(Chongyang County Rong Media Center reporter Zou Hui Hu Weijun correspondent Jin Wenfeng) Liulin Village, Lukou Town, Chongyang County is located in Jinsha Scenic Area, where the mountains are full of bamboo. The local people rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, and there have been craftsmen who have been craftsmen for generations. As the years passed, there were fewer and fewer craftsmen who were craftsmen. However, the "old craftsman" Wang Libao did not let go of the "old man" who had accompanied him for decades.
When the reporter met Wang Libao on the bamboo mountain of Huangjingchuan in the seventh group of Liulin Village, Lukou Town, he was patrolling the mountains to find bamboo, and he could not see that he was an old man in his old age.
"If you are looking for raw materials, you need to find bamboo with white skin, which is not easy to deform and durable when made into bamboo beds. This bamboo is at least five years old, so it's very suitable. Wang Libao briefed reporters. After choosing the bamboo, Wang Libao raised the knife and fell, and a bamboo fell to the ground in response, cutting off the excess branches, and he carried the bamboo more than ten meters long and went down the mountain.
After selecting materials, measuring, dotting, and making preparations, Wang Libao took out his toolbox and began to make bamboo beds.
"I'm over 70 years old, and I've been with this set of tools for almost 40 years, and it used to be my belongings for a living, and I've been an old friend for decades. Wang Libao said with emotion.
Wang Libao is 71 years old this year, is a well-known "Wang Craftsman", since he was a teenager with the elders in the village to learn the craft, practiced a solid basic skills of cooking, cutting, cutting, prying, cutting, cutting, pulling, weaving, weaving and other processes are proficient, made of bamboo beds, bamboo chairs are beautiful, comfortable, durable.
I saw him pick up the sawed bamboo tube and look left and right, and with his dexterous hands to find the spot, he took the mallet and machete, and made a key hole. After the general bracket and hole were ready, Wang Libao lit a fire, put the prepared bracket on the fire and roasted it, and after bending the bamboo bed legs, he began to assemble the frame of the bamboo bed.
"From cutting bamboo down the mountain to making a bamboo bed, it takes about a day and a half like me to make it, and about two days for slow ones. Between the words, the bamboo bed legs made by Wang Libao have begun to take shape.
In the eighties and nineties of the last century, there was an average of two or three households in the village with a carpenter, who made bamboo products to earn money during the slack time. Later, with the development of the times, bamboo products were gradually replaced by plastic and metal products, and the craftsmen in Liulin Village began to be "unemployed".
After the demand for bamboo beds decreased, Wang Libao began to "change careers", farming, pig raising, beekeeping, and odd jobs...... But his craftsmanship has not been left behind for a moment. By chance, a reporter uploaded a video of Wang Libao's handmade bamboo bed on the Internet, which attracted the attention of many netizens. In 2022, his bamboo ware began to "touch the net" and entered online sales.
"More than 20 bamboo beds were sold the year before last, and more than a dozen were sold last year, from other counties and provinces. Speaking of online sales, Wang Libao's face was full of happy smiles.
Wang Libao told reporters that he will continue to do it and continue to pass on the craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation to future generations.