Carpenters spent three years handcrafting more than 20 wooden vehicles
Recently, in Zunyi, Guizhou,
Mao Fengxiang, a carpenter in the mountains, showed reporters the wooden vehicles he had built in the past three years.
Wooden roadsters, wooden strollers,
Wooden speed bike, pure wood bike...
More than 20 cars of various shapes
Are Mao Fengxiang pure handmade solid wood,
And also on safe roads
For the children in the village to play.
According to Mao Fengxiang,
The elders of the family are all making wooden crafts,
6 years ago,
He also joined the industry,
Since I was interested in all kinds of cars since I was a child,
He began to study the innovative technique of wood,
The result is these wooden vehicles.
now
With mature skills, he constantly innovated all kinds of wooden shapes.
(Source: Sino-Singapore Video)
In addition to Mao Fengxiang, there are many craftsmen because
Exquisite craftsmanship has received widespread attention -
Guizhou "mountain village carpenter" fire "out of the circle"
Praised as "Modern Luban"
"Little carpenter of the mountain village" An Xu caught fire on platforms such as Douyin. In just two years, this "post-95" boy in Guizhou mountain village has gained nearly 9 million fans. In the eyes of netizens, he has a pair of magical hands - a few inconspicuous pieces of wood, through his skillful hands, transformed into a golden hoop stick, high heels, Chang'e No. 5 model...
Carpenters, as explained in the Modern Chinese Dictionary, are workers who make or repair wood and make and install wooden structures of houses. But Unlike traditional carpenters, An Xu has a wild idea, some people praise him as "modern Luban", and some people say that he is the "male version of Plum Ziqi" in the mountains.
The craftsmanship carpenters who were once active in the countryside have gradually shrunk over the years and have even disappeared in some places. How to let the traditional culture and craftsman spirit carried by rural carpenters continue to be inherited, Anxu's successful "out of the circle" may bring enlightenment.
A teenager who "does not do his job"
Open Douyin to search for "little carpenter in the mountain village", burn the silent sword, the golden hoop stick... Many of the props in the game were brought into reality by him and made beautifully. Anxu's videos are usually filmed in the family's wooden house, and the cameras are also his family or relatives. The video shows the whole process of carpentry work, simple but can move people's hearts with a kind of authenticity.
In May 2021, a Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter drove to Longshan Village, Yong'an Town, Fenggang County, Guizhou Province, to visit an Xu's home in the video. On that day, An Xu was wearing a white linen shirt, a pair of black zippers, and a beautiful eyebrow, which made people feel refreshed.
In the eyes of his parents, An Xu's "not doing the right thing" has long been revealed. He has loved to draw since he was a child, and he has painted very well. "When I was in elementary school, the male classmates in the class liked me to draw dragons on them, and drawing one would give me 5 cents." An Xu said.
The walls of the home and the blank spaces in the textbooks were filled with various paintings by An Xu. Speaking of this, An Xu's mother Yang Zhengju raised her eyes and said: "I just don't like to learn." ”
His parents have always hoped that An Xu can find a stable and down-to-earth job. He had worked as a car repairman, a car washer, and a clerk in a milk tea shop, but none of his jobs were his favorite, and he fell in love with carpenters.
At the beginning of 2019, under the advice of his mother, An Xu began to learn home decoration with a master named Huang Dong, such as making ceilings, cabinets, beds... In just over 3 months, An Xu has mastered the full set of production methods that others can master in a few years. Since then, he has been associated with carpenter craftsmanship.
An Xu's first impression of the carpenter came from his deceased grandfather. Grandpa was a carpenter, and part of the old wooden house where Anxu lived now was built by Grandpa himself. An Xu's father, An Jia Xiao, recalled that when he was a child, An Xu's grandfather was often invited by the villagers to do carpentry work, and the daily wage could be more than 1 yuan. At that time, wooden houses were made, and whoever had boys married had to make furniture such as cabinets and chairs, so there was a great demand for carpenters. By the beginning of this century, people began to build brick houses or brick and wood houses, furniture was also purchased from furniture stores in the county town or town, there were fewer carpenters in the village, and fewer young people were willing to learn carpentry work.
