When intangible cultural heritage meets modern comics
What kind of sparks will collide?
In Qingliu County, the provincial-level intangible cultural heritage Li Jia Wujing Kui and the comics established a new cultural symbiosis relationship, the original five classics of the majestic Lei Zhenzi, Kui Xing, Bao Zheng, Kou Zhun, Li Guang, became the "playful and cute" comic protagonists, people are eye-catching.
▲Realistic version of "Five Classics"
▲Two-dimensional "Five Classics"
"The life of intangible cultural heritage lies in life. The Five Classics are an ancient cultural heritage, and only by presenting the current life in the form of cartoons and cultural and creative products can they be given new meanings in the inheritance. On April 24, Tian Wei, a member of the Propaganda Committee of Li's hometown, said with the latest production of the "Five Classics and The Blessing of the Five Classics" cultural and creative pottery doll.
Tian Wei, a 33-year-old native of Mingxi County, graduated from jingdezhen ceramics institute in 2012 with a degree in landscape architecture. In 2021, after Tian Wei went to work in the government of Li's hometown, he often came into contact with local intangible cultural heritage projects and traditional culture, and he taught himself comics from a young age, and he painted some interesting traditional cultural symbols with a brush.
Li's hometown holds a traditional "Lantern Festival" every year in the first month of the year, which consists of the Five Classics, the Dragon Tour and some folk customs. "The Wujingkui performance consisted of two groups of ten people, each with a dance posture, each holding a different weapon, marching about 10 kilometers in the three villages of Li Village, Xianshui and Hebei, passing through the main street and the farmer's home, and also cooperating with the unique dance steps to pray for the blessing of each household." Tian Wei said frankly, but now the young group does not have a deep understanding of traditional culture, most of them go out to work early, the inheritance of the Five Classics, the number of participants is decreasing year by year and mainly middle-aged and elderly, and the performance is becoming more and more simplified.
"With the passage of time, many historical sites, customs and traditional skills are on the verge of being destroyed and lost. Regrettably, it should not become the fate of intangible cultural heritage and traditional culture. Tian Wei immersed himself in the movements, dance steps and character characteristics of Wujingkui, inspiring new ideas for creation, "Perhaps it can make Wujingkui change from a local symbol to you, me, and him in life." ”
The Five Classics enter the second dimension
After starting to create, Tian Wei found that the most difficult thing was not painting, but how to re-establish a grounded "human setting" for the characters while maintaining the original taste. Tian Wei often took the drawing manuscript to consult colleagues, combined with what he saw and heard in his work and life, after several months of polishing, the comic image of the five characters became more and more plump.
▲ Tian Weizheng and the wujingkui inheritors discuss the elements of comic costumes
Historically, the flying general Li Guang has tragic and magnificent overtones, and in the comics, Tian Wei sets it as a comedic image that often helps colleagues and friends take couriers and breaks their thoughts. Bao Gong, honest and loyal, although it has a face in the comic, it is always secretly relaxing when no one is there. Kui Xing is a Wen Wu Zhuangyuan and everything is top-notch, but in reality, who is the first person to do everything? As a result, the Kuixing in the comic became the worst of the five people in terms of drawing. Kou Zhun is a "foodie" in the manga, where there is food, there is him. Lei Zhenzi is an obscure but indispensable "brick" in life and work, where it needs to be moved.
Because of the cute drawing style and the setting that is easy to resonate, the Wujingkui comics have been "strength circle fans" as soon as they are launched, not only colleagues often urge updates, but some departments have also begun to borrow Wujingkui comics to show the dynamics of the department. "Modern people regard them as 'gods', and I will substitute them for everyone and everything around me, and pass them on to everyone a quaint and life-like Qingliu intangible cultural art." Tian Wei said.
Traditional intangible cultural heritage is revitalized
Through the cross-border integration with comics, Wu Jingkui has another form of display from a live performance form that only occurs once or twice a year, and once again "comes alive" and "fires up", and more and more young people in Qingliu are willing to take the initiative to understand the excellent local traditional culture, and become a potential group of people for cultural popularization and dissemination.
Not only that, as the living inheritance of intangible cultural heritage projects, Wujingkui comics are promoting Qingliu County to dig deep into historical resources such as folk customs, intangible cultural heritage, and cultural protection in the county, and to develop and publicize them from the spirit, connotation and form, and derive them into cultural and creative peripherals to form a cultural and tourism industry.
Last year, the Qingliu County Cultural and Tourism Bureau allocated special funds for the protection of intangible cultural heritage projects and the development of cultural and creative products. According to the Wujingkui comics, the government of Li's hometown has launched a series of cultural and creative peripherals such as pen bags, keychains, canvas bags, etc., so that tourists can travel, see culture, and take them away, five lively and vivid characters, so that tourists love it.
"In the intangible cultural heritage of Qingliu, there are rich art elements and design elements, such as Hakka blue shirts, paper-cutting, bamboo weaving, triangles, tinming techniques, etc., which can inject new life into them through comic forms such as shapes, scenes, and actions." Tian Wei said that in the future, we will continue to use the Wujingkui comic as the carrier, successively launch more comic plots that integrate Qingliu intangible cultural heritage elements, humanistic customs, and agricultural products, and combine agricultural products to produce souvenirs with unique Qingliu characteristics, so that excellent traditional culture can enter the public in a trendy form.
Report: Peng Cheng, Chen Ruhui, Yang Yuting
Editor: Li Xiaoting
Audit: Ma Qigen
Review: Wu Pingwei
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