China News Service Nanjing, May 9 Title: A handful of erhu ben xiaokang
China News Service reporter Sun Quan
"We are living a good life now, relying on erhu." Wan Qixing, an erhu making master in Wuxi Meicun who is over eighty years old, talked about the story of his hometown relying on an erhu to run a well-off, and he was quite proud.
The data picture shows an erhu workshop in Meicun, Wuxi, where old craftsmen are polishing and making parts of erhu. Photo by Sun Quan
As one of the representatives of Chinese folk musical instruments, erhu enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad. A careful study of the territory of Chinese erhu art will reveal that many erhu masters, famous songs, and famous violinists since the twentieth century have all pointed to one place - Wuxi, Jiangsu.
In 2011, Wuxi's "Meicun Erhu" production process was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province. In the same year, Wuxi Meicun was awarded the title of "Hometown of China's Erhu" by the Chinese Musicians Association.
The data picture shows workers polishing the barrel part of the erhu. Photo by Sun Quan
Although the name was loud, at that time, Meicun Erhu was still a niche brand in a remote corner.
"At the beginning, my father-in-law helped the musical instrument shop in Suzhou to make piano embryos, and one was only a hundred yuan (RMB, the same below). Later, it was oem processing, and the profit was not high and there was no sense of achievement. Later, my father-in-law returned to his hometown to start a business and slowly started his own brand 'Guyueqinfang'..." Whenever the development process of Meicun Erhu is talked about, Bu Guangjun, Wan Qixing's son-in-law and the representative of the second generation of Guyueqinfang, will talk about this past.
At the beginning of the business, Wanqixing's Guyueqin Workshop was a "self-employed": there were only two workers, and the business relied on the OEM to earn some manual fees. Nowadays, Qinfang has thousands of square meters of factory buildings, more than 30 workers, and has become a professional manufacturer of medium and high-end erhu musical instruments, and its products are exported to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries.
The data picture shows that the finished erhu is preparing to be packaged and sent to all parts of the country.
The development of Guyueqinfang is the epitome of the development of Wuxi Meicun Erhu production enterprise. For more than 10 years, wan qixing, Lu Linsheng, Qiang Jinbo and other more than 10 erhu making masters have completed the inheritance of skills and the handover of careers through the mode of father-to-son and master-apprentice, so that the fame of Meicun Erhu has sounded and gone out.
In the past ten years, the local 18,000-square-meter Erhu Industrial Park has also been erected, absorbing Erhu production enterprises, supporting enterprises and circulation enterprises in Meicun and surrounding areas.
According to Huang Jianhong, president of the Meicun Erhu Industry Association, there are currently 20 erhu production enterprises in Meicun, producing more than 50,000 erhus of various types every year, accounting for a quarter of the global market share of high-end erhu, with an annual output value of nearly 50 million yuan.
In Bu Guangjun's view, Meicun Erhu can do a good job, especially thanks to the vigorous development of the domestic market, so that traditional crafts are becoming more and more successful.
The China News Service reporter learned that Wuxi not only has a group of erhu lovers above the level of ten, but also a number of folk bands, and various performances at all levels are continuous.
Holding erhu competitions, hosting New Year's concerts, registering collective trademarks for "Plum Village Erhu"... The local government, enterprises and individuals link and promote each other, which effectively enhances the popularity and influence of Meicun Erhu, and promotes the prosperity of the Erhu industry and Erhu cultural undertakings.
Looking back at the road, Bu Guangjun sighed: "From the lack of people to the city." For more than a decade, Umemura Erhu has achieved a counterattack from a sparrow to a phoenix. (End)
Source: China News Network