In the eyes of An Xu's wife, Wang Shuangyu, An Xu is almost obsessed with carpentry and pursues perfection, sometimes carving and grinding wood day and night without sleep.
In the past two years, An Xu has also been learning non-stop, the woodworking book has been turned over and over again, there is a mortise structure that cannot be done, he will go to the Internet to find teaching videos, a little bit of groping. Now whatever he wants, he can make it out of wood.
An extraordinary inheritance of carpentry skills
In An Xu's home, the most conspicuous thing is the wood, woodworking tools and wooden handicrafts he made, plus the aroma of wood in the air, which makes people feel the real carpenter life and strong traditional culture.
An Xu told reporters: "When I first wanted to do Douyin, my family was opposed. At first, he wanted to try to see if he could use wood to make a sword and send it to Douyin, and whether he could make some money after the fire, but today's An Xu is more about how to inherit the carpenter's skills.
"Li Ziqi is my idol because she can subtly spread and inherit Chinese culture." An Xu said.
In addition to going out, An Xu does carpentry work in his yard almost every day. He bent over and pushed the planer quickly on the board with a planer in his hand, and in a few moments, beads of sweat on his forehead dripped down. The clicking sound of the polished wooden boards is like a prelude to a concert, which makes people look forward to the whole work.
To get a piece of wood, you must first plan, then coarsely grind, and then finely grind; wet wood is easy to deform, such as making a sword can not use wet wood; to make a thing, a drawing will appear in the brain, what kind of tenon structure to use... When it comes to carpentry, An Xu has endless words.
Last year, An Xu made an ink bucket and sent it to Douyin, but few netizens knew what the ink bucket was. "Carpentry is a traditional and ancient profession, and the originator of carpenters, Lu Ban in the Spring and Autumn Period, invented the ink bucket." An Xu introduced.
In the past, house building was not simply physical work, and it required rituals to move the earth, to cut wood required ceremonies, and to lay beams also required rituals. Therefore, carpenters are not only builders, but also participants in the worship of the gods. Traditional carpenters also have very strict rules and work rules, and these cultures are gradually declining with the shrinking of the ranks of rural carpenters.
An Xu tried to find the connection between the works and traditional cultural elements, and imprinted rich carpentry techniques and carpenter cultural elements in his works. At present, the 8-story Wenfeng Pagoda model he is making is a landmark building with a century-old history in Fenggang County.
Under his influence, more people began to learn about carpentry craftsmanship and culture. Some netizens took the initiative to find An Xu and wanted to learn the craft of carpentry. The county's secondary vocational school also invited An Xu to teach woodworking to the students.
"Xanadu" life
Looking out from the courtyard of an asuka's house, emerald green mountains form a wavy line that connects the clouds in the sky. In the afternoon, the abundant sunlight sprinkles on the courtyard, and the idyllic scenery is like a "paradise".
Having lived in this land since childhood, An Xu is full of attachment to this place. He also worked in Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, but still chose to return to his hometown. In his opinion, doing his favorite carpentry work, making some money at the same time, and having a family to accompany him is the best way to live.
Anxu's parents had been working in Fenggang County in the past, and in order to support their son's career, they resigned and returned to their hometown. In the past two years, An Xu has produced more than 100 works, and in his videos, his parents often appear on camera.
"For example, one of the most viewed videos is making a bracelet for my mother. Mom hadn't bought jewelry for most of her life and wanted to make her happy. An Xu said that he hopes that netizens who see the video can feel the preciousness of family affection.
Nowadays, An Xu is mainly responsible for carpentry work, and the planning of short video topics is a collective effort. An Xu put forward the idea, the whole family will sit together to discuss, each of them put forward their own ideas, feasible ideas will continue to refine the video script and shooting plan.
