■ Special students and teachers communicate on paper.
■Special students are creating Guangcai works.
■Guangcai craftsman Du Li (left) instructs students to create Guangcai works.
Students with disabilities learn Xi intangible cultural heritage from Guangcai craftsmen and paint the future with their crafts
A pen, a plate of paint, and a piece of porcelain accompanied her to sit at the table for a long time. She is immersed in the world of Guangcai and devotes herself to creation. She is Wei Yunqing, a deaf and mute girl, who has been studying Guangcai for 5 years at the Guangcai Studio in Fangcun, Liwan District, Guangzhou City Xi She is also Xi with people with disabilities, who use their crafts to change lives, infusing white porcelain with colorful colors and instilling hope into their own lives.
Learn the arts
Sign language and messaging break down communication barriers
Recently, when Du Li, a Guangcai craftsman, walked into the studio with a reporter from the New Express, Wei Yunqing just went downstairs from the third floor, and the two stood at the staircase and gestured with sign language. After a while, Du Li told reporters that Wei Yunqing went downstairs to get scissors and cups, and also consulted her about how to deal with the sides of the cups.
Du Li is the director of the Guangcai Art Research Association and the wife of Tan Guanghui, the national inheritor of Guangcai. Since 2018, she has taken several students with disabilities to learn Xi Guangcai. "At that time, the teacher of Guangzhou Qicong School ran for a day with 3 students, trying to find a place that could accept a few students for Xi, and finally they came to me, and I left all 3 students. I wanted to give them a chance to be able to concentrate on their creations in a silent world, even though they couldn't hear or speak. Du Li told the New Express reporter.
When teaching them the arts, Du Li and the students encountered many difficulties, among which communication problems were the most difficult. Wei Yunqing took out a thick booklet, which was full of conversations between her and Teacher Du Li, drawing various patterns and patterns. "The lines should be drawn thinner", "the colors should be thicker and more even"......
"Writing it down, drawing it, using sign language, sending messages, all kinds of methods are used. Du Li was deeply touched by the difficulties of the teaching process. "It's very difficult, I have to watch them and guide them often, for example, where the color is filled in too much or too little, and the time to grind the paint is not enough, so I have to grind it like ......chocolate," Du Li told reporters, the most difficult thing is the communication of colors, what is the effect of gradient color? "Even if you write the same clearly, sometimes you will get it wrong, and you need to be very patient when teaching them."
Although there were many difficulties, Du Li found that several students were very suitable for Guangcai creation, they were not distracted by the outside world, and they were more focused than ordinary people. Moreover, young people's thinking is very active, their love for fashion, interest in new things, but also to Guangcai design has brought new vitality.
Voice
"I have learned, I want to be a Guangcai teacher in the future"
In front of Wei Yunqing, cups, saucers, and teapots filled the table. From time to time, she turned the dish in her hand and carefully filled it with paint. She picked up the booklet next to her and wrote, "I have loved painting since I was a child, and I think it's good to learn Guangcai here." She communicated with the New Express reporter through text. During the "conversation", she gave a thumbs up and told reporters that Teacher Du Li taught her a very good craft, she was already very proficient, there were a total of 15 cups on the table, and she could finish it in two weeks.
"I go to work at 8:30 in the morning and leave at 5:30 in the afternoon. When I get home, I like to swipe my phone and watch other people's colorful works. Wei Yunqing told the New Express reporter that her family agreed very much with her learning Guangcai, and often praised her works, praising her for "painting well and very well", which made her feel very accomplished.
Wei Yunqing is a native of Guangxi, and in the process of learning Xi Guangcai from Du Li, they get along like a family. Wei Yunqing's father, mother and sister visited her in Guangzhou and expressed their gratitude to Du Li. "During the epidemic, Yunqing didn't go home during the Spring Festival, so I called her to my home for dinner, and her family was very relieved that she was here and expressed their gratitude to me many times. Dooley recalled.
