhou Guangsheng sat up straight, rubbed his thick palms, and said in a confident tone, "From the beginning of the establishment of this company, I have never forgotten the 'inheritance'." ”
Zhou Guangsheng introduced that jiaxiang wood carving is now facing a serious talent gap, and carpenters like him who are around 40 years old are very rare, let alone young people in their twenties and thirties. "In fact, this is a problem in the whole country, in Dongyang, Zhejiang, the best carpenters in the local area are more or less facing the dilemma of having no craftsmanship to pass on."
In fact, the reality is also understood by the older generation of craftsmen. When Zhou Guangsheng visited the wood carving master in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, someone frankly said: "As the saying goes, carpenters are 'three years of learning', but when they really entered the door, they found that they had studied for three years and three years, and when they had achieved success, one or two decades had passed, and now young people can't afford it." ”
Over the years, Zhou Guangsheng has been thinking about how to attract young people to join. "Later I discovered that traditional woodwork must be combined with modern life. With modern elements, we can attract young people to pay attention to it, to like it, and then to participate in it. ”
Build a virtuous talent echelon
In this way, in addition to wooden combs, Guangsheng wood carving will creatively combine wood carving with modern daily necessities such as smart speakers, pressure-reducing gyroscopes, and bicycles.
Another magic weapon of Zhou Guangsheng is to separate the process of the product, some people are responsible for design, some people are responsible for painting, some people are responsible for carving, and some people are responsible for polishing. "Art is connected, and if he can find pleasure in one of them, he may be willing to try another process. Zhou Guangsheng said that the subdivision of the process means that young people do not have to spend a lot of time to learn, and often can become proficient in half a year and get paid accordingly. With an economic foundation and support for hobbies and jobs, young people are naturally willing to participate more. ”
Under the guidance of this obsession, the design team of Guangsheng wood carving has formed a benign age echelon, from the post-60s, post-70s, post-80s to post-90s and even post-00s. Because of the subdivision of the post, everyone can go to the new post in a short period of time to exercise and learn, so these designers can more or less master some carving skills.
Zhou Guangsheng said that a few years ago, he recruited a female graduate student studying art and design. She was later recommended by him to a state-owned enterprise in Jining, but because the other party liked the artistic atmosphere of Guangsheng wood carving very much, she not only often exchanged business with Zhou Guangsheng to this day, but also used her leisure time to design some wood carving design drawings and send them to him. "You see, my purpose has been achieved. Young people can more easily integrate into this very traditional field. ”
The soul of wood carving is always a person
Someone once asked Zhou Guangsheng that modern science and technology are so developed that a machine can produce hundreds of wooden combs a day without stopping, so why bother with traditional wood carving techniques. In this regard, Zhou Guangsheng often hangs on his lips: "No matter how developed science and technology, the soul of wood carving will always be a person." ”
He pointed to a huge wooden sculpture of the Qingming River Map placed at the door of the office and said, "Like this work, I think that in another hundred years, the machine will not be able to carve it." "It is not difficult to find that on this heavy and huge wooden board, the facial features of each figure are carved out, and even the beard of the old man is clearly visible.
Zhou Guangsheng said that excellent carvers can carve six knives on a millimeter of wood, and the knife can see the real chapter, such a technical machine will certainly not be able to do it, nor can 3D printing. So the development of enterprises so far, Guangsheng wood carving small wooden comb relying on the major e-commerce platform annual sales of tens of millions of yuan, but Zhou Guangsheng has always retained high-end hand carving customization services, recruited a group of excellent wood carving craftsmen, for some enthusiastic wood carving culture enterprises or individuals, hand-carved exquisite handicrafts.
When it comes to the future, Zhou Guangsheng still retains the simplicity of a carpenter. He admitted that now the company is in the stage of rapid development, and most of his energy is used in this aspect, and there is little time to ponder wood carving skills. "When the company's development is stable, I will entrust the company to others to take care of, build a studio by myself, and calm down to accompany wood every day to continuously improve my carving skills."