An Xu roughly calculated that since entering the short video platform, he has earned more than 400,000 yuan in two years, including advertising income and income from the sale of wooden crafts. An Xu said that he was very afraid of opening a live broadcast, because as soon as the live broadcast, there were netizens vying to buy what he made, but it took at least several days to make a complex object, and it was impossible to meet the needs of netizens. To this end, Wang Shuangyu began to dock factories last year. At present, a swan table lamp and a football-style piggy bank designed and produced by An Xu can be mass-produced by the manufacturer.
In Wang Shuangyu's eyes, An Xu was a romantic person. Wang Shuangyu likes to wear high heels, and An Xu wants to make a pair of high heels for her. But it is very difficult to make a pair of high heels that can be worn with wood, and it is necessary to use a carving knife to hollow out little by little. The first pair of high heels that he made could not be worn at all, and An Xu made another pair until the third time, when the shoes were finally put on the feet. Although wooden shoes are neither comfortable nor practical, this persistence has impressed his wife and thousands of netizens.
Last year, An Xu remodeled his old wooden house, and a row of bamboo was nailed to the kitchen wall to complement the bamboo fence in the courtyard outside the house. An Xu and his wife pointed to the empty space under the bamboo fence and said that after a while the sunflowers would bloom, which was particularly beautiful.
(Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph)
A mobile phone, a stand, and the traditional craftsmen are back
Do you remember the bamboo bed that cools down in summer? Remember the blacksmith shop on the street as a child? Remember the click of Grandpa sawing wood? I don't know when, bamboo weaving, embroidery, woodcuts, paper-cutting and other crafts gradually out of daily life and public vision. As time goes on, we also throw them into the corner of our memories.
In recent years, under the tide of the Internet, short video platforms have once again brought back the traditional handicrafts that are gradually separated from our daily lives back to the public's attention. When traditional culture meets new media technology, the ancient and low-key old craftsmanship is injected with new vitality and vitality.
When "Light and Heat" meets short videos
On September 23, Li Niangen was taking bamboo weaving products to display at the Shenzhen Cultural Fair. Most of the time on weekdays, he is accompanied by bamboo. Bamboo weaving is a job he has insisted on for more than 50 years. "I don't think much about a lot of things, I just want to delve into bamboo weaving." He told the Workers Daily reporter.
Li Niangen is the fifth generation of bamboo weaving in Dongcun Township, Fengyi County, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, and learned the craft from his uncle who was a smith when he was young.
In his memory, in the past, every household had a smith, and most of the weaving was bamboo baskets, dustpans, sunbags and other tools needed for agricultural production. Gradually, bamboo products were replaced by plastic products on industrial assembly lines, and there were fewer and fewer smiths.
Li Niangen, who could not give up the bamboo weaving, did not change careers. In 2019, it was suggested that he demonstrate his bamboo weaving craft online. After posting several videos, his account attracted a lot of "fans."
"The world is changing fast, and short videos allow people who don't know each other to see the beauty of bamboo weaving." After the year, the flower nail can also increase the powder by more than 4 million, which is something that Li Niangen never thought.
True love makes the "Li Niangen" emit light and heat. Many craftsmen have stepped onto the "big stage" from the "small world" through short videos.
Also suggested by friends to shoot short videos, there is also a carpenter An Xu who loves to draw. Compared with Li Niangen, who has been a smith all his life, he is a "halfway monk".
An Xu, a 25-year-old whose hometown is longshan village in Yong'an Town, Fenggang County, Guizhou Province, had worked in Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places in the past few years. Do car beauty, work in factories, open car wash shops... It wasn't until 2019 that he began to learn carpentry work in home renovations.
"Woodworking and painting have something in common, and every time I work, I enjoy the process of making it." Not long after starting to make short videos, a video modeled on the "Burning Silence Sword" in popular film and television dramas made a wooden sword, which made 1.6 million likes and 400,000 messages pour into his account like a tidal wave.
