【Rural Revitalization】Waste bark turns into artwork

　　[Explanation] The galloping horse, the agile sika deer, the graceful girl... It is hard to imagine that the vivid paintings in front of you are made of fallen bark.

In Bailang Town, Aershan City, Xing'an League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the local forest resources are rich. The people turned waste birch bark into treasure and made exquisite paintings, which became a bright business card for the local area.

　　[Commentary] The person who is holding the scissors and devotes himself to trimming the bark is named Zhao Guihua. She is a native of Bailang Town. The 51-year-old is also one of the first villagers here to learn to make bark paintings.

　　According to Zhao Guihua, the bark painting is made of birch bark through fine processing. Its biggest feature is that it combines cutting, carving, carving, and ironing. It is processed by various methods, and the color is mostly scalded, which greatly maintains the natural color of the bark.

　　Although the paintings are beautiful, it is not easy to make bark paintings. From material selection and color matching to meticulous cutting, complex patterns even take a month or even several months to polish.

　　[Concurrent] Zhao Guihua, producer of bark painting

　　Especially when doing (animal characters), his nose, eyes, eyebrows, etc. are all made of different bark, and the color is three-dimensional.

The biggest difficulty, I feel, is all about shearing. It is meticulous, not to mention that its direction is different, so when you cut it with scissors, its curvature will naturally have to be cut out, just like a deer. , If it is a person, it will take 10 days and a half months for the (finished product).

　　[Explanation] Zhao Guihua said that he liked to draw since he was a child, and now he has been making bark paintings for more than 10 years.

In the past, she mainly relied on odd jobs to earn some meager income. She had to plan for a long time to buy things at home, and her life was very tight.

　　Now the bark painting can not only allow Zhao Guihua to devote herself to the creation, but also bring considerable benefits. The bark painting has brought great changes to her life.

　　[Concurrent] Zhao Guihua, producer of bark painting

　　In the early days of odd jobs, when you were earning a few hundred dollars a month, you had to think about what you wanted to wear and eat in those days.

At the beginning (making bark painting) it was more than 1,000 yuan, and now I can earn more than 3,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan.

One of the goals of the current plan is to save money for the son (to marry a daughter-in-law) when the son is older, because you can have extra money to save for the son, which was impossible earlier, I dare not think about it.

　　[Explanation] The seemingly abandoned bark is now showing the benefits of "treasure".

Solved the employment problem of local women like Zhao Guihua.

At present, the annual sales of bark painting in Bailang Town can reach several hundred thousand yuan, which promotes the development of the local economy.

　　In 2018, the white wolf forest bark painting was rated as an intangible cultural heritage of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; in 2019, it was recommended to apply for the fifth batch of representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage.

　　Zhao Guihua told reporters that he hopes that this art will be loved by more young people and will continue to be passed down.

　　[Concurrent] Zhao Guihua, producer of bark painting

　　The hope now belongs to the younger children, who come into this bark painting, because now that we are older than us, we hope that the younger ones can inherit this craft.

　　Reporter Chen Feng reports from Xing'an League, Inner Mongolia

Responsible editor: [Lu Yan]