China News Service, Jilin Songyuan, February 14th: Fish skin paintings are selling well, Chagan Lake fishing and hunting culture is going overseas through innovation

　　China News Service reporter Guo Jia

　　During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, Xu Wei, the provincial inheritor of Chagan Lake fish skin making skills in Jilin Province, was busy again. In the studio, Xu Chun and his apprentices cut pieces of fish skin into radicals of Chinese characters, edged them with soap thread, and then carefully pasted them in the frame. A festive fish skin painting "福" was completed. . This is their most popular item. This Spring Festival, they rushed to complete more than 400 such orders as scheduled.

　　Chagan Lake in Songyuan City, Jilin Province has a fishing and hunting culture that has been passed down for thousands of years. At first, people used fish skin to cover their bodies, which was the prototype of fish skin clothing. With the development of the times, people began to use fish skin to make various totems, pendants, ornaments and other daily necessities. Because it is entirely handmade, fish skin painting is also known as "fishing and hunting culture on your fingertips."

In February 2024, Xu Wei displayed fish skin paintings. Photo by Zhang Yao

　　In Xu Ming's studio, there are fish skin paintings created by her and her apprentices. A set of blue flower-style necklaces, rings, pendants, and earrings are particularly eye-catching. According to Xu Wei, this is made up of pieces of fish skin and fish scales that have been dyed and dyed. The technique is very demanding and there must be no traces of pasting. She named this work "Mermaid Princess" and later won a gold medal in the "2023 Chinese Characteristic Tourism Product Competition".

　　Xu Hui said that in the minds of many people, intangible cultural heritage projects are either "cold" or "unfashionable", both of which are not conducive to market development. The previous fish-skin paintings were indeed rougher, and their market positioning was also vague. Over the years, she has tried to connect intangible cultural heritage with tourism products, using fish skin to make various murals, prints and ornaments, etc., and has obtained a total of 40 appearance patents, 1 utility model patent and 89 copyright protections.

In February 2024, Xu Chun (second from left) was making fish skin paintings. Photo by Zhang Yao

　　Xu Mie's fish skin crafts are always based on the fishing and hunting culture of Chagan Lake, which gives her works strong regional characteristics. She created a series of fish skin paintings such as "Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Sacrifice Lake" and "Chagan Lake Winter Fishing", which artistically represent traditional winter fishing scenes and have sold a lot in domestic and overseas markets.

　　In recent years, with the help of Jilin Cultural Tourism Week held around the world, fish skin handicrafts have also opened up markets in Europe and Southeast Asia. Xu Chun said that fish-skin paintings are particularly recognized in areas where there are Chinese people.

　　Taking advantage of Jilin Province's effort to create a "Courtesy Jilin" tourism product brand, orders for fish-skin paintings from home and abroad have continued to flow in the past year. Faced with strong market demand, Xu Wei allocated some orders that only required simple processing to local farmers, which not only increased production but also helped farmers become rich.

　　Nowadays, many provincial-level intangible cultural heritage projects in Jilin are trying to turn their horizons overseas, which not only achieves economic benefits, but also promotes the innovative development of traditional crafts. Xu Wei believes that projects with a strong local flavor must keep pace with the times. Appropriate addition of some artistic expression will often produce unexpected effects. “The most important thing in this is to have cultural confidence.” (over)