In 2020, An Xu became popular for hand-crafting the "woodworking version of the Chang'e-5 probe" video. Currently, he has nearly 9 million "fans".
Exquisite craftsmanship makes them "break the circle"
The Teacher's Day gift to his wife, Wang Shuangyu, had the highest number in a video released by An Xu in September. A dark piece of old wood was turned into a brand new bookshelf under Qiao's hands, and the careful An Xu also painted a map of sparrow loquat.
When an Xu handed the bookshelf and flowers collected from outside the house to his wife, the netizens in front of the mobile phone and Wang Shuangyu both smiled - it turned out that through the screen, happiness would also be transmitted.
"To make creative products and bring new ideas to everyone," An Xu said, when composing videos, he will focus on product ideas, display processes and express family affection. In his account, the highest data is a video of making a wooden bracelet for his mother, "The old man has not bought jewelry for most of his life, and I want to make her happy." ”
"This is a priceless luxury", "The guy is simple and self-motivated", "I miss home again", many netizens said movingly after watching the video.
The short video has a variety of forms of expression and outstanding visual impact, and in just a dozen seconds, it can show the most beautiful, real and attractive side of the old craft. With the help of new technologies and new carriers, more and more people appreciate the charm of traditional handicrafts.
Xiao Fang, director of the Department of Anthropology and Folklore of the Chinese Academy of Social Management/School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University, believes that traditional old crafts need quiet scenes and moods, and are created in a slow and meticulous way, not only the works made are well-crafted, but also rare spiritual relaxation and value realization can be obtained in the process of making crafts, so many "post-90s" and "post-00s" will naturally be attracted by old crafts.
In Li Niangen's view, skillful craftsmanship is the key to attracting clicks. "As long as I want to do it, there is nothing that cannot be made", the bamboo bed that is cool in summer, the trolley box in the school season, the mooncake basket in the Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Niangen always weaves new works according to the scene.
Li Niangen's exquisite craftsmanship has made him a "net red smith". Many netizens who love traditional crafts were infected by him, and his apprentice Ma Biao was one of them.
Ma Biao, whose hometown is in Nanchong, Sichuan, has been engaged in CNC programming in Shanghai for more than 10 years. After brushing up on Li Niangen's video, he thought about it for a long time and decided to learn bamboo weaving.
There are more than 1,000 kilometers from his hometown to Xinyu, and Ma Biao has hesitated because of this. However, he was eager for his skills and resolutely went to Dongcun Township to visit Li Niangen.
"I was impressed by the master's work, and he has the ultimate pursuit of bamboo weaving." Ma Biao told reporters.
Propagation promotes inheritance
Crafts that are divorced from daily life are not easy to inherit, and some traditional crafts are still facing the situation of no successor.
After becoming "Internet celebrities", Li Niangen and An Xu both felt that they had more hope for life. Since opening a short video account, they have earned income that they never thought before. For rival artists, this is a rare cornerstone that can continue to be adhered to and disseminated.
"To do the job is to do the best. I want to learn more techniques and make carpentry more refined. An Xu, who is obsessed with carpentry, said. Painting is all about hobbies, carpentry often self-taught through the Internet, he believes that he still needs to improve his skills.
At the same time, he is also considering how to let more skilled old carpenters enter the public vision, so that carpentry skills and traditional culture can be better combined and displayed.
"Will you support the craftsmen?" At the end of many short videos, craftsmen use similar online conversations. This is their expectation, not only to maintain traffic, but also to have more people pay attention to and spread the craftsmanship handed down from generation to generation.
"Learning bamboo weaving is very hard, and many young people can't learn it for long before they leave." Li Niangen lamented that bamboo weaving is often accompanied by knives and bamboo, and if you are not careful, you will cut your hands; the basic skills of tempering are even more fast, and it takes time to precipitate experience in selecting bamboo, breaking the fence, weaving, etc.
