Huangyuan, a row of lights lit up ancient and modern

Qinghai Daily Rong media reporter Xian Wenjing, Jin Yuetong, Zhang Peng

In the early morning of March 17, Yang Zenggui walked toward Fengsheng Lane, Chengguan Town, Huangyuan County, Xining City. In order to pass on this skill, at the beginning of the year, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project Lantern (Huangyuan Row Lantern) established a company in the county.

Assembly, sanding, painting... At the same time, several kilometers away, the production workshop of the Huangyuan Row Lamp Inheritance Protection Base, the workers who make the row lamps have been busy.

On the same day, Cao Youcang, director of the prefectural cultural center, was preparing to hold a lantern exchange and promotion activity in other counties shortly after.

The above three lenses may not reflect all aspects of the development of Huangyuan lamps, but outline the general outline of the inheritance and development of Huangyuan lamps. This blueprint has been engraved in the cultural genes of generations of Huangyuan people for more than 200 years.

Huangyuan, located at the junction of farming culture and animal husbandry culture, is the platform leading to the "third pole" of the earth, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the "first stop" on the Qinghai-Tibet tourism line, and is also the fortress of the Tang dynasty ancient road and the South Silk Road, known as "Haizang Throat", "Tea Horse Merchant Capital" and "Little Beijing". The special geographical location and long history have left a heavy cultural accumulation for Huangyuan. What reflects this is that today's Huangyuan is famous for its row of lights, but not only for the row of lights, its culture and tourism are closely integrated, promoting each other, and thriving and prosperous.

Tourists stop to admire the lights and take pictures. Photo by Zhang Peng, a reporter from Qinghai Daily

In the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan", General Secretary Xi Jinping accurately grasped qinghai's resource endowments, development advantages and regional characteristics, and put forward the major requirements of "building the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau into a national and even international ecological civilization highland" and "accelerating the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base, and building a national clean energy industry highland, an international eco-tourism destination, and an output place for green organic agricultural and livestock products".

Farther vision and ideas bring a wider path and way out. Huangyuan people hope to reshape the style of "hometown of the lanterns" and thus open up a high-quality development path to accelerate the construction of a global all-season tourism pattern.

Due to the rise of commerce

Spread in culture

——To understand Huangyuan, we must first understand Huangyuan's lamp. Huangyuan lanterns are not born, but the tradition of Huangyuan people to strive for excellence and dare to innovate has been deeply rooted in the bone marrow

Huangyuan, named "the hometown of Chinese folk culture and art" by the Ministry of Culture, is its brightest business card.

The arched sea gate under the illumination is unique. Qinghai Daily Rong media reporter Xian Wenjing photographed

"To understand this business card, we must start from history." When it comes to the development of row lights, Wang Chengyan, secretary of the party group and director of the Huangyuan County Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, has not concealed his appreciation and praise for this traditional culture.

Huangyuan County has a long history, and Linqiang County was set up during the Western Han Dynasty, which has experienced more than 2,000 years. From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Huangyuan was one of the famous tea horse cities in the northwest, and it was also an important gateway from the Central Plains to Tibet. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, local trade reached the four seas and three rivers. During this period, a large number of Shanxi and Shaanxi merchants came to Huangyuan to settle down, they brought a large amount of funds, and also brought the advanced culture of the interior to the sun and moon mountain.

The entrance of Heping Village still retains the signboard of "Huangyuan First Village of Lanterns". Qinghai Daily Rong media reporter Zhang Duojun photographed

Around the time of the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi merchants first transplanted the row lamps belonging to the Central Plains culture to Huangyuan. At first, in order to attract customers at night, merchants made advertising signs, burned candles, and hung them in front of the doors of the businesses. Since then, the production of signboards has become more and more exquisite and gorgeous, becoming a 'card lamp' with different bases, patterns and forms. With the increasing development of commercial trade, this kind of advertising signboard is more and more, more and more bigger, and later had to be arranged in a row of 'card lights', and a single 'card lamp' evolved into a large number of 'row lights'. ”

From "cards" to "rows", Huangyuan row lights have quietly risen.

