【January 1 County, City, Heqing】"The "Flower of Intangible Cultural Heritage" blooms and inherits the new charm

According to Dali Cultural Tourism:

Editor's note: In order to comprehensively enhance the influence of Dali cultural tourism dissemination and show the image of Dali cultural tourism, under the guidance of Dali Prefecture Cultural tourism bureau, Dali Cultural Tourism Media Center went deep into the cultural and tourism departments, cultural tourism enterprises and related places of Dali prefecture counties and cities to launch a series of reports on "January 1 County and City, All-domain Look at Dali", aiming to depict good scenery, tell good stories, spread good voices, display new highlights, relying on Dali cultural tourism, cultural tourism headlines all-media communication channels, through pictures, texts, videos, live broadcasts and other communication methods. Comprehensive publicity shows the beauty of Dali's scenery, the beauty of humanities, and the beauty of development, and takes you to explore the new charm of "six Dali" together!

When the sound of the hammer sounded, Heqing, known as the "Silver Capital Water Town", woke up in the morning light, and the busy day of the non-genetic heirs began again.

In Heqing, intangible cultural heritage has never been far from people's lives, and its figure can be seen in many aspects such as eating, wearing and using, forming the inheritance status of heqing bai ethnic costumes (Heqingdian Nanbai embroidery), Heqing Bai handmade white cotton paper and other intangible cultural heritage items, writing a unique chapter of Heqing intangible cultural heritage.

(Photo by Wang Zehang)

Passing on the torch, passing on the talent from generation to generation

Heqing's intangible cultural heritage projects are rich, and the inheritors are full of flowers, as of April 2022, there are 26 intangible cultural heritage projects of various types, with 242 representative inheritors. Among them, 1 national project is "silver jewelry forging technology", with 2 national inheritors; 4 provincial projects and 10 provincial inheritors; 9 state-level projects and 18 state-level inheritors; 12 county-level projects and 212 county-level inheritors.

The national project "silver jewelry forging technology" is particularly prominent, there are currently more than 1,500 households engaged in silver processing, more than 9,000 direct employees, Heqing's silverware is famous all over the world, attracting countless forging technology enthusiasts to come to understand and learn.

(Courtesy of Inch Yujian)

Wang Zhicai, born in 1993, is the inheritor of Heqing silver forging skills, although he is not yet 30 years old, he has brought out more than 500 students with his father. Most of these students come from the metal craft departments of Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Fine Arts, Shandong Academy of Arts and Crafts, Sichuan Academy of Arts, Yunnan Academy of Arts and other professional colleges, and they have traveled thousands of miles to Heqing to learn the metal forging technique called "wood grain gold" with Wang Zhicai.

(Courtesy of Wang Zhicai)

As a "post-00s", Shi Da, relying on his own love and efforts, has bloomed his own unique style in the embroidery skills of Heqing Bai costumes. Influenced by his grandmother from an early age, ShiDa became extremely interested in exquisite and bright embroidery and began to teach himself embroidery. But as a boy, all day long with the embroidery needle, Let Shi Da suffered a lot of denial and ridicule, but Shi Da defeated these voices with facts: he attended different training classes, and worshiped Yang Wenhuan, the inheritor of the provincial Heqing Bai costume, as a teacher, and also appeared on the CCTV Variety Channel... Shi Da, who has not yet graduated, has set up a paper-cutting embroidery association in the school, regardless of age, regardless of gender, to teach paper-cutting and embroidery skills to "students" who love embroidery.

(Courtesy of Heqing County Cultural Center)

Continue to renew channel products to break through again

Xinhua Village, known as the "Silver Capital of China", consumes about 500 tons of silver and 2 tons of gold every year, which are turned into exquisite silverware under the hammer and sold to the whole country and even the world. Such huge sales are due to consumers' affirmation of Heqing silverware, as well as the continuous exploration and updating of the road of intangible cultural heritage by silverware makers. In the Internet era, the online sales of Heqing silverware account for an increasing proportion of total sales.

(Courtesy of Wang Zhicai)

The inheritors of silver forging skills are also constantly seeking to break through the limits of their own skill level. After making 7 pots, Wang Zhicai finally made a "wood grain gold" pot that satisfied him. The "wood grain gold" in the silver jewelry forging technique, also known as "stacked gold", needs to be superimposed and forged with copper, silver, red copper and other metal pieces, and then cut the wood grain pattern on the surface with a steel chisel or drill bit, and finally use an iron hammer to beat out the required forging shape. And this time to create this "wood grain gold" pot named "Sparrow", using sterling silver, quarter silver, red copper, black copper, copper and other 5 kinds of metals, after superimposed more than 20 layers, high-temperature forging and bonding into stacked gold plates, and then rely on superb forging skills to form an integrated, the whole pot does not have any welding points, the pot body is smooth and flexible bird-like, the "landscape wood grain" on the pot is rich in layers, the metal luster is lively and flowing, and has high aesthetic value.