"It would be a pity if the bamboo weaving is lost, and I hope to recruit good apprentices." Li Niangen told reporters that his most urgent thing at the moment is to spread the culture of bamboo weaving and teach handicrafts.
"We don't have a shortage of cultural appreciators, consumers and inheritors, we lack bridges that connect them." Xiao Fang said that there is a close relationship between the dissemination of craftsmanship and the inheritance, and it is particularly important to promote the inheritance with dissemination.
"Craftsmanship is a lifelong thing, and I want to go firmly on the road of bamboo weaving." Ma Biao, who gave up the city life, gradually adapted to his current life. Like his master, he began to repeat the work of breaking the fence and weaving, and continued to explore the vastness of heaven and earth in the mountains and wilderness.
(Source: Workers Daily reporter Zhao Chen)
Intangible Cultural Heritage + Short Videos, Let the Traditional Old Crafts "Break the Circle"
Will you go to a remote mountain village to watch an old man with a flower armor weaving a bamboo basket? Will you go to a distant ancient town to see a girl dyeing flower cloth in the yard? Maybe not, but when these "skilled" craftsmen pick up their mobile phones and walk into the screen, they attract thousands of netizens to watch and like on the short video platform.
Under the tide of the Internet, the short video platform has once again brought back the traditional handicrafts that are gradually separated from our daily life back to the public's attention. When traditional culture meets new media technology, the ancient and low-key intangible heritage crafts are injected with new vitality and vitality. How to seize the opportunity to inherit innovation, enhance the self-survival and development ability of intangible cultural heritage projects, and make traditional culture "come alive" is a new issue facing the disseminators and inheritors of traditional old crafts.
1, transformation - the old craft "shake" out of the new tricks
【Case】Qiao Xue is the inheritor of the handmade leather art of the Qiao family. In 2020, Qiao Xue and the team did more than 200 live broadcasts on the Douyin platform, with the largest number of people online at the same time in one live broadcast, and the cumulative sales of goods were nearly 3 million yuan. At present, Qiao Xue's Douyin account has attracted 571,000 fans and received 2.987 million likes. She also founded her own leather art products company and created her own brand "Master Joe".
Making handmade leather crafts is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. The creation of a handmade leather art product requires 72 hours of drawing, 100,000 carvings, 600,000 percussions, and 3,360 minutes of coloring, a total of 126 processes. Since learning handmade leather art, Qiao Xue has firmly insisted on the polishing of handicrafts. "The texture formed by hand stitching is unattainable by the most advanced instruments today." Qiao Xue said that letting young people "carry" traditional crafts on their bodies is the real inheritance.
With the rapid development of new media, the living conditions of more and more non-hereditary inheritors have been changed bit by bit, and now as long as they have a smart phone, they can record and disseminate the intangible heritage of the elderly. The intangible cultural products rich in classical beauty and the spirit of craftsmanship have been recognized by more people, and the new cultural experience method has also opened up new creative ideas for many non-genetic inheritors.
Li Niangen, a non-hereditary heir of bamboo weaving in Xinyudong Village, Jiangxi, began learning bamboo weaving at the age of 9, and this year he is 61 years old. Forty or fifty years ago, Master Li was famous in the township with exquisite craftsmanship and high efficiency, and everyone liked to buy his bamboo products. However, with the development of the times, the production cycle of industrialized products with extremely short production cycles has seriously impacted the living space of traditional handicrafts, and the bamboo weaving industry engaged in by Master Li has also been greatly affected, and his brothers and apprentices have changed careers.
The short video has a variety of forms of expression and outstanding visual impact, and in just a dozen seconds, it can show the most beautiful, real and attractive side of the intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship. The ancient intangible cultural heritage has spread with the help of new technologies and new carriers, allowing more and more people to appreciate the charm of traditional handicrafts.