Whether it is material, structure, exhibition stand or picture, this group of boutique row lights is very valuable. Cao Youcang provided the picture

"Huangyuan is a place where nomadic culture and farming culture, Han culture and Mongolian-Tibetan culture meet. Because they have lived in the same region for a long time, the economic and cultural exchanges are very close, so cultural integration has become inevitable, and all ethnic groups have formed a common cultural state while maintaining their own cultural traditions. With its unique art form, the row lamp integrates the cultural characteristics of the local Han, Hui, Tibetan, Mongolian and other ethnic groups, expresses the love of the people of all ethnic groups for the countryside, and becomes a unique landscape of Dangar. ”

Civilizations are enriched by exchanges, and civilizations are enriched by mutual learning. As Wang Jianxun, deputy director of the County Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, every year when the Lantern Festival comes, the ancient city lights up at the beginning, and the people of all ethnic groups help the old and the young, and flock to watch the lights.

With the continuous development of the times, Huangyuan row lamps gradually adopt modern technologies and new materials such as electricity, light and sound, and the form has increased the hanging type, standing cabinet type, screen type, middle hall style, etc., in addition to painting, it has now added art forms such as pile embroidery, embroidery, shadow puppetry, paper cutting, etc. The content selects allusions, legends and reflects the local natural features, cultural relics and folk stories, etc., so that the highland folk art of Huangyuan row lamp has a new artistic vitality.

In the ancient city, the rows of lights bloomed in a dazzling and beautiful way. Photo by Zhang Peng, a reporter from Qinghai Daily

After more than 200 years of vicissitudes, in 2006, Huangyuan Lantern, known as "Qinghai National Folk Culture and Art Treasures", was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

"This is a very important opportunity for Huangyuan to arrange lights. Since the beginning of this year, in addition to the annual Spring Festival festival art exhibition, the county began to hold the Huangyuan Lantern Cultural Tourism Festival, and the influence of Huangyuan Lantern was expanding. But it has to be admitted that in the subsequent development process, the production of row lights is biased towards light boxes, and the traditional style of row lights is less and less, which means that the artistic value it carries is gone. ”

In 2018, Cao Youcang, who had worked in the county cultural tourism bureau for decades, was transferred to the county cultural center. In his view, at this time, the situation faced by Huangyuan Row Lamp is that "there are few fine things and little influence".

Zhang Yongfu, former director of the Huangyuan County Cultural Center, is introducing traditional row lights. Qinghai Daily Rong media reporter Zhang Duojun photographed

Zhang Yongfu, 70, was the director of the Huangyuan County Cultural Center. For this person who has been dealing with culture for half a lifetime, the best way to protect intangible cultural heritage is to "use intangible cultural heritage to display intangible cultural heritage".

Two years ago, Cao Youcang, who was newly appointed as an official, had the idea of creating a batch of high-quality row lamps, which was in line with Zhang Yongfu, who was still active in the production line of row lights after retirement. After repeated discussions, the two officially started to operate. After repeated polishing, this year's New Year, this group of row lights appeared in the ancient city, and the content presented included leather embroidery, sachets, paper-cutting, shadow puppetry, pile embroidery, paper painting, peasant painting, Tibetan embroidery, plate embroidery and many other national and Qinghai provincial intangible cultural heritage, which to a certain extent enhanced the value of Huangyuan row lamps. Huangyuan masses who are familiar with this art have sighed: "Huangyuan row lights are back!" ”

"In October 2020, Dangarpi Embroidery Development Company was recognized by the County Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism as the 'Huangyuan Lantern Inheritance and Protection Base', and invited experts and scholars from the non-heritage field to hold a medal awarding ceremony. This year, we intend to use the 1 million yuan of funds supported by the central government to develop and develop new row lamps, and at the same time go to Guide County of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Datong Hui Turk Autonomous County of Xining City for exchange and display. In addition, it is necessary to hold a training class for inheritors at Qinghai Nationalities University, build a Huangyuan Lantern Experience Hall in the county, and increase the intensity of Huangyuan Lantern Promotion through various forms such as brochures and promotional videos. Speaking of several key tasks this year, Director Cao Youcang, who wants to revitalize Huangyuan's row of lights, is passionate.