(Courtesy of Wang Zhicai)

Yang Wenhuan, as a provincial inheritor of Yunnan Province, used his years of experience in studying the production skills of Heqing Bai costumes to restore the most complex and beautiful "cloud shoulder" worn by the bride in Diannan. This "cloud shoulder" is surrounded by two layers of lotus petal-like embroidery pieces, fixed to an embroidered collar with a circular wavy edge, each petal is embroidered with a pattern that symbolizes auspiciousness and beauty, and then is edged with osmanthus braid patterns, and the stitches are delicate and delicate. Putting such a cloud shoulder on the body, it looks even more elegant and luxurious, solemn and generous of the Bai bride in Diannan.

(Photo courtesy of Yang Wenhuan)

At present, and Yang Wenhuan ordered to buy Diannan bridal clothing mostly for local brides and grooms who are ready to get married, and there are also foreign collectors who come to visit, but because Diannan bridal clothing is purely handmade, the embroidery on its clothing is more, which takes about 1-3 months, so it is difficult to mass-produce and become a niche demand product.

(Photo courtesy of Yang Wenhuan)

Intangible Cultural Heritage + Tourism A new chapter in the integration of culture and tourism

The history of making silverware in Heqing Xinhua Village can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, passed down from generation to generation, and continues to this day, because of its natural handicraft historical and cultural accumulation, in September 2019, the Xinhua Silverware Town that Heqing focused on building was rated as "Yunnan Provincial Characteristic Town" by the People's Government of Yunnan Province, becoming a representative project of "Intangible Cultural Heritage + Tourism".

In Xinhua Silverware Town, visitors can visit the Intangible Cultural Heritage Center to learn about the forging technology of Heqing silver jewelry as a national intangible cultural heritage project, punch in the silver arch of "China's First Silversmith Village", and experience the handmade silverware processing processing process on the spot; on the street of intangible cultural heritage, they can also closely watch or experience the production process of Heqing winemaking, handmade papermaking, embroidery, tile cats and other intangible cultural heritage items, and feel the unique charm of Heqing Intangible Cultural Heritage.

(Courtesy of Inch Yujian)

One morning during the holiday, a group of children from Guangzhou stepped into the silverware town and came to the Silversmith Goldworking Craft Training Hall to start their two-day silversmith forging experience. "Here, the children can visit the various studios of the Silversmith Goldworking Craft Transmission Hall to understand the process required for a piece of silverware from raw materials to finished products, and my father will personally introduce the development history of Heqing silver jewelry forging technology in Xinhua Village and share his forging experience for more than 30 years." Inch Yujian, the person in charge of the Silversmith Metalworking Craft Transmission Hall, introduced, "Next, they can also experience the entire silver forging process by themselves, starting from the design of the work's conception of the 'silver beating' drawing, to pounding the shape, repeated quenching, knocking and repairing, and then drawing the engraving pattern and engraving on the silverware, until the work is formed." ”

(Courtesy of Inch Yujian)

The Heqing Bai Handmade White Cotton Paper Heritage Experience Center, operated by Li Gang, also undertakes the responsibility of explaining the production history and production process of handmade white cotton paper to tourists, and provides a two-step experience project of fishing paper and stickers in the process of handmade white cotton paper production. Li Gang also ingeniously found some plants with beautiful branches and leaves to provide to tourists, so that they can put paper in the process of fishing for paper, and after the stickers are dried, they can form a natural painting.

(Courtesy of Li Gang)

"The white cotton paper is very soft, the touch is gentle, the texture mechanism of the paper is very prominent, and the plant fibers can be clearly seen after being put into the plant, and there is a three-dimensional feeling." Not as thick as A4 paper. Li Gang said, "People who come to experience it like it, think it is very novel, and the paper made by hand will also bring a great sense of achievement." ”

(Courtesy of Li Gang)

Under the protection of the heqing Cultural and Tourism Bureau's systematic measures and the unremitting efforts of inheritors at all levels, heqing's "flowers of intangible heritage" have been integrated with culture and tourism, constantly giving birth to new ideas and bursting new vitality, and blooming on the fertile land of Dali plateau.

Cultural tourism headlines melt media reporter Luo Manyuwen

Editor-in-charge Wang Chuyun

Reviewed by Qiu Zhongwen