Xinhua News Agency, Taizhou, June 16 Question: "Post-90s" non-genetic people: making the ancestral hat industry famous in Sunderland, England

　　Author Fan Yubin

　　"In the UK, hats are not only a necessity, but also a symbol of identity. I introduced the family's hat industry and combined with local fashion elements, opened a straw craft experience store." On the 16th, "post-90s" Chen Zhen, the inheritor of the "Wenling Straw Hat Weaving Skills", an intangible cultural heritage in Zhejiang Province, introduced that his ancestral hat industry gained a reputation in Sunderland, England, due to the straw weaving process.

Ear-weaving craftsmanship

　　Chen Zhen, 30 years old, was born in Ruoheng, Wenling. The local men, women and children all have hat-making skills. There is a popular saying "There are no women in Shili Street, and there are hat-making people in every family."

　　In the 1930s, Loujiang (now Ruoheng Town) straw weaving took off. According to Huang Yunqing, secretary of the party branch of Loujiang Village, at that time, the straw weaving process had become a scale, and almost every household had a textile machine. Chen Zhen's maternal grandfather aimed at business opportunities and began to engage in straw weaving.

　　Chen Zhen’s father, Chen Fucai, founded Wenling Dongfang Weaving Technology Co., Ltd. in 1986. Chen Fucai met his wife and was also related to drafting.

　　Chen Zhen’s mother, Jiang Sufen, is one of many women in knitting hats, and local women master at least more than 100 knitting techniques. After the reform and opening up, Jiang Sufen started from the establishment of a straw woven acquisition. After years of development, he founded the company with his husband Chen Fucai.

　　As a result, Chen Zhen and his brother Chen Xi grew up in the company's factory from an early age. What impressed him is that the employees of this company are all from the same village. "Most of them are elders. As soon as I entered, I didn't have the qualification to play the music. I could only watch and learn while watching the adults."

　　Chen Zhen has a restrained personality and has a talent for knitting skills from an early age. Jiang Lianjuan, who grew up watching him as a child, said: "The grass is densely packed, and most children can't sit still, but he is still immobile. If people learn for two or three days, he will sometimes be half a day."

British startup network includes fashionistas

　　In Wenling Ruoheng, although straw weaving is a pillar industry, it is regarded as a means of livelihood for the "country grandmother". Chen Zhen recalled that his parents once asked him and his brother to go out through reading, not to take up this "bitter" job. Chen Xi said that he and his brother obediently obeyed their parents, but secretly "stealed" from his mother.

　　It turned out that since Jiang Sufen embarked on the road of large-scale craft weaving, he has continued his skills in knitting hats for more than ten years. Hundreds of people learned hat-like weaving techniques from them.

　　In 2012, Chen Zhen studied at the University of Sunderland, UK. He noticed that under the influence of the British royal family, wearing hats was extremely popular in the area. The pursuit of hats far exceeds the imagination of the Orientals, especially the exquisite Chinese straw hats. In this regard, Chen Zhen sprouted up the idea of ​​starting a business, and then rented a shop in the center of Sunderland.

　　Chen Zhen introduced that the shop area is only more than 40 square meters, filled with craft straw hats and straw materials brought from his hometown. "I researched the market, and I really couldn't sell much by relying on selling." So, he chose the way of fashion to attract customers in the form of experience.

　　Chen Zhen said that the British do not know much about straw weaving skills. "Every holiday, I become a'master' of straw, teaching the admired customers to make their own personalized hats."

　　Afterwards, more and more British people entered the straw craft experience shop under the pursuit of local fans to learn about straw craft, a traditional art with a long history in China. And Chen Zhen, through the concept of cultural and creative, gradually entered the British fashion circle.

Leading the village to get rich and exploring art and commodity fusion

　　After studying in the UK, Chen Zhen chose to take over his father's industry while continuing to study in Japan. He said that to move the Chinese straw hat to the world, one must first sharpen one's vision.

　　Chen Zhen, who returned from studying in Japan, decided to uphold his father's will, expand the recruitment of technicians from the same village, and expand the number of employees to more than 150. Chen Fucai recalled that he was full of confidence at the time, saying that he started his business overseas, all relying on the support of his native people. "Now when I come back, I will take everyone to get rich together."

　　Since then, Chen Zhen has integrated Chinese domestic fashion elements with overseas fashion elements in straw weaving, concentrated on emphasizing brand deepening and promotion, and taking straw art as his responsibility, he set up a straw art industry research studio and initiated a century-old straw art production, study and research project.

　　Nowadays, "Jianxin Road 11" founded by Chen Zhen is called "the first straw art cultural carrier and brand to the world stage" by the "England Scholar" published by the Chinese Embassy in the UK.

　　In Chen Zhen's view: "My mission is to turn export products into export culture, develop the industry-university-research model into China's domestic market segment, perfectly integrate art monetization and commodity use, and truly raise the banner of the hometown hat industry. Floating." (End)