China News Agency, Hefei, August 5th: "Generation Z" couples return from studying abroad to inherit Anhui's "time-honored brands"

　　Author Wu Lan Chu Weiwei

　　Walking into the Yiran Fragrant Wood Press Cultural Industrial Park in Wuhu, Anhui, a wood oil press workshop with hundreds of years of inheritance, bursts of oil fragrance.

　　In the wood pressing workshop of the workshop, the iron pressing mallet was hung on the beam with a steel wire rope. Xu Yuancheng walked skillfully, using the strength of his body to shake the 450-pound iron mallet, and the heavy impact made a rhythmic "dong dong" sound. , and saw strands of golden sesame oil slowly flowing into the oil tank along the wooden groove.

　　Xu Yuancheng, who claims to be an "apprentice", was born in 1998 and is the fifth-generation descendant of Xu's "Yixiangyoufang" in Youfang Lane, Wuhu Ancient City.

His father, Xu Zuowen, is the representative inheritor of the Anhui provincial intangible cultural heritage project, the southern Anhui wood oil pressing technique.

　　There are more than ten procedures in southern Anhui wood oil extraction technique, and each procedure is completed by technique.

　　In 2015, Xu Yuancheng went to the United States to study. After graduating from Rutgers University, he majored in marketing and worked in the retail industry.

　　Hu Ting is an authentic Chongqing "hot girl".

During college, he organized and participated in various activities of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association together with Xu Yuancheng to promote traditional Chinese culture.

In a foreign country, the two like-minded people became closer and became husband and wife.

　　In 2021, the two will return to Liulang Town, Wanzai District, Wuhu City, and take over the burden of revitalizing the century-old "time-honored brand".

　　"The longer we stay overseas, the more we can feel the sense of pride brought by cultural confidence, so we hope to keep the 'root vein' and better carry forward traditional culture." Xu Yuancheng said that the current masters engaged in wood oil pressing are getting older , traditional skills urgently need to be inherited and carried forward by the younger generation.

　　"Chinese food, characters, costumes, singing and dancing... We have all shown them to foreign students, and they are very popular." Hu Ting said, this has strengthened her confidence in inheriting and promoting Chinese traditional culture.

　　Returning to their hometown to protect the "time-honored brand" has also suffered misunderstandings, but they chose to persevere.

　　"The more you get along with the old craftsmen day and night, the more you can truly feel the value of traditional skills." Xu Yuancheng said that traditional wood-pressed oil avoids over-refining, and every drop of oil comes from the pure manual extraction of natural oil seeds. Additive-free food and cultural products are also attracting more and more people's attention and favor.

　　Now, while undertaking the inheritance of production skills, Xu Yuancheng also joins hands with his lover to "catch the tide", promote "time-honored brands" with new knowledge, from market positioning, product development, new media promotion to e-commerce operations... They Make the most of your professional knowledge.

　　"One of us is a 'digital' mind and the other is an 'emotional' mind." Hu Ting said, the two have a clear division of labor.

　　In March of this year, the two began to try live broadcasts focusing on disseminating cultural content.

"The customer group has expanded from only Anhui to Guangdong, Shanghai, Hunan and other places. The age group of the customer group has also dropped from an average of 55 years old to 35 years old." Xu Yuancheng said that the live broadcast for an hour and a half had an average of 200,000 viewers.

　　Facing the future, the two confidently plan to develop in the direction of "e-commerce + new media".

"China's countryside has a huge blue ocean waiting for young people to tap and develop. I hope more young people will participate in cultural inheritance and rural revitalization, and help the vitality of the countryside." Xu Yuancheng said.

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