China News Service, Lanzhou, July 30 (Wei Jianjun, Ai Qinglong) In the late afternoon of July, 76-year-old veteran rolling felt artist Ma Shele and his son Ma Hu Cai Ni in Dongxiang County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu, took up their bows in front of the sheep pen. A handful of clean wool is loosened into cotton shape, which is the soul of rolling a felt. Twenty years ago, this kind of scene that can be seen everywhere in the northwestern rural areas is rarely seen today.
"There are no more days and nights to walk and roll felt." Ma Shele said with emotion. In the 1980s and 1990s, a group of three or five people went all the way to the west through the Hexi Corridor and finally arrived in Xinjiang. The place is where we are busy."
As early as the Yuan Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, the felting skills existed in Dongxiang. With an average elevation of 2,610 meters, Dongxiang belongs to the high-cold area. Felt is a necessary thing in the high-cold area. The people of Dongxiang are good at raising sheep. The use of felt is extremely common, and it is a necessity for every family.
The picture shows the elastic loose wool. Photo by Yang Yanmin
Dongxiang felt is known throughout the Northwest for its soft, comfortable, well-proportioned, clean, moisture-proof heating, beautiful appearance, and durability. It is a daily necessities loved by people of all ethnic groups and people in pastoral areas. It is also one of the main dowry products for girls when they get married. The white and soft felt on the kang cabinet is a symbol of family wealth.
According to Zhao Lin, curator of Dongxiang County Cultural Center, the wool spinning technique is a special weaving process. It first soaks wool and camel hair with hot water, then squeezes it, rolls and kneads it with a stick. The wool is glued together to form a non-woven wool fabric called "felt".
There are many types of Dongxiang felts. According to the type of wool, there are spring felts, autumn felts, sand felts, cotton felts, etc.; according to specifications, there are 46 felts, fifty-seven felts, single felts, etc.; according to the color, there are White felt, flower felt, red felt, tile green felt, etc.
The picture shows the semi-finished products of Ma Shele finishing and rolling felt. Photo by Yang Yanmin
Before the reform and opening up, almost everyone of Dongxiang men was good at this. In Ma Shele's impression, he started walking with his father to learn crafts at the age of 16. At that time, every household rolled felt, and the villagers made a living from it. Three or five people from Rolling felt together, carrying tools, carrying their bags, and walking around the Kangtou in the northwestern countryside. Once they went out for a few months, they made money and went home.
"Before 2000, it was really the golden years of rolling felt." Ma Shele said, rolling felt was considered "fashionable" at that time. They were "stolen" when they went to every place and got off the car. Children in the village They also followed. On the one hand, they learned crafts and the most important thing was that instead of starving at home, it was better to walk around and eat.
With the development of society and the continuous transformation of lifestyles, there are fewer and fewer traditional kangs, and felt products are constantly impacted by modern home textiles, and there is almost no market. In addition, the profit of felt processing is too low, and few people are willing to engage in the industry of felt processing. Most artists go out to work, and the felt making tools are almost extinct, and fewer and fewer people are engaged in felting skills.
Today, the 46-year-old son of Ma Shele, Ma Hu Cai Ni, has become one of the few artists in the village who insists on rolling. He told reporters that the felting skills learned from being beaten under the old man's stick had made the family rich for a while, but many young people were reluctant to do this hard work. Artists with superb craftsmanship are getting old and have passed away one after another, and the skill of rolling felt is on the verge of being lost.
In order to protect and inherit this national traditional skill, Dongxiang County arranged for the cultural department to collect and collect traditional felting tools, and supported the felting artist Ma Shele to establish a felting craftsmanship workshop in Longquan Market to inherit and develop Dongxiang people's felting. skill. In 2008, Dongxiang nationality's felting technique was declared to be included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection projects.
In 2009, Ma Shele was named the national representative inheritor of the Dongxiang nationality's felting technique of the national intangible cultural heritage protection project. After 60 years of rolling felting career, he went to villages and households. He actively taught the skills to young people willing to learn this craft, told about his experience in rolling felting, and promoted Dongxiang people's felting skills to the younger generation.
Zhao Lin said that the County Cultural Center has also held a number of training courses for the inheritance of Dongxiang people's rolling felting skills, and hired Ma Shele as a teacher to train and guide the trainees. More than 120 trainees have been trained. At the same time, continuous innovation of products, not only limited to rolling felt, but also made some felt hats, felt bags, etc. In daily life, "intangible cultural heritage" is carried on the shoulders and worn on the body.
"The old man has been rolling felt all his life, but now he can't do it anymore. I want to let the intangible cultural heritage felt that once wandered live forever." Mahuceni said that when the new school is rebuilt, he will develop the felting skills. , Felt products sales, reception of tourists and other activities, by the way, apprentices teach art and cultivate new inheritors. (Finish)