Today's Huangyuan row of lights, in addition to painting, has added art forms such as embroidery, shadow puppetry, and paper cutting. Qinghai Daily Rong media reporter Zhang Duojun photographed

Light fades at any time

Rise through the intangible cultural heritage

—— A row of lights, starting from the ancient city of Dangar, lights up not only the quaint streets, but also the eyes of the Huangyuan people seeking development

In December 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Central City Work Conference: "It is necessary to protect and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, continue the historical context of the city, and protect the cultural heritage left by predecessors." It is necessary to combine their own historical heritage, regional culture, and the requirements of the times to create their own urban spirit, establish an image externally, and unite people's hearts and minds internally. ”

How to do this problem well, Huangyuan people have been exploring.

In 1958, most of the lamp frames were destroyed, and the pattern was basically lost. For Huangyuan row lights, this is a heavy blow. In 1992, the Huangyuan County government funded the restoration of Huangyuan street lamps. The prefectural cultural department organized craftsmen to make 70 row lights. On the fifteenth day of the first month of the following year, this group of row lights caused quite a stir after being exhibited. With the fervent discussion, in that spring, the old craft of lamp making, which had faded from the public eye, began to come back to life.

"After the rehearsal lights were put back on display, I was very excited!" Yang Zenggui, 78, lives in Hougou Village, Shenzhong Township, Huangyuan County. At the age of eight or nine, he learned some crafts from his uncle to make frames and engrave patterns. At the age of 15, because of the death of his father, Yang Zenggui, who graduated from junior high school, began to make common door boxes in the countryside for some rations, and gradually became a well-known carpenter after years of grinding.

After the rehearsal lamp was re-exhibited, Yang Zenggui, who was encouraged, worked to earn money while studying the production process of the row lamp. In this process, he met like-minded Zhang Shiquan and Wu Shenggui.

Because of the interruption of more than thirty years, many traditional techniques of lamp making have been lost. In order to further excavate, protect and develop the art of lamp arrangement, in 2003, Huangyuan lamp was declared a national intangible cultural heritage, and after that, it invested manpower, material and financial resources every year to purchase equipment, collect information, improve archives, and organize experts, folk artists and skilled craftsmen to carry out artistic innovation on traditional lamp arrangement. For example, Yang Zenggui, in order to let the row lamps that could only be exhibited outdoors have a place indoors, after years of pondering, he designed and produced a large floor-to-ceiling row lamp that was convenient for placement in the middle hall.

In 2006, after Huangyuan row lamps were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, Huangyuan County combined with the actual development of the work to explore the protection and utilization of row lights. At the beginning of 2007, Huangyuan County held the first Lantern Art Festival, and more than 200 Huangyuan Lanterns of different shapes shined in huangyuan county's dongxi street. In the subsequent Lantern Festival, Huangyuan row lanterns were exhibited in Xining Xinning Square, and hundreds of row lights of different shapes shocked countless people who came to admire the lanterns.

In 2018, the county provided Yang Zenggui with a studio of about 30 square meters. With a fixed position, the old man felt that the burden on his shoulders was heavier. Especially after seeing that some young inheritors had to choose to change careers for economic reasons, this old artist who was almost obsessed with wood carving art began to think, how can the row lamp really "fly" into the homes of ordinary people?

"If you want to go to market, you have to have new products!"

Yang Zenggui began to discuss with the apprentices, planning to design some new products such as row lamp ornaments. In order to let this idea land as soon as possible, on January 1 this year, Yang Zenggui, Zhang Shiquan and Wu Shenggui, with the support of the county, registered and established Huangyuan Memory Lamp Culture Co., Ltd. In this way, the entrepreneurial team with an average age of 64 years old embarked on the first step to realizing their dream.

