Sichuan Qingshen bamboo weaving - skillful weaving to make a better life

Women in Baiguo Township, Qingshen County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, work at home to weave lanterns. Photo by Zhong Hualin, a reporter of the Economic Daily

Strands of bamboo like hair were pulled by bamboo hook needles, and as Chen Shuang's dexterous fingers flew rapidly, a giant panda with a vivid appearance and a cute attitude jumped in front of him.

Chen Shuang is a young bamboo weaver in Bamboo Art City, Qingshen County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province. "Our family has been making bamboo weaving for generations, but in the early years, it was mainly agricultural tools and furniture, and we didn't make much money." Chen Shuang said that after training in recent years, she has learned to weave flat bamboo weaving, porcelain tire bamboo weaving and other techniques, "my works can be sold for 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, and I can earn more than 100,000 yuan a year." ”

In Qingshen County, tens of thousands of people like Chen Shuang who have embarked on the road to prosperity by relying on bamboo weaving skills account for a large proportion of employment in this county with a population of less than 200,000. As a labor service brand, "Qingshen Bamboo Weaving" promotes the bamboo weaving industry to become an important industry for the economic development of Qingshen County and the prosperity of the masses.

There are many benefits to employment nearby

Qingshen County is rich in bamboo resources. Baiguo Township, with rolling hills and bamboo trees. Interestingly, almost every house has a few red lanterns hanging under the eaves. It turns out that many people here will weave red lanterns and make a career out of it.

In the courtyard of a family in Wujiaba Village, four women sit side by side at a long table, chatting while weaving lanterns, and one by one, they circle around the mold. With a giggle, in a few moments, 4 lanterns more than a foot tall have been completed. They told reporters that these lanterns were ordered by the company, and they were equivalent to 6 yuan of wages after they were done. They make one or two dozen such lanterns a day.

Among these 4 women, Li Huiming is known as the "master level", she learned relatively early and had the best skills. She told reporters that the 4 of them are in a similar situation, the husband is working outside the home, they take care of the children at home, and they also cultivate some land. Now she has learned the craft of bamboo weaving, and with this craft she earns 30,000 or 40,000 yuan a year. More than 20 women in the village learned the craft.

Shuai Peng, deputy director of the Qingshen County Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, analyzed that there are many types of bamboo weaving products, many types of products are not high, the way is flexible, can be employed at home, can effectively solve the employment problems of rural left-behind women and left-behind elderly, especially through "order production" and "Internet +" and other marketing, sales are not worried.

Increase training to improve skills

The product display hall of the Qingshen County Disabled Bamboo Weaving Employment Training Base is filled with dozens of styles of lanterns, many of which are unique in shape and exquisitely woven. Xu Jianbing, the head of the base, told reporters that these are the works of disabled trainees in their base. The base opened a training course in 2016, and it trains 200 to 300 people every year. Lan Heping, who was working, was once a student here, and although she was severely disabled in her lower limbs, she was skillful in her mind, and after she learned it herself, she became a teacher at the base. "I can find employment at my doorstep, I have an income of more than 20,000 yuan a year, I have no problem supporting myself, I am satisfied." She said.

Although bamboo weaving has long been an important skill in local production and life, it has become a matter of recent years that Qingshen bamboo weaving has truly become the "golden key" for the masses to get rich. According to Xu Peng, director of the Qingshen County Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, since 2012, the local government has launched the "Bamboo Weaving Basic Skills Talents Training Program" to open a new brand of modern labor training.

The county integrates teaching resources such as The Qingshen Branch of Chengdu Vocational University of arts and the Training Base of the International Bamboo and Rattan Center, opens the major of arts and crafts, wood processing (bamboo weaving technology), opens training content such as porcelain tire bamboo weaving, bamboo furniture production, bamboo packaging, bamboo lanterns, flat bamboo weaving, etc., compiles and prints more than 20 sets of teaching materials such as bamboo wire production and bamboo weaving, creates fine classrooms such as "bamboo art inheritance", and cultivates more than 1,000 bamboo weaving technical workers who have reached a certain technical level for Qingshen County every year. Over the years, there have been more than 500 bamboo weaving training courses organized at the county level alone, and more than 25,000 people have been trained.

Vigorously promote strong brands

Qingshen Yunhua Bamboo Travel Co., Ltd. is a leading bamboo weaving company in Qingshen County, and in the company's product exhibition hall, a variety of exhibits are dazzling.

"It is necessary to make the Qingshen bamboo weaving industry bigger and stronger, so that more people can be employed in this industry and have considerable income, especially to do two things: one is to make the bamboo wire extremely fine; the other is to improve the added value." Chen Yunhua, founder of Yunhua Bamboo Travel Co., Ltd., said that a cart of bamboo as an ordinary material is only worth a few thousand yuan, and made into furniture and handicrafts can add more than 10 times. At present, the company has more than 3,000 varieties of bamboo weaving and has applied for more than 60 patents.

In order to promote the inheritance of skills and industrial development, the county has successively held the "Bamboo and Life" International (Qingshen) Bamboo Product Creative Design Competition, attracting the participation of more than 50 domestic colleges and universities, collecting more than 8,000 works and selecting 60 excellent works, effectively attracting more young people, college students and returning talents to participate in the bamboo industry, so that bamboo weaving skills can be passed on in the new era.

In recent years, the county has increased the promotion of bamboo weaving, expanded the brand influence, and absorbed more people to employment. The county organized bamboo weaving experts to actively go out of Sichuan, and successively held various bamboo weaving poverty alleviation training courses and lectures for Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces and countries along the "Belt and Road" bamboo production areas, which played a positive role in promoting the promotion and inheritance of bamboo weaving culture. Establish 61 non-genetic institutes in countries along the "Belt and Road" and hold international training courses. The county has successfully held many "Chinese Bamboo Culture Festivals". The first Digital International Panda Festival held last year at the China International Bamboo Industry Trade Fair was upgraded to a national-level festival, attracting more than 1,000 exhibitors and buyers from more than 10 countries and regions and more than 20 provinces (cities) in China, with an online and offline turnover of 120 million yuan.

In 2020, the total output value of the bamboo industry in Qingshen County will reach 4.85 billion yuan, and the short-term goal is "10 billion bamboo industry". To this end, they adhere to the idea of "grasping the two belts and promoting the three" and promote the integrated development of the three industries. The "Banbu" bamboo pulp paper produced by Sichuan Huanlong Group, a leading enterprise in the county, successfully settled in 6 international large-scale chain supermarkets such as Sam's, METRO and Ito, and last year's foreign trade sales exceeded 100 million yuan. After a series of new projects are put into operation, it will achieve an annual output value of 6 billion yuan, create more than 4,000 new jobs, and drive more than 5,000 bamboo farmers in the county to plant bamboo, with an average annual household income of more than 3,000 yuan and a bamboo forest area of 200,000 mu.

After years of efforts, "Qingshen Bamboo Weaving", as a national geographical indication protection product, has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage protection list, and has ranked among the top 100 regional brands in China for three consecutive years. The Qingshen bamboo industry has formed three major market segments of bamboo weaving, bamboo paper and bamboo furniture, and the Qingshen bamboo weaving labor service brand is further expanding to the fields of bamboo planting and bamboo materials.

"Our goal is to build an international bamboo city with high-quality development." Liu Jinchao, secretary of the Qingshen County PARTY Committee, said. It is estimated that by 2030, the county's bamboo industry will become a dominant characteristic industry, the output value of the bamboo industry will reach 15 billion yuan, and the number of employees is expected to reach 50,000. (Economic Daily reporter Zhong Hualin)

Source: Economic Daily