Zhongxin Jingwei April 14, 2016 How to let the niche intangible cultural heritage into the daily life of the public? Small pot tea "bold" to try: with the Chinese the most familiar "Fu" to carry traditional craftsmanship, the use of digital technology for the intangible cultural heritage works to clear the meta universe, and in their own tea industry, small pot tea put the intangible cultural heritage tea skills into a small can. There are praises and controversies, but every discussion makes these "old treasures" who were originally tied up in the high cabinet stand in front of the world again. This may also be the hidden "heart machine" of small pots of tea: returning to the culture of life can last forever.
First, when the cries in the distance are approaching
A few years ago, the popular debate variety show "Strange Story" put forward such a debate: the art museum is on fire, is it to save the cat or save the painting? Painting represents civilization, culture, and art; cats are the living individuals of the moment, the urgency of the present. In the words of the debater in the show: "Painting is the cry of the distance" and "The cat is the cry of reality". The debate is a fictitious discussion, if the cries from afar really reach our ears, can we still be at ease?
In 2005, South Korea's "Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival" was designated by the World Organization for Science, Education and Culture as an oral and intangible cultural heritage of mankind, which aroused the indignation of the Chinese people that "culture has been robbed". "Lucky" such as the Dragon Boat Festival, there are hundreds of millions of People in China, but the cries of thousands of other types of intangible cultural heritage are getting closer and closer to us.
Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival, South Korea, the picture comes from the Internet
In the past ten years, the mainland has made many efforts in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, continuously improving the laws on the protection of intangible cultural heritage, establishing a list of representative items of intangible cultural heritage at the national, provincial, municipal and four levels, and increasing the funds for the protection of intangible cultural heritage year by year.
But it's not enough.
With the development of the times and social changes, many intangible cultural heritage skills have gradually lost their original functions, and they are facing extinction due to their inability to re-integrate into modern society well. As far as Shanxi, a major intangible cultural heritage province, is concerned, since 1984, on average, one small drama genre has disappeared every 4-5 years, and two-thirds of the dramas and genres have disappeared on the art stage.
Feng Jicai, chairman of the Chinese Folk Writers Association, once said: "Every minute, there is a cultural heritage disappearing. If we do not protect it, there will be nothing left in the ancient country of five thousand years of historical civilization, and if we do not act again, how will we face our descendants? ”
The intangible cultural heritage of the mainland is huge in volume and rich in variety, and it is a living inheritance practice with people as the core and life as the carrier. The protection of the inheritors has become the key to the protection of intangible cultural heritage to some extent, but now many intangible cultural heritage is facing the dilemma of no one to succeed, learning an intangible cultural heritage craft, you need to be able to withstand loneliness, withstand temptation, willing to invest in years of polishing, it is possible to achieve a little achievement, it seems that the "input-output ratio" is not high, so that many young people are discouraged.
How to face the conflict between tradition and modernity with a more open mind and better integrate intangible cultural heritage into modern commercial society is an unavoidable issue in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
Second, the intangible cultural heritage knocks on the door of the meta-universe
Three intangible cultural heritage digital collections (from left to right: "Jishan Snail", "Black Copper Walking Silver", "Chu-style Lacquer Art")
On February 23, three intangible cultural heritage digital collections "Jishan Snail", "Black Copper Walking Silver" and "Chu-style Lacquer Art" were officially launched on the Whale Exploration Platform. Whale Detective Platform is a platform under Ant Group that focuses on digital art and cultural collection, which transforms artworks into digital collections through 3D modeling algorithm simulation and blockchain technology.
On October 21, 2021, the Whale Exploration Platform launched the "Treasure Project" focusing on the protection of traditional culture, and has launched three phases, the third phase is based on the theme of "I am a non-heritage artist", and the online works are all created by intangible cultural heritage inheritors. The "Jishan Luodian", created by Li Aizhen, a national non-hereditary inheritor, is a representative of one of the works.
The "screw" in "Jishan Screw" is a process of inlaying shells into lacquerware, from tire design, engraving pattern to inlaid screw tungsten has a total of 11 main processes, the process is extremely complex. "Screw tungsten" was already popular during the Zhou Dynasty in China and was introduced to Japan during the Tang Dynasty; but this ancient technique that has been passed down for thousands of years is facing loss at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Craftsman Li Aizhen on the basis of unchanged raw materials and inheritance of traditional production processes, innovative product types, in the product decoration and styling continue to expand, which makes the production of traditional lacquer inlaid screw products remarketing everywhere, so that Jishan screw to usher in new development.
Small pot tea × the Great Wall exhibition of the works of hundreds of craftsmen and hundreds of blessings
With three intangible cultural heritage collections as a stepping stone, Xiaocang Tea took the lead in trying to realize the protection and promotion of intangible cultural heritage in digital form, which is the first time that the Whale Exploration Platform has cooperated with consumer brands, and it is also the first time that the tea industry has used blockchain technology to promote digitalization. The digitized intangible cultural heritage collection can be permanently preserved and can be appreciated and shared at any time like the photos in the mobile phone album.
The three digital collections released this time were each limited to 8,000 pieces, and all of them were sold out within nearly 1 minute of going online on the day of sale. This allows intangible cultural heritage works, which rarely have the opportunity to have close contact with the general public, through a new digital form, quickly link with 24,000 consumers, so that the intangible cultural heritage skills that were previously limited to niche circles can break the restrictions of time and space and achieve "national participation".
