Lin Maoxian

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    WHAT comes to your mind when you think of Chinese folk crafts? Paper cutting, wood engraving and cotton fluffing? Unfortunately, many folk crafts like these are now on the verge of disappearing in the face of modern industries.

    Zhao Baocai, a paper lantern craftsman in Longxian County, Shaanxi Province, with over 20 years of experience making paper lanterns, once said, “In the past, there were four or five shops making and selling paper lanterns in Nanjie Village, but it is only I who make a living this way now.”

    Usually, he spends a whole day making only three or four swan-shaped paper lanterns that sell for just 12 yuan each. “I can make a profit of a few yuan from a lantern. But people from my village who leave and work outside can earn as much as 150 yuan per day,” he added, according to a recent Xinhua report.

    What Zhao said underscores the problem that making folk handicrafts is time-consuming and generates low profits.

    But this doesn’t mean we should let these crafts fall by the wayside. In 2008, the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage was established in Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province, with a view to safeguarding and inheriting the resources of the cultural heritage there. With further protection efforts from people from many parts of the county, many intangible cultural heritage inheritance institutes were later established. Elderly crafters there were appointed as teachers who teach folk crafts in classes, promoting the heritage of local history and folk artistry.

    Haiyan undoubtedly served as a good example of preserving folk artisanship. In my opinion, other regions in China where folk crafts face similar dilemmas should consider following suit.

    Moreover, we may well integrate folk crafts into the modern culture industry so that traditional folk crafts may enjoy a new vitality.

    Chi Xiaoxia, director of the Fuzhou Nonmaterial Cultural Heritage Protection Center, said, “It is a pretty good idea to create a new craft by combining traditional folk artisanship and modern designs, hence catering more to the aesthetic tastes of modern people. Folk artisanship can be passed down to people from generation to generation in this manner.”

    Inheriting traditional folk crafts is a matter of vital importance to the nation because folk crafts are gems of traditional Chinese culture. It is without a shadow of a doubt that it is urgently needed for us to make a concerted effort to preserve folk arts.

    (The author is a foreign trade salesperson in a Shenzhen-based import and export company.)