And the story of intangible cultural heritage begins like this (decoding·cultural heritage and colorful life)
Core reading
How to make the intangible cultural heritage handed down from generation to generation shine again?
Xicheng District, Beijing, began recruiting inheritance volunteers who love intangible cultural heritage in 2014, learning traditional skills from inheritors, and continuing the memory of intangible cultural heritage.
Volunteers of different ages and occupations also bring fresh power to the development of intangible cultural heritage, helping intangible cultural heritage to better continue to innovate and enter the current life.
It was another Saturday. After nearly an hour on the subway, the post-85 illustrator Zhu Daping rushed to the Xicheng District Intangible Cultural Heritage Base in Beijing.
Here, she is a non-inherited volunteer, learning dough sculpture under the guidance of the inheritor Zhang Baolin.
Rubbing slowly, cutting and engraving... The image of a lady in fluttering clothes gradually appeared in front of her eyes. Zhu Daping excitedly took the photos and sent them to the circle of friends. Friends liked them.
"One more person to learn, one more way of transmission"
Beijing Xicheng District is rich in intangible heritage resources.
As of 2019, Xicheng District has 36 national-level intangible cultural heritage protection projects, 67 municipal intangible cultural heritage protection projects, and 208 district-level intangible cultural heritage protection projects, covering the ten major categories of intangible cultural heritage protection projects announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Heritage resources account for nearly 1/3 of the total in Beijing.
As time passes, some representative inheritors of intangible heritage are older and the number of inheritors in individual projects is small, which has become an important factor restricting the development of non-hereditary inheritance.
According to tradition, a representative inheritor usually brings a number of apprentices and teaches a part of the skills to each of them. When they are older, they select one of the most preferred apprentices and teach them all the skills.
In reality, some inheritors may not have time to teach all the skills to apprentices, and intangible cultural heritage projects cannot be passed on.
How to make the cultural heritage handed down from generation to generation shine again?
In 2014, the "Folk Treasure Memory West City" non-hereditary volunteer recruitment activity was launched in Xicheng District, and open recruitment for 5 non-heritage projects including Beijing Palace Carpet Weaving Techniques, Beijing Porcelain Carving, Yushi Straw Weaving, Clay Sculpture Painting Facial Makeup, and Opera Helmet Making Techniques volunteer.
"Hundreds of calls a day." said Yang Fei, director of the Xicheng District Intangible Heritage Conservation Center. Each project plans to recruit 5 people. I was worried about being dissatisfied. Unexpectedly, more than 1,000 people signed up in just a few days. After an on-site assessment, In the end, 45 students were shortlisted.
The thirst for talent has also increased the number of auditors.
Among them, Li Xin, the inheritor of opera helmet making skills, has the most students, with 6 volunteers and 4 auditors.
"There are Peking opera fanciers who have sung operas for more than 30 years, designers who have participated in international competitions, and doctoral students from Tsinghua University... One more person to study, one more way of communication." Li Xin said.
"Build a bridge between inheritors and enthusiasts"
After seeing a recruitment advertisement for non-inherited volunteers at the subway station, Zhou Xiaoming quickly signed up.
Born in Zibo, Shandong, she has been very interested in ceramics since she was a child. Whenever she has time, she goes to the ceramic factory where her uncle works and borrows a knife to practice.
After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Capital Normal University, she engaged in ceramic design, especially fond of carving porcelain, but never had the opportunity to study systematically.
Through various selections, Zhou Xiaoming became one of the five official students of the porcelain carving project, under the tutelage of Chen Yongchang, the third generation inheritor of Beijing porcelain carving.
"When is the turn of the internally painted snuff bottle?" Yang Zhigang, the inheritor of the Beijing style internally painted snuff bottle, asked Yang Fei eagerly.
The internal painting snuff bottle has a history of more than 200 years since it was born in the Jiaqing period. Although its use function is gradually weakening, its unique production technology and subtle pictures are still loved by people.
"There are many people who like, fewer people who learn, and fewer people stick to it." After 40 years of dealing with internal painting snuff bottles, how to pass on this craft well is what Yang Zhigang is most worried about right now. "As long as someone wants to learn, I Just teach for free.” In the second year, Yang Zhigang got his wish and selected 10 inheritance volunteers from many applicants.
Over the past 7 years, a total of 36 intangible cultural heritage projects have been openly recruited and 308 inheritance volunteers have been trained.
The teaching process of the inheritor was also filmed into a video and uploaded to Weibo, attracting many intangible heritage enthusiasts to learn online.
"Volunteer recruitment builds bridges between inheritors and enthusiasts to better carry forward the cultural heritage." Yang Fei said.
I thought that most of the intangible cultural heritage enthusiasts were older people. Unexpectedly, there were many young people in the classroom, and Sun Huiyao was one of them.
The 15-year-old is a high school student. Despite the heavy academic tasks, he has never missed the weekly facial sculpture class.
Two years ago, he learned ventriloquism from a non-genetic inheritor and became interested in non-heritage.
This year, he and his mother Guo Chunlei were both shortlisted as inheritance volunteers. He who likes to paint learned facial sculpture, and Guo Chunlei, a doctor, chose the craftsmanship of medicinal fragrance.
"The participation of volunteers brings fresh power to intangible cultural heritage"
Because of the recruitment of non-inherited volunteers, more and more young people are able to get close to intangible cultural heritage, and the intangible cultural heritage has also quietly changed because of the arrival of these young people.
When I first saw Cheng Gang, Li Xin felt like seeing him late.
Cheng Gang was engaged in the theoretical research of opera at Tsinghua University. His suggestions on combing the evolution and development of helmets and establishing the wearing and production specifications of different types of helmets made Li Xin shine: "I can make helmets. He is good at theoretical research. It happens to be mutually complementary, which is of great help to the development of this craft."
"Using knives instead of pens and embroidering on porcelain." Porcelain carving is the technique of engraving sketches, Chinese paintings or other patterns on the glazed surface of porcelain with chisel made of diamonds, which has a unique charm of gold, stone, pen and ink.
Due to the special production process, the porcelain carving works will fade when exposed to water, thus losing its own artistic value.
After trial and error, Zhou Xiaoming has developed non-fading pigments, transforming porcelain carvings from works of art that can only be viewed into more practical art and daily life products, so that intangible cultural heritage can be truly integrated into life.
Chen Yongchang was overjoyed: "In my generation, it is worthwhile to allow carving porcelain into the homes of ordinary people."
In order to promote the intangible cultural heritage into the campus, Zhou Xiaoming also developed a porcelain engraving suit, which has a complete set of tools and paints, which is greatly convenient for beginners to use.
In addition to devoting himself to porcelain carving techniques, Zhou Xiaoming often travels to various places, giving lectures and training, participating in exhibitions, in order to let more people know the art of porcelain carving, "to carry forward the skill of porcelain carving, this is a heavy mission."
Under Guo Chunlei's proposal, the hospital where she worked has begun to apply medicinal fragrances to health care.
Yang Mingshen is a jewellery designer. After learning how to make helmets, he incorporated traditional cultural elements such as Diancui into the jewellery design, which was well received in international competitions.
"The participation of volunteers brings fresh power to intangible cultural heritage." Yang Fei said: "We will continue to explore new ways of non-genetic inheritance, so that it has a longer life force."
Our reporter Shi Fang