From a layman to an inheritor, Yang Zenggui's story has witnessed the growth of the "Huangyuan Lamp Arrangement Art".

Heping Village, Heping Township, 7 kilometers away from the county seat, hangs several large characters at the mouth of the village, "Huangyuan First Village of Lanterns", which vividly confirms the special role of intangible cultural resources.

In 2013, Heping Village implemented the joint construction project of the party, government, military and enterprises, and the appearance of the village was significantly improved. The following year, Ye Jiancuo, the former secretary of the village party branch, looked at the opportunity for development, and with the help of the Organization Department of the county party committee, made a large number of row lamps to hang in the village, and through writing the history of the village, excavating scenic spots, and building a folk museum, he played the name of "the first village of Huangyuan row lamps", in order to take advantage of the development momentum of Huangyuan row lights and drive the development of folk culture tourism in Heping Village.

With the help of development, the road of Peace Village has set a precedent. At first, the audience to Heping Village was endless, and Heping Village became the envy of "left neighbors and right neighbors", but unfortunately, the Heping Village Folk Museum has been closed, the scenic spots have not yet been completed, and even the row lights on both sides of the village road have been damaged, and the lively "Huangyuan First Village of Platoon Lights" has lost its former style.

In this way, an exploration path that was originally expected to develop rural tourism with the help of the power of the lamp line began in Heping Village and ended in Heping Village, and was quietly suspended with the resignation of the secretary of the party branch of a village.

The good news is that it is not Ye Jiancuo who wants to make this attempt. Tracing the development longitude and latitude of Huangyuan row lamps, two lines are particularly clear: one line is the general direction of inheritance that has never changed, and the other line is the "hand of the market" full of vitality, innovation and change with the times.

Nowadays, on the basis of retaining the tradition, Huangyuan row lamp adopts modern technologies and new materials such as electricity, light and sound, and the forms are more diverse, and the use of the row lamp has also been innovated and developed from the original simple ornamental to the urban landscape, road lighting, festival lanterns, civil business publicity and other aspects.

Qinghai Damei Culture and Art Co., Ltd. began to design and produce row lights in 2011. Compared with the traditional lamp production, this company pays more attention to innovation.

In the view of Wu Haicheng, general manager who has been engaged in related industries for more than 40 years, Huangyuan lamp should not only be the product of the early development of the commodity economy, but also a participant and beneficiary of the development of the market economy.

"If Huangyuan lamps want to be developed, we must absorb and learn from modern advanced technology and technology, combine lamp arrangement skills with modern science and technology, develop into economic and trade-oriented, civilian-type, urban landscape-type and other fields, integrate cultural tourism viewing, publicity and education, and trade negotiations, and take a new path of using lamps as the medium, arranging lamps to set up a stage, and economic singing."

What advantages does Huangyuan row lamp base on the market?

Wu Haicheng believes that the multi-ethnic culture of the plateau is the advantage of the development of the lamp. Local cultural resources should be used to decorate the lamps with folk craft skills such as leather carving, leather embroidery, and plate embroidery, so that they have more regional style and cultural characteristics.

"Take the family civilian row lamp, in the design can be aimed at the market, combined with the local culture." Haidong has a faience pottery culture, and Huangnan has a Regong culture, which can become a new element in Huangyuan's lamps. ”

It is famous for its intangible cultural heritage

Rely on industrial revitalization

- Huangyuan is famous for its row of lights, but not only for the row of lights. The former "throat of Haizang" is now singing a powerful song of the integration and development of culture and tourism

In the baptism of time and practice, those who care about the development of Huangyuan lamps are seeking new ideas for development. Building a "highland" and building a "four places" is a great encouragement and encouragement for Huangyuan people.