In today's social and economic development and people's rich life, many young people have the ability to choose and cultivate their own hobbies, and begin to pursue the soothing of the soul and the realization of their own value. Xiao Fang, director of the Department of Anthropology and Folklore of the Chinese Academy of Social Management/School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University, believes that traditional old crafts need quiet scenes and moods, and are created in a slow and meticulous way, not only the works made are well-crafted, but also rare spiritual relaxation and value realization can be obtained in the process of handmade crafts, so many "post-90s" and "post-00s" will naturally be attracted by old crafts.
Recently, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage", which proposes to adapt to the trend of deep integration of the media, enrich the means of communication, expand communication channels, encourage the news media to set up special topics and columns on intangible cultural heritage, support the strengthening of documentary creation on related topics, run relevant excellent programs, and encourage all kinds of new media platforms to do a good job in relevant communication work.
2, communication - let the traditional skills "live" in the present
【Data】According to statistics, on the Kuaishou short video platform, every 3 seconds there is an intangible cultural heritage video generated, there are more than 15 million intangible cultural heritage content creators on Kuaishou to produce intangible cultural heritage related content videos, they together created more than 224.5 billion video views, received more than 6.7 billion likes, generated more than 1.5 billion yuan; on average, each video was at least 6263 people watched, by 187 people liked. According to the "Douyin Intangible Cultural Heritage Data Report", as of June 10, 2021, the number of videos related to national intangible cultural heritage projects on the Douyin platform exceeded 140 million, and the coverage rate of 1557 national intangible cultural heritage projects reached 97.94%; endangered intangible cultural heritage related videos were praised more than 100 million times in Douyin.
Intangible cultural heritage skills are a precious historical wealth of mankind, with rich cultural connotations and historical memories. The combination of intangible cultural heritage and short videos has once again successfully entered the public vision, gained more exposure and attention, and provided favorable conditions for the "living" of intangible cultural heritage in the present and achieving rapid development.
On October 23, 2020, Douyin's "See craftsmanship" plan for craftsmen and craft merchants across the country was officially launched, which played the role of live video broadcasting and e-commerce through a number of measures such as traffic support, cost concessions, and official training, and helped traditional handicrafts to be seen by more people. In 2020, 85 craftsmen, including 10 non-hereditary inheritors, achieved annual income of more than one million yuan through e-commerce. This year,the total number of non-hereditary heirs with goods increased by 15 times compared with last year, and new media has opened up new sales channels for many long-established brands.
Zhu Liqun, a non-hereditary inheritor of Wu Luo's weaving skills, moved the loom to the Douyin platform, attracting nearly 100,000 young people to watch. On the platform that young people like, Zhu Liqun incarnated as "Uncle Zhu", popularized the popular fashion system, promoted the weaving technique, and attracted nearly 100,000 fans and received more than 1.3 million likes in only half a year. Among them, the most popular short video received 140,000 likes. Netizens were impressed by the exquisite traditional skills of "Uncle Zhu".
Through the promotion of e-commerce platforms, Zhu Liqun has opened up a place for craftsmen in places where young people gather. "Before 2015, exports accounted for 80% of the silk fabric orders, and now this proportion is reversed, mainly relying on domestic." Zhu Liqun said that in the past, individual customer orders, which were basically hopeless, have gradually become an important part of the factory's sales.
Sales are only one aspect, more importantly, Zhu Liqun sees the "future" that belongs to traditional craftsmanship. He hopes that through e-commerce, more people can see and buy good silk fabrics, so that more and more Chinese people, especially young people, like this traditional skill that has been passed down for thousands of years.
In the process of non-genetic inheritance, there are many such stories. Yang Xue, the inheritor of Su embroidery and a "post-90s" girl, crossed thousands of miles and took root in Suzhou Zhenhu in order to learn Su embroidery skills. After ten years of immersion in study, she has become the leader among the young inheritors of Su embroidery. From Jingchu Dadi to Jiangnan Water Town, from offline studio to online platform, Yang Xue weaves the future of her and Su Embroidery.
