China News Service, Hangzhou, February 5th (Bao Mengni and Shan Jingxiang) A kitchen, three meals for all seasons, and a variety of flavors on the tip of the tongue are enough to write the nostalgia of the Chinese people. According to traditional customs, starting from the twelfth lunar month of the lunar calendar, for a full month and a half, the elders of each family will devote themselves to a busy and sweet state: buying New Year's goods, making "New Year's flavor", and carefully welcoming the arrival of the New Year.
"A sesame candy wrapped in a hemp rope and a piece of newspaper, with a small red note on it, was a New Year's gift when I was a child." In the childhood memories of He Jin (pseudonym), a "post-70s generation" Among us, being able to have a bite of sweet pastries during the Spring Festival is the biggest hope of the year.
Recently, in his hometown of Dingshanhe Village, Tangqi Town, Linping District, Hangzhou City, a "happy courtyard" transformed from an abandoned primary school was bustling with activity. The Lao Dao Baijiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop based in this place was busy working non-stop. Rush to make New Year gift boxes. Many of these pastries still retain the "earthy" packaging style.
"For example, loquat stems, pepper peach slices, and golden candies. In fact, the various pastries in the workshop are not too innovative, but are the continuation and inheritance of the old foundation." Liu Daqun, a craftsman at the Lao Dao Baijiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop, said .
Craftsmen in the Laodao Baijiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop are making traditional pastries. Photo by Wu Junyi
Behind the insistence on traditional taste is the expectation of Shen Jianbiao, the inheritor of the century-old Laodao pastry brand, to "awaken the dormant craftsmanship". In 2021, it invested more than 5 million yuan to carry out protective restoration of an abandoned primary school that was more than 50 years old, and summoned rural craftsmen to jointly build this workshop.
In a workshop converted from an abandoned primary school, Shen Jianbiao told the children the New Year traditions of the older generation. Photo by Bao Mengni
In order to restore the most traditional taste of his hometown, Shen Jianbiao spent a lot of time looking for old folk chefs, as well as building and relocating old businesses and old objects such as tiger stoves, Huilong stoves, and vat stoves for making traditional food. Today, he has recruited more than 50 local craftsmen to excavate and produce more than 40 kinds of intangible cultural heritage foods.
"I learned the craftsmanship of Tangqi pastry from my grandfather, and also inherited the century-old Laodao pastry brand in my family." Shen Jianbiao said, from street hawking during the Guangxu period to the operation of specialty stores and the establishment of the Laodao pastry brand after the founding of New China. , these "local snacks" can gradually be upgraded from rural snacks to popular Internet celebrity delicacies, which cannot be separated from the help of the development of the times.
"Earth-flavored snacks" made in the Laodao Baijiang workshop. Photo by Bao Mengni
For example, in order to comply with the consumption habits of current customers, a local "intangible cultural heritage live broadcast workshop" was created. A craftsman in the intangible cultural heritage workshop of Lao Dao Baijian, Mo Yuezi, who is in his 70s, became an Internet celebrity "Grandma Loquat", not only selling Tens of thousands of kilograms of loquats were purchased, and the "Three Loquat Cravings" - loquat scented tea, loquat flower crisps, and loquat flower burnt peach slices - were sold well.
Culture is also the productive force that makes traditional crafts come alive. It is reported that the Laodao Baijiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop has an intangible cultural heritage experience display area such as clear water silk floss making techniques and traditional tea and food making techniques. It also opens rural libraries, reading rooms, village night schools and other convenient service venues. It has now become a Zhejiang Province Level intangible cultural heritage workshop, provincial level cultural station. In 2023, this workshop received a total of more than 130 batches of more than 10,000 tourists.
Similar workshops are not uncommon in Zhejiang. Not long ago, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism officially announced the second batch of provincial traditional craft workstations and provincial intangible cultural heritage workshops (created), adding 15 provincial traditional craft workstations and 182 provincial intangible cultural heritage workshops.
In recent years, with the combined efforts of policy support and cultural publicity, the publicity channels for intangible cultural heritage crafts have become increasingly abundant. Various activities such as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Customs Short Video Competition and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Customs Exhibition are held across Zhejiang Province. More and more intangible cultural heritage inheritors enter the live broadcast room to tell the stories of old crafts and promote the charm of old crafts.
It can be expected that with the empowerment of new media, traditional craftsmanship will gradually shed its old clothes and put on new clothes of the times, and "local snacks" will also usher in their own spring. (over)