The "Implementation Plan for the Implementation of Huangyuan County" pointed out that it is necessary to build a community of human and natural life. One of them is to excavate and create traditional ecological and cultural products. Specifically, through in-depth excavation of the original ecological culture of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, stimulating and utilizing the vitality of the simple ecological culture in the traditional culture of various ethnic groups that is consistent with modern ecological protection, life concept and ecological civilization thinking, highlighting the protection and inheritance of Hehuang culture, excavating cultural resources such as the Tangbo Ancient Road, telling the story of "Princess Wencheng" and "Tea Horse Shangdu", protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage, inheriting and innovating the production process of Huangyuan lanterns, carrying out the brand construction project of "Huangyuan Lanterns", and increasing the display of intangible cultural heritage such as lanterns and leather embroidery. Creative product research and development efforts.

The emphasis on culture has brought about the all-round improvement of Huangyuan lamps, and also made the integration of culture and tourism more possible.

"Some people joke that a few years ago tourism was a blind spot in the development of Huangyuan County, but now it has become the focus."

Cao Youcang's views were confirmed in this year's county government work report. At the second meeting of the 19th People's Congress of Huangyuan County, Dong Feng, deputy secretary of the county party committee and county magistrate, proposed that a key task this year is to "focus on the integration of culture and tourism, and focus on promoting the upgrading of the tourism industry." ”

"In accordance with the idea of 'core leadership, axis belt linkage, and precinct linkage', optimize resource elements, integrate cultural elements, and accelerate the construction of a global all-season tourism pattern."

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Huangyuan County accelerated the development of global tourism, invested 872 million yuan, implemented 32 cultural tourism projects such as Dangar Folk Courtyard and Arctic Mountain Ecological Park, and formed a chain of A-class scenic spots and star-rated rural tourism, receiving an average of 2.6584 million tourists per year, achieving a comprehensive tourism income of 1.95 billion yuan, and Huangyuan's popularity and reputation continued to rise.

In the next step, Huangyuan County will "continue to excavate the intangible cultural resources of the lanterns, broaden the space for the survival and development of the lanterns, scientifically demonstrate, accurately position, and plan in detail, and rely on the 'soft power' of the lantern culture to promote the in-depth integration and development of cultural tourism", hoping to rely on the advantages of Huangyuan County's profound history and culture, unique natural geography and fast and convenient tourism channels, take the opportunity of creating a famous historical and cultural city, promote the integrated development of cultural tourism malls, and strive to highlight its position in building Qinghai's international eco-tourism destination.

Let the row lights "come alive". Fully tap the market potential of row lights in line with modern society, and produce a batch of new row lights that can be placed and applied in streets, squares, homes and other scenes, and promote the return of row lights to daily life. With the lantern culture threading the needle, in the ancient city of Dangar, Sun Moon Mountain and other major tourist attractions to highlight the cultural elements of the lantern, the main scenic spots of Huangyuan beaded into a chain, and open a lantern handicrafts, cultural and creative products sales stalls, to create a lantern cultural tourism industry chain, to achieve the living inheritance and development of the lantern.

Let the row lights "go out". With the help of the online publicity platform of the Rong Media Center and the new media network platform, online publicity and promotion will be carried out for both inside and outside the province, and the popularity of Huangyuan lanterns will continue to be enhanced. Offline to create a lantern inheritance experience center, promote the lantern intangible cultural heritage to the mass life entertainment, enhance the public's sense of participation in the lantern culture, sense of identity, gather the effect of folk publicity, and strive to make the Huangyuan lamp brand based in Xining, out of Qinghai, facing the whole country.

Make the row lights "able to connect". Seminars on the inheritance and production of row lamps are held regularly to gather the joint efforts of non-genetic inheritance of row lights. Recruit cultural volunteers and non-hereditary inheritors, encourage the masses to participate in the production and learning of lantern arrangements, and continuously enhance the awareness of inheritance. Cultivate new talents in the production of row lamps, vigorously improve the ability of production practice, form a strong "reserve army" for row lamp production, and inject fresh blood into the non-genetic inheritance of row lights.

