Wu Shuigen forging silver jewelry (courtesy of Taijiang County Rong Media Center)
Central Broadcasting Network Guizhou May 5 news carefully crafted, ingenuity cast national fine products. Adhere to the original intention, only to inherit the traditional skills of the Miao people. He is The model worker of Guizhou Province, the representative of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage "Miao Silver Jewelry Forging Technique", for more than 30 years, Wu Shuigen has been deeply delving into the Miao silver jewelry forging technology, and using his exquisite craftsmanship to promote the Miao silver jewelry handicrafts to the whole country and spread overseas. While improving his popularity, Wu Shuigen did not forget his parents, fathers and fellow villagers, and unreservedly passed on the silver jewelry skills to others, finding a way for a large number of Hmong compatriots to increase their income and become rich.
Wu Shuigen, 56 years old this year, is the eighth generation of Wu family silversmiths in Gangdangliu Village, Shidong Town, Taijiang County, Qiandong Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, after years of diligent study and hard work, Wu Shuigen has mastered the exquisite Miao silver jewelry forging skills and produced exquisite silver jewelry crafts.
Wu Shuigen said: "It has been eight generations since my ancestors, and I began to learn this craft from my father when I was 7 years old. I have lived through my craft to this day, and I also like my craft."
Wu Shuigen silver jewelry works (courtesy of Taijiang County Rong Media Center)
The craft of Hmong silver jewelry forging can be described as complex, including the four major steps of drawing, weaving, carving and coiling. Drawing is the basis of silver jewelry processing, but also a time-consuming and labor-intensive work; wire weaving is to weave silver wire into animals, flowers and birds and other patterns, paste it on the silver sheet, and then cut off the silver sheet for carving; coil is to use abrasives to knock out the silver sheet out of the pattern, and then the silver wire is coiled around. And these complex processes are splicing several small parts together, and it is impossible to make exquisite works without thousands of hammers and ingenious techniques.
Wu Shuigen silver jewelry works (courtesy of Taijiang County Rong Media Center)
From casting, hammering, drawing, weaving, then carving, welding, welding and then sealing, Wu Shuigen injected his own painstaking efforts into every silver jewelry handicraft. Through painstaking research and learning from each other's strong points, Wu Shuigen, while constantly improving the Miao silver jewelry forging skills, fused the traditional culture of the nation with the silver jewelry forging technology, and successively created exquisite silver jewelry works such as "Miao Story Totem Pole", "Dragon Boat Smooth Sailing", "Butterfly Mother and Ji Yu Bird", "One Heart to the Party", etc., with more than 200 kinds of works, of which the work Dragon Boat Is Smooth is his favorite.
Wu Shuigen Honor Wall (Courtesy of Taijiang County Rong Media Center)
Over the years, Wu Shuigen has been rated as a national non-hereditary inheritor, a model worker in Guizhou Province and the first top ten craftsmen in Guizhou Province, and was elected as a representative of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017. These honors can be obtained not only because of Wu Shuigen's exquisite craftsmanship, but also because he has always practiced the responsibility and quality of an inheritor in the process of inheriting and promoting national culture.
In 2010, Wu Shuigen registered and established the Intangible Cultural Heritage Poverty Alleviation and Employment Workshop of Shuigen National Silver Jewelry Co., Ltd. in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, which integrates display and inheritance, focusing on the unique Miao silver jewelry, embroidery and other intangible cultural heritage projects in Shidong area, and building a traditional silver jewelry training and exchange space, which has a great driving effect on the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage in Taijiang County and the development and prosperity of the masses.
Apprentice Long Yinsha introduced: "We came to learn the craft with the master, the master taught us very patiently, now we have learned, we can go home to do (silver jewelry), now some things will not, we come to the master (inquiry) to ask, now the master is also very patient to teach us, very grateful to the master."
Wu Shuigen and his work "Dragon Boats Sail Smoothly" (Courtesy of Taijiang County Rong Media Center)
According to tradition, the Hmong silver jewelry craft is passed on from the inside to the outside. However, Wu Shuigen broke the convention and accepted apprentices from the outside world, taught skills for free, and taught a group of young craftsmen.
Wu Shuigen said: "I think I am not rich alone, I pass on my craft without reservation, let them learn the craft well, and make it more exquisite." Let the next generation of young people master this technical skill."
Through such a mentor and apprentice, the silver jewelry processing in Shidong Town has become more and more prosperous, and the villagers engaged in silver jewelry processing have grown to more than 300 people. Everyone's income has also changed from tens of thousands of yuan in the late 1990s to an average annual sales of 150,000 yuan per household, and the annual output value has reached tens of millions of yuan. (Liang Chuangying, Li Wenxue, Liu Chengguang)