In 2018, Yang Xue taught Su Xiu for free on Douyin, setting a record of more than one million likes and nearly 10 million people watching a class. In order not to distort the embroidery color on the screen, her teaching videos never open beauty, and the camera often takes close-ups of the hands, and the audience can't even see her a few times after a live broadcast. In her words, "Su embroidery is more important than my face".
Even if they don't show their faces, the participation of netizens is beyond Yang Xue's imagination. She once ran an 8-hour live broadcast with fans from start to finish. More people said they wanted to buy her embroidery, urging her to put new products on the shelves. Some netizens left a message saying: "Such craftsmen are worth spending money to protect!" She was pleasantly surprised by the fans' enthusiasm for Su embroidery, and said that in the future, more creative products will be listed on the commodity window to let more people appreciate the charm of Su embroidery.
3. Inheritance - intangible cultural heritage needs more young people to "take over the baton"
【Reflection】 Many traditional intangible cultural heritage crafts have separated from the current people's lives and become special skills, some niche and remote intangible cultural heritage has gradually been forgotten by the public, the splendid intangible cultural heritage and modern life are gradually drifting away, and the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage projects is becoming more and more difficult. The age structure of the employees is aging, there is no successor, and the industrialization degree of intangible cultural heritage products is low, the price is high, and the competitiveness is not strong. The sales of intangible cultural heritage products are not smooth, which greatly affects the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage skills. In the tide of the Internet, how to inherit and innovate intangible cultural heritage is not only a new issue faced by non-genetic inheritors, but also a question of the times that urgently needs to be answered.
As the representative inheritor of the fourth batch of intangible cultural heritage projects in Ji'an, Jiangxi, Xiao Chengyong, the inheritor of the Ji'an shortbread making process, is full of worries about non-genetic inheritance. The shortbread was delicious, but there were very few successors. "After so many years of making shortbread, the biggest problem is that no one comes to learn, especially no young people are willing to learn." Xiao Chengyong said that making shortbread all day long with oil, noodles, etc. "deals", the working environment is not "decent" enough.
With the progress of the times, many handmade links of traditional skills have been replaced by machines, but what has not changed is Xiao Chengyong's sincere heart to inherit this skill. Xiao Chengyong began his apprenticeship at the age of 17 and has been studying this skill for 26 years. At present, he has built a pancake production workshop of more than 10,000 square meters in the green food industrial park in Ji'an Jizhou District, and a group of apprentices around him have basically left the school. Xiao Chengyong hopes to polish this food business card as much as he can, so that the traditional skills will be passed on forever, and this beautiful "nostalgia" will become more and more intense and the aftertaste will be long.
New media technology and self-media communication methods have opened up the world for the old crafts of deep tibet or remote villages, and the legendary "heavenly craftsmanship" actually exists in the world. Craftsmen do not need to link the argument, nor do they need the title of "inheritor", vividly walk in front of the world, share their ingenious wisdom and happiness in opening things, and also let their craft be appreciated by fans and consumer groups.
Xiao Fang pointed out that as self-media platforms that are widely familiar to the public, Douyin and Kuaishou have intuitive and fast communication characteristics and have special advantages in displaying and disseminating traditional crafts. It directly connects craftsmen, appreciators and consumers through self-media, pushes traditional crafts directly in front of young people, and makes traditional skills impress the hearts of groups of young people with their unique artistic charm. The addition of these young people has turned old traditions into new fashions, and has played an important role in promoting the return of intangible cultural heritage crafts to daily life.