"Give connotation" to the row lamp. On the basis of respecting the production method and basic connotation, promote the innovative development of the form of expression and content of the lamp. Make full use of modern science and technology such as electroacoustic technology, photoelectric technology, and electric technology to make the lamp screen move and make a sound, and fully mobilize the viewer's sensory experience. Further enrich the display content of the lanterns, rely on the red cultural resources such as Xiaogaoling, add content with red genes and educational significance, give the lanterns contemporary cultural connotations, inherit the memory of the ancient city, tell the story of Huangyuan, and show the style of the times.

Huangyuan's development process is unique, and a row of lamps bears witness to the prosperity of the past. But there is no doubt that we want to lead the way in the wave of cultural and tourism integration, want to promote the excavation of intangible cultural heritage with tourism, promote the protection of inheritors through intangible cultural heritage excavation, bring inheritance products by inheritors, drive inheritance enthusiasm through product sales, and ensure non-genetic inheritance with inheritance enthusiasm... Huangyuan still has a long way to go.

Interview Notes: The feelings of "keeping artists"

Qinghai Daily Rong media reporter Xian Wenjing

When interviewing Yang Zenggui, he always couldn't find a breakthrough at the beginning. From a young age to now a teacher, decades of beating and beating under the description of the old man have always been plain and indifferent, and even the tone has not fluctuated much. After inadvertently learning that he was the backbone of the qu art team, the reporter asked him about the recent performance, and the old man laughed and said that because he was too busy to participate in the activity, several old guys had criticized him. After asking again, I learned that he and his apprentice had just set up a company at the beginning of the year, the purpose of which was to make some new products and let the row lamps really "fly" into the homes of ordinary people.

As an inheritor, there are many people who start their own businesses, and there are many people who start businesses at an older age, but those who start businesses at an advanced age like Yang Zenggui have never been encountered in previous interviews. Even with the two apprentices, the average age of the entrepreneurial team reached 64 years old.

I don't know how much courage it takes to make such a decision when many people choose to tease their grandchildren, but the old man's smile and suddenly raised tone make the reporter's emotions also be driven, love, pursuit, ideal... These words make the 78-year-old man feel good.

Coincidentally. Zhang Yongfu, 70, is the former director of the Huangyuan County Cultural Center. When the reporter saw him, he was still busy in the front line of making the row lamp. From the Huangyuan row lamp application to this year's classic reappearance of the row lamp, he loved the row lamp for decades, and also worked for the row lamp for decades. Some people questioned his persistence, but Zhang Yongfu admitted that if he was for fame and fortune, he had already passed the age of running, and now he wanted to do another job for this art. This is a responsibility, but also a feeling.

Intangible cultural heritage is an irreproscoverable historical relic and cultural memory of a nation, especially traditional handicrafts that are widely permeated in people's lives. However, with the development of society and the changes of the times, people's production and lifestyle have undergone major changes, and the inheritance, protection and development of intangible cultural heritage handicrafts are facing severe tests.

In the case of Huangyuan row lights, it has a long history, but it has also experienced ups and downs. Several ups and downs are still alive, inseparable from these craftsmen, but also inseparable from their ingenuity. Behind their persistence is concentration and the pursuit of perfection. Not for anyone, just to be worthy of your own heart.

There is a saying, "Artifacts have souls, and craftsmen are humble." "Huangyuan row lamps, River Huang shadow puppets, generations of inheritors in the process of pursuit and perseverance, with feelings to interpret the impetuous swallowed "craftsman spirit", so that the intangible cultural heritage craft "come alive", and live endlessly.

Thinking of this, I can't help but understand why Yang Zenggui can choose to start a business at the age of 78, and Zhang Yongfu can still run on the road of revitalizing the lamp after retirement. Intangible cultural heritage needs such "guardian artists", inheritance needs such feelings, and the times need such a spirit.

Manuscript source: Qinghai Daily client Statement: In addition to indicating the source of the manuscript, the above content is the original manuscript of Qinghai Daily, the copyright is owned by the media platform of Qinghai Daily, and it is strictly forbidden to reprint without written permission.