When you mention the wooden comb, you will always be reminded of the beautiful pictures of dressing by the window and decals of yellow on the mirror.
Compared with the plastic products in the fast-moving era, the wooden comb has a long history under the warm feel.
The round wood saw is made into square pieces, the residue is removed, polished and painted, and the transformation from a tree to a comb has been staged in Langqiao Town, Jing County, Anhui Province for thousands of years.
This small town in southern Anhui, with only 30,000 people, has the title of "national prefix".
As early as 2004, Langqiao Town was named "Hometown of Wooden Combs in China" by the National Light Industry Federation for its long history of wooden combs and superb production skills.
Today, riding the express train of new e-commerce, the millennium-old Langqiao wooden comb has truly been reborn, the industry has achieved revitalization, and small wooden combs have entered thousands of households.
▲Besides the 205 National Road entering Langqiao Town, a sculpture of "Hometown of Wooden Combs in China" is erected.
In 2004, Langqiao Town was awarded the title of "Hometown of Wooden Combs in China".
History: The Past and Present of the Hometown of Wooden Combs
In Langqiao Town, Jing County, almost no one does not know Xu Fuhai, and everyone is used to calling him "Old Xu".
Xu Fuhai has such a high prestige in the local area, which is related to the wooden comb.
Xu Fuhai, 79 years old this year, is a native of Changzhou and was born in Shanghai.
In the 1960s, he was sent to Xitou Village, Langqiao Town, Jing County, and became a head of the commune comprehensive factory.
After coming to Langqiao, Xu Fuhai learned that because it is located in the mountainous area of southern Anhui and has a lot of wood, the wood comb in Langqiao Town has a long history, which can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than two thousand years ago. heyday.
Among them, the well-made boxwood combs and jujube combs were once purchased by the imperial palace as imperial dressing utensils, so they also have the reputation of "palace combs".
Xu Fuhai remembered that the comprehensive factory had cast iron, tailors, barbers and other craftsmen at that time, but there were no craftsmen who made wooden combs.
He decided to find this traditional handicraft that was on the verge of being lost, so he invited more than a dozen masters who had worked in the Changzhou comb factory.
After more than a dozen masters came to the factory, they soon brought dozens of apprentices.
Xu Fuhai was fascinated by his ears and eyes, and he also learned the skill of making combs, and he even did a lot better than others.
In the early 1990s, Xu Fuhai was the first to set up "Xu's Handicraft Factory" in the local area, specializing in the production of wooden combs.
Driven by Xu Fuhai and supported by the national policy of enriching the people, local farmers have followed suit. Langqiao wood combs have developed rapidly and have gradually become the leading local industry.
There are many wood comb workshops and factories in the surrounding villages centered on Xitou Village, Langqiao Town, and there are people in every household who can make wood combs.
Around 2000, wood comb processing factories and workshops in Langqiao were blooming everywhere, employing more than 2,000 people.
It seems simple to make a wooden comb, but in fact, the preparation of materials is exquisite, and the production process is quite complicated.
In terms of material selection, the commonly used woods for Langqiao wood combs are boxwood, jujube wood, nanmu wood, cherry wood, etc., and the material part must be the most straight and sturdy part of the whole wood to ensure uniform material and beautiful texture.
In terms of production, Langqiao combines the thousand-year-old wooden comb technology with the emblem carving culture. It has to go through 28 processes such as cutting, slicing, cooking, opening teeth, and grinding. Different types of combs need to be added in the post-processing. production process.
▲To make a wooden comb, you need to go through 28 processes. The picture shows a worker grinding a wooden comb with a machine.
"In the past, one person carved flowers at most one or two pieces a day, and the carvings were not uniform. Now mechanized production, at least two or three hundred pieces a day." In order to improve production efficiency, a group of craftsmen headed by Xu Fuhai continued to Exploring the experience of mechanical production, over the years, the production of Langqiao wood combs has not only realized the transformation from family workshops to professional production, but also cultivated a large number of professional production technical personnel and management personnel of wood combs.
In 2004, Langqiao Town was awarded the title of "Hometown of Wood Combs in China" by China National Light Industry Federation.
In 2014, the craftsmanship of Langqiao wooden comb was successfully selected into the list of Anhui provincial intangible cultural heritage projects.
Confused: How to sell wooden combs to the whole country
After the wood comb industry has grown, finished wood combs have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.
Combs are selling well in surrounding cities, but because wooden combs are durable and have a low repurchase rate, how can we maintain a good sales momentum?
This problem stumped all the local wood comb practitioners.
Hu Guirong, the daughter-in-law of Xu Fuhai, can be regarded as the second generation inheritor of the local wood comb making and selling.
In 1997, Hu Guirong and her husband became independent from their father-in-law Xu Fuhai's factory and established their own bamboo and wood craft factory.
In order to sell more and farther combs, like her parents, she carried a large bag of wooden combs on her back and plucked them into wholesale markets in various cities.
From Jingxian to Xuancheng, from Xuancheng to Hefei, and from Hefei to Shanghai, one city after another, relying on the sleeper tickets, Hu Guirong negotiated a lot of business.
The undercurrent of the business world is surging, and Hu Guirong's entrepreneurial journey has not been smooth sailing.
Often the business is negotiated, but the road to consignment sales is difficult and risky. The goods are sold, and the dealer does not give money.