"In a Chinese society with a long history, a large population and diverse needs, we have no shortage of cultural appreciators, cultural consumers and loyal cultural inheritors, but what is missing is the bridge that connects them." Xiao Fang said that the transmission of intangible cultural heritage and non-genetic inheritance have a close relationship, especially today, it is particularly important to promote inheritance through transmission. For the old craft, young people can only be interested and enthusiastic to enjoy it and pass it on after they understand and understand it. Consumption and appreciation will contribute to a national trend of tradition as fashion. Under the national tide, the old craft also gains living space, and also allows the inheritors to gain cultural self-confidence, thus bringing power and vitality to non-genetic inheritance.
(Source: Guangming Daily)
There is a light called mutual achievement
Traditional craftsmen are "back"! On the short video platform, they rely on their exquisite skills to "circle fans" countless times, from the "small world" to the "big stage".
This scene also surprised some craftsmen. In the virtual cyberspace, the old craft borrowed new media to open another window and let a light shine into reality.
Many years ago, some craftsmen once lamented: the craft is still there, the industry is gone. This feeling is an objective reality, but there is also some blind pessimism.
The advent of the era of industrialization has indeed made the traditional handicraft industry enter the "dusk" to a certain extent. In the face of cheap and convenient batch customized industrial products on the assembly line, the laborious and time-consuming manual production shakes not only the market, but also the original intention of many craftsmen who adhere to the old line.
As there is less and less place to use, some craftsmen scattered in the countryside and streets and alleys have gone out to work, and these workers have begun to look for new ways of survival, which has also exacerbated the "withering" of the industry.
The British writer Charles Dickens wrote at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities: "This is the best of times and the worst of times. ”
For craftsmen, this dialectic of "time" also applies. In the long river of time, the so-called end of the road may be the willow dark flower in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, the process of globalization and modernization is also an era of inclusiveness and integration, and the vitality of traditional handicrafts can also be conceived in the so-called modernization crisis.
In recent years, with the resurgence of the national trend and the rise of homecoming entrepreneurship, the "rural goods" have become fragrant, and the spring of traditional craftsmen has returned. The wave of the Internet has once again "rolled" back into the public's vision of traditional handicrafts that are gradually separated from people's daily lives.
In 2020, artisan An Xu became popular for hand-crafting the "woodworking version of the Chang'e-5 probe" video. Currently, he has nearly 9 million "fans". Since opening a short video account, An Xu has earned income that he never thought before.
For craftsmen, how long they can do and how far they can go often depends on their understanding of "change and change", whether craftsmen can well embrace the times, embrace change, and skillfully inherit and innovate, which determines whether they can give new life to the industry and crafts.
In this regard, "net red smith" Li Niangen has done it. Li Niangen is the fifth generation of bamboo weaving in Dongcun Township, Fengyi County, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, and his skillful craftsmanship has become the key to his popularity online. The short video allows people who do not know each other to see the beauty of bamboo weaving together, and also allows people to get spiritual satisfaction in fine carving, stitch and thread, and makes this artist who has passed the age of flower armor increase the number of fans by more than 4 million.
As a result, there is traffic and sales. More and more "Li Niangen" and "An Xu" feel that there is more hope for life, and this also gives the industry more hope.
For the traditional handicrafts that have entered the depths of time and gradually faded out of some people's vision, because of the existence and innovation of craftsmen who adhere to the ingenuity, they can be revitalized; and for the craftsmen, in this era of traffic and attention economy, there is a unique life, they use the window of self-media to successfully "borrow a boat to go to sea", re-find the stage of remembering an era, inheriting a culture, and interpreting a feeling, so that the old craft is the most beautiful, the most real, The most attractive side can convey a kind of amazing time and shocking power across the screen.
It can be seen that craftsmen and their own industries are mutually exclusive, and the same is true between them and short video platforms. Traditional handicrafts have a new "way to open", and the platform has also successfully drained itself because it carries the "points of view" and "selling points" of the old craftsmanship.
In fact, if you go back to a person and the time in which you live, how can it not be a relationship of mutual achievement?
(Source: Workers Daily Xu Xinxing)
Editor of this issue: Gan Hao Cheng Lili