The small pot tea × the 100-year-old 100-artisan And Beatitudes intangible cultural heritage digital collection sold out within 1 minute
It is worth mentioning that Xiaocang Tea also donated all the proceeds from the sale of the digital collection to the "Genius Mother" non-genetic public welfare project of the China Women's Development Foundation. The project is mainly aimed at women engaged in low-income handicraft production in some remote areas (including many intangible cultural heritage handicrafts), through a series of home employment to help these women with difficulties in life, such as opening handicraft training, building an operating platform, expanding product channels, innovative application of handicrafts, etc., while improving the economic situation of rural women, so that intangible cultural heritage can feed back intangible cultural heritage and achieve sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage.
Xiaocang Tea donated the proceeds from the digital collection to the "Genius Mother" non-genetic public welfare project of the China Women's Development Foundation
However, there are still many people who feel that intangible cultural heritage should be niche, traditional and handmade, which has an "original sense of culture". But culture has left people and is doomed to be difficult to nourish. Only through continuous innovation can intangible cultural heritage be brought back into people's lives.
This is not the first attempt by small pots of tea to innovate the protection of intangible cultural heritage, nor is it the first time to face such controversy.
Third, the breakthrough of intangible cultural heritage skills, inheritance for the bottom of innovation as the guide
The Chinese tea industry where the small pot of tea is located has long been developed under the experience thinking of agricultural products, relying on the sky is greater than relying on people, and the experience is greater than science. Small pot tea with scientific development of "consumer goods thinking" to enter, do tea standardization, branding, as soon as it entered the market, it caused many controversies.
Some people say that tea should be traditional, handmade, and add a little providence, obsessed with craftsmanship and ritual. But the incomprehensible tea pushes young people farther and farther away, will such Chinese tea really be better?
Take tea making techniques, there are thousands of kinds of tea in China, and thousands of flavors come from different production methods. But now fewer and fewer young people can withstand the wind and the sun and sit in front of the stove to learn the traditional tea-making process. As of June 2021, 37 traditional tea techniques have been inscribed on the national intangible cultural heritage list, but the masters who inherit these intangible tea skills are constantly worried about no successor.
How to combine non-heritage tea technology with modern commerce to achieve innovative development, small pots of tea have made a good demonstration.
The production technology of Dian black tea has been passed down from generation to generation in the form of oral teaching, laying the foundation for the development of Yunnan Dianhong into a world-renowned black tea. Zhang Chengren is the representative inheritor of the black tea making technique (Dian black tea making technique), a representative project of the national intangible cultural heritage, and also a tea master who cooperates with small pot tea. Zhang Chengren has adhered to the spirit of craftsmanship for decades to make Dian black tea, and he knows that "it is not difficult to make tea, it is difficult to make tea well, and it is even more difficult to make good tea." Each process needs to be very accurate, and a small movement of the tea master will affect the quality of the tea. ”
There are four processes in the production of Yunnan black tea: withering, kneading, fermentation, and drying. The traditional withering process requires the use of hands to judge the withering status of tea leaves, and Zhang Chengren often thinks: these feelings in his hands that only he knows, how to explain clearly. And kneading is a test of experience and energy, the traditional kneading machine needs to manually adjust the pressure every time, different people kneading
The quality of the tea leaves is different, even if the experience is as rich as Zhang Chengren, at most you can only look at two or three machines at the same time.
In the traditional withering process, Zhang Chengren needs to judge the withering state of the tea leaves by hand
Zhang Chengren realized that "inheriting the traditional Chinese tea-making process, it is certainly not enough to rely on one person alone."
In the cooperation with small pot tea, Zhang Chengren saw a new idea of intangible cultural heritage tea technology inheritance - digital reproduction of experience, turning the personal feeling of "unclear and unclear" into visually controllable and adjustable parameters, and achieving stable large-scale production through intelligent and industrialized methods. The same is kneading, with the intelligent kneading machine can accurately record the different pressure values needed at different times, regardless of whether Zhang Chengren is present, can achieve the perfect reduction of the master's skills; and in the fermentation link, the intelligent fermentation machine real-time monitoring and control of temperature, humidity, oxygen content, and can also predict the change trend of tea color and aroma. "It's no exaggeration to say that it's like my proud protégé, even more accurate than I am at times."
Nowadays, this modern production line that integrates the master's skills has been put into use in the small pot tea Yunnan Fengqing Dianhong Factory, forming a standardized process for the production of Dianhong Spring Tea, from the fresh leaves entering the factory to the completion of the initial processing, all of which have achieved automatic generation without landing. Intelligence will liberate more masters like Zhang Chengren from the factory, so that they can give full play to their experience and technical advantages, have time and energy to lead the younger generation of tea people to develop new products, and bring more diverse Chinese tea to everyone.
Small pot tea Dianhong production line
"A good tea, finally recognized by consumers and the market, that is the greatest sense of achievement."
The small pot of tea became the first official tea designated in the history of the Boao Forum for Asia
Small pot tea with a can of intangible cultural heritage standard good tea, so that more and more ordinary consumers can taste high-quality Chinese tea, but also bring Chinese good tea to the world. In 2021, as the first tea partner of the Boao Forum for Asia in 20 years, Xiaocang Tea provided tea to guests from all over the world, becoming the first "official designated tea" in the history of the Forum. During the four-day Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, Xiaocang Tea provided nearly 16,000 cups of raw leaf tea, special tea and kung fu tea. This year, small pot tea will continue to appear at the Boao Forum for Asia as a designated tea, showing guests from all over the world the Chinese way of hospitality with tea friends. And each small cup of tea handed out is another "activation" of the non-heritage tea technique.
The protection and inheritance of culture should never be a cripple, only by entering the crowd to become a "visible", "touchable" and "take away" existence, can it be passed on from generation to generation. We need more companies like Small Pot Tea to boldly try to better integrate intangible cultural heritage skills with modern social development, and we also need to look at every innovation with an inclusive and open mind.
Let the intangible cultural heritage enter life, so that there will be no more crying in the distance. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)