Hu Guirong realized that if you want to develop, you can't sit still. It is important to keep the traditional sales market, but only by making the company bigger and stronger, building a brand, and expanding new sales channels, can the company achieve long-term development.
In 2002, Hu Guirong established Jingxian Runfa Comb Co., Ltd., registered the brand "Yuanmuxuan" of wooden combs, and successively tried various methods such as telemarketing, building websites, developing foreign trade channels, and e-commerce sales to expand brand influence. strength and expand sales.
After more than ten years of unremitting exploration, the hair conditioner and comb industry is getting bigger and bigger.
In 2003, Hu Guirong was rated as the first group of leaders in getting rich in rural areas in Anhui Province. In 2005, he participated in the drafting and compilation of the "China Wood Comb Industry Standard". In 2015, he served as the chairman of Jingxian Electronic Commerce Association. Rated as "Anhui Time-honored Brand".
With dreams and enthusiasm, Hu Guirong successfully brought Langqiao wooden combs out of Anhui and sold them all over the country, and even exported to Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States.
Leap: 5,000 wooden combs sold in one day
Walking into the Wood Comb Industrial Park in Xitou Village, Langqiao Town, Jing County, the sounds of various machines are intertwined.
In the workshop, there is a busy scene, workers are busy making wooden combs.
In the Jingxian E-commerce Industrial Park, more than 20 kilometers away, workers are also busy, and they are packing the wooden combs that need to be sent out.
"Welcome to the new babies in the live broadcast room. This comb is a high-end sandalwood comb with double-sided handmade auspicious clouds. There is a discount for placing an order now..." In the live broadcast room of the Run Hair Comb Industry located in Jingxian E-commerce Industrial Park, With the enthusiastic introduction of the female anchor, in less than 5 minutes, nearly 100 people poured into Yuanmuxuan's Pinduoduo live broadcast room, and in less than a minute, more than a dozen wooden combs were sold.
"It's nothing. Our daily express orders are as thick as several books. During the peak season, sometimes we can sell more than 5,000 wooden combs a day." The head of the business, Xu Zhanpeng, is used to it.
▲The female anchor is introducing all kinds of wooden combs in the live broadcast room of the e-commerce platform.
Xu Zhanpeng is the son of Hu Guirong and the third-generation inheritor of Langqiao wooden combs. He has been fascinated by wooden combs since he was a child. After returning from studying abroad, he is responsible for the e-commerce sales of the hair conditioning comb industry.
As the inheritor of the wooden comb in the new era, Xu Zhanpeng followed the trend and set his sights on the new e-commerce platform Pinduoduo.
Xu Zhanpeng introduced that in 2017, the "Yuanmuxuan" brand entered Pinduoduo.
Up to now, the annual sales on the platform have reached more than 10 million yuan, accounting for nearly half of the company's total sales.
▲Xu Zhanpeng and his colleagues in the company exchanged experience in e-commerce operation.
In Langqiao, it is not an isolated case to use new e-commerce companies like Xu Zhanpeng to achieve enterprise transformation and upgrading.
More and more wood comb companies are trying their best to develop online channels.
At the beginning of this year, Cha Chenglin from Xitou Village started selling wooden combs on Pinduoduo with the mentality of trying it out.
In less than half a year, the sales volume was close to 100,000 orders, and at most 1,500 orders were sold in one day, which surprised him and strengthened his determination to continue to develop e-commerce sales.
Future: "Duoduo New Craftsmanship" helps "Rural Good Things" to come out of the circle
"The times are developing too fast. From production to sales, it is leaping forward, and it is no longer comparable to what we were at that time." Xu Fuhai said bluntly, watching the Langqiao wood comb industry being sold all over the country with the help of e-commerce platforms, the brand influence has gradually expanded, and the industry has gradually expanded. Constantly prospering and culture inherited, as the founder of Langqiao wood comb industry, he was pleasantly surprised.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Langqiao Town Government, there are more than 110 wood comb production and sales enterprises in Langqiao Town, with 3,300 employees.
In recent years, driven by e-commerce, the annual output value of the wood comb industry has reached 250 million yuan, and e-commerce sales account for more than 50%.
The wood comb industry has made important contributions to local economic construction, rural revitalization, solving rural surplus labor, and increasing farmers' income.
"In vast rural areas, traditional handicrafts have always been an important means for villagers to increase their incomes and become rich. However, in many areas, handicraft industries often fail to build brands and develop roads, resulting in the decline of the industry and even the loss of craftsmanship." According to Pinduoduo According to the relevant person in charge, in order to reactivate and inherit the handicraft industry in the countryside and drive the villagers to create wealth and increase their income, on July 29, Pinduoduo officially launched the "2022 Duoduo New Craftsmanship" action, which has penetrated into the rural industrial belt and promoted the strength of good things in rural areas. Circle, Langqiao wood comb is one of them.
In the future, Pinduoduo will invest 1 billion yuan in special traffic resources and subsidy resources to comprehensively promote "good craftsmanship" from villages and cities; support high-quality rural industry brands, and promote traditional handicrafts and secondary industries to upgrade their brands; at the same time, Set up a special training team, develop e-commerce training courses for handmade products, and cultivate at least 100,000 new agricultural merchants.
"Combing the township" is not full of spring tides, and a new chapter is written while taking advantage of the east wind.
From family workshops to mechanized production, from traditional agency sales to e-commerce sales, Langqiao wooden combs have completed a gorgeous turn again and again, and have also "combed" out new ideas for rural revitalization.
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