Another deaf-mute girl, Li Shihui, came here after graduating this year to study Xi Guangcai. She told the New Express reporter in words that she practiced Xi drawing lines carefully every day, and at first she drew too thickly, but after slowly learning Xi she made great progress. Her favorite thing is to look at a work after painting it with a charming glow. "I like Gongbi painting, so I have a special feeling for Guangcai. Li Shihui also told reporters that her wish is to become a teacher, hoping to learn Guangcai well, and she can teach children to draw in the future.
Inheritance
"More students with disabilities will be admitted to study Xi Guangcai"
Du Li told the New Express reporter that in 1996, she came to Guangzhou from Guizhou to look for a job, and her family told her that "the craftsman will not die of hunger", and it was in order to learn the craft that she chose to enter the Huayi color porcelain factory and become a Guangcai craftsman. Decades have passed in the blink of an eye, and she has made Guangcai from her first job into a lifelong career. "I came out of the mountains, and I hope to give these children some opportunities to learn a trade. "From the beginning of leaving 3 deaf-mute students for practical Xi, to now, Guangcai Studio has accepted batches of disabled people to come to learn Xi and understand Guangcai, a national intangible cultural heritage.
Du Li introduced that every summer, students from Guangzhou Qicong School and Guangzhou City Vocational College Special Education College come to Xi. In addition, Guangcai Studio also carried out the activity of "intangible cultural heritage into the campus" and walked into the school to teach students. "After learning Xi Guangcai, the students' employment paths are very broad, not just making porcelain. After learning Guangcai, some students go to design companies to do product design, or engage in some related work. They used the elements of Guangcai in clothing and other fields, which is also a kind of propaganda for Guangcai. Du Li said that in the future, more people with disabilities will be trained as inheritors to help them find employment and better inherit Guangcai.
"The traditional Guangcai pattern is more complex, the young Guangcai people draw some simple design patterns, we get to the market, and find that it is very popular with young people, indicating that it is recognized by the market. Du Li told the New Express reporter that she is trying to produce Guangcai products that are suitable for young people's daily use and meet the aesthetics of young people, and young practitioners often put forward good ideas. She is currently preparing a Guangcai brand for people with disabilities, hoping that more people will pay attention to their works and help their works go to the market.
A number of intangible cultural heritage projects in Guangzhou have extended olive branches to special groups
In addition to Guangcai, many inheritors of intangible cultural heritage provide public welfare training courses to people with disabilities, so that more special groups can enter the world of intangible cultural heritage.
In recent years, under the guidance of the Guangzhou Disabled Persons' Federation, the Guangzhou International Cultural Exchange Center for Persons with Disabilities has set up dozens of art training classes for people with disabilities, and has set up studios such as Tongcao painting, tie-dyeing and Guangcai at Guangzhou City Vocational College, training more than 30,000 people with disabilities free of charge.
Since 2021, the Guangzhou Disabled Persons' Federation launched the "100 Enterprises and 100 Arts Public Welfare Platform" program, which has been carried out for 3 years, which links multiple social resources, introduces cultural industry professionals to support, jointly cultivates outstanding cultural creators, and promotes the transformation of artistic value of disabled groups. Among them, intangible cultural heritage inheritors Tan Guanghui, Wang Xinyuan, Su Xin and others held classes for the disabled to teach them the skills of Guangcai, Guangxiu and Tongcao watercolor painting, cultivate their intangible cultural heritage skills, and help them show their artistic value.
"This year, we have joined hands with the Guangzhou International Cultural Exchange Center for Persons with Disabilities to open a public welfare intangible cultural heritage class for the disabled in the city. Wang Xinyuan, the inheritor of Guangxiu's intangible cultural heritage, told reporters, "Intangible cultural heritage should be inherited from many aspects, and more inheritors will be cultivated from this group, on the one hand, to enhance their employability, and on the other hand, it is also hoped that they will be recognized by the society through their works." ”
■New Express reporter Xie Yuanyuan