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Craft week showcases traditional, modern
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YOUNG and old. Modern and traditional. Hangzhou’s first China Craft Week provided a platform for a wide range of local and foreign artisans to display artworks and designs.
“Our local craftsmen have been invited to participate in London Craft Week for many years,” said Shu Chang, one of the organizers. “It was our turn to host a similar event. Craft week was not merely staged for cultural exchange. It is intended to inspire craft businesses here and extend them across borders.”
The theme of last week’s event in Hangzhou was “how traditional crafts integrate with modern life and design.”
Among the participants were old masters of traditional folk arts that have been straining to attract new blood, and young entrepreneurs pioneering modern ways to express old styles.
Shao Guanxing, 63, is an “inheritor” of Hangluo silk art, which characterized by its light, breathable, filmy smoothness.
In 2009, Hangluo silk won designation as an “intangible cultural heritage” from UNESCO. Since then, dresses made with the silk have been presented as gifts to the wives of visiting foreign dignitaries.
Shao established Fuxing Hangluo, a silkwork that uses traditional weaving methods. Decades ago, weaving and selling the specialty silk was a livelihood employing thousands of residents. Today, only Shao’s factory remains.
“The weaving technique was a secret guarded by inheritors of the art in the past,” said Shao. “Now, I am making it public in order to try to encourage its perpetuity. Some universities are now including this centuries-old craft in their curricula. I hope more young people will be inspired to heed the call.”
Though a practitioner of an ancient art, Shao is very much a modern man. He has upgraded most of the original wooden weaving machines that were too fragile to withstand modern production rates. He spent five years working to replace most of the old looms with metal versions.
“Today, modern machinery is used in most of my mill,” Shao said, “but I still keep a few old wooden machines in order to maintain the visibility of the original process.”
He has also applied digital printing technology to silk production and cashes in on the e-commerce trend by selling silk products online on Alibaba.
He is now planning to expand his market alongside the Chinese government’s One Belt, One Road Initiative.
However, not all artisans are as lucky as Shao. Many face a dearth of eager apprentices and drying-up markets.
Shen Hualiang is a kitchen-stove painting master from Tongxiang County in northern Zhejiang Province. He and wife have dedicated themselves to this old art form for more than 50 years.
At one time along the lower regions of the Yangtze River, every farmhouse lime kitchen stove was painted with auspicious figures or floral motifs. Artists expressed the passions of the times through these paintings. This special art was given national protected intangible culture status years ago.
Despite that, the old art is dying out. Villagers would rather use modern stoves that can’t be painted.
Only the Shen family still clings to the craft. The family has had some success painting stoves for farm-run guesthouses that want to replicate old-style decor for tourists.
“My ancestors created this craft during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911),” Shen said. “I want it to continue down the generations, but that is difficult.”
Foreign markets may offer great prospects for old, traditional crafts.
“Overseas consumers are very interested in buying things that people in China may view as old fashioned,” said Guy Salter, the founder of London Craft Week.
Of course, tastes ebb and flow with passing time. Chinese opera costumes, for example, are no longer as fashionable as they were when local opera productions were widespread and popular with the public.
It largely rests on determined older craftsmen to try to perpetuate their arts.
Wang Shenghong is an embroiderer who still sews in the imperial tradition of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
“I built a museum to display my collection of old costumes,” Wang said. “My studio has 40 craftsmen making costumes in the traditional style. People can learn about this elegant old fashion in the museum, which may spur them to buy clothing.”
Besides traditional artisans, China Craft Week attracted younger designers who combine older styles with chic modern designs.
Li Xu and Qi Tian founded the brand Duan Mu Liang Jin after graduating from universities in the US. Their wooden handbags and clutches melding traditional with modern were a highlight of weeklong fair.
“Traditional craftsmanship doesn’t have to mean simply replicating what our ancestors did,” said Li.
“We have to innovate to attract new audiences. If modern machinery can turn out products better, then why not use it?”
Li added, “Many foreign luxury brands are popular with the Chinese. We need to build our own brands featuring characteristic Chinese styles.”
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