Traditional craftsmanship lacks the prospect of Guangshun wood carving

Traditional craftsmanship is the crystallization of the wisdom of the working people for thousands of years. It is an important intangible cultural heritage and a valuable asset left by our ancestors. Guangshun Town of Changshun County is located in the hinterland of the middle part of the city. The long history and culture of the Chinese nation has eroded this ancient land. The unique traditional techniques have cast a mysterious veil on this land. On March 9th, the author came to Guangshun Town to visit traditional craftsmanship - Guangshun Woodcarving.

Former glory

In Guangshun Town Nanchang Community Group 2, the author came to the home of Ding Zhurong, a woodcarver. This is a large house of more than 200 square meters. Apart from the old house where Ding Zhurong lived in a family of three, the most prominent one is the “factory” of more than 100 square meters. Some of the furniture, such as doors, tables, and tea tables, were not made. Ding Zhurong was working in the house. Ding Zhurong’s family can be called “a family of wood carvings”, and his generation is already six or seven generations. Today, all three families live on wood carvings. Ding Zhurong began to learn wood carving at the age of 18. Until now, for 24 years, his wood carving works have spread all over the province. Even American Americans came to visit him for creation. Due to the fusion of antique wood carvings and modern wood carving techniques, his wood carvings have won several awards in Guizhou, especially in the “Colorful Guizhou Touring Goods Two Races” game in the Southern District of Taiwan held in August 2010. Lions won the award and were collected by state agencies.

"More than 200 years ago, the Guangshun wood carvings were well-known in Guizhou for their craft, quality, and craftsman scale. Many people in the area would come here to buy." Speaking of Guangshun wood carving, Ding Zhurong A look of pride.

Wang Zhongshun, who once participated in the rescue and protection of Guangshun wood carvings, said: "When talking about Guangshun wood carvings, it is worth mentioning that during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, when he was appointed as the Lianghuai salt transporter, but Minglun and Peng Lie were rebuilt for their praises. Guangshun, represented by Liu Qing of “Great People at Home”, relied on his financial strength to recruit talents and promote talents throughout the country. He built ancestral halls, gardens, archways, temples, etc. in his hometown, making Guangshun wood carving the name of the public. Photographing the soul of Zhejiang Dongyang wood carving, including the rhyme of Wenzhou boxwood wood carving, and the show of longan wood carvings in Fujian, and the beauty of Guangdong's golden lacquer woodcarving. These exquisite wood carvings engraved with mythological allusions, there are clouds and moons, flowers and birds, and animals. Fishing boats, folk love, etc. Some of them are engraved on several tables and building parts, and some are carved on window frames and screen furniture, that is, decorations are also practical objects.”

According to local seniors, Guangshun wood carvings are far from expected. Wood is mainly transported from places like Suzhou, Hangzhou and Yunnan. Wood is fine. Despite years of vicissitudes and turbid rain, well-preserved wood carvings still look beautiful and smooth.

Industry shrinks

Speaking of the ups and downs of the Guangshun wood carvings today, Ding Zhurong’s helplessness was a look. He said that many years ago, almost all the people in the town carved wood. With the development of the times, many people did not do this, that is, five years ago, there are seven or eight companies engaged in wood carving production, and now, only their left A family.

“Wanting to build a wood carving is not a short-term success. It requires a heart that loves life.” Ding Zhurong said that without the training of ten or twenty years, it must not be an excellent wood carving teacher. This may be one of the reasons why many people are daunting. A piece of woodcarving is a reflection of the external objective world and the stimulating of the author's inner world feelings. The work itself is actually the carrier through which the author conveys sentiment. Most of Ding Zhurong's works are dragons, phoenixes, monks, and buddha statues. These patterns are difficult to see in real life. He can only devote himself to his works based on his own imagination and observation and his understanding of life.

Ding Zhurong said that because hand-carved wood carvings are more time-consuming and complicated, compared with other handicrafts with a wide variety of machine tools, the output is small, the scale is small, the sales channels are not smooth, and the economic income is not ideal, leading some young people to be unwilling to learn.

Ding Zhurong had brought two apprentices. The great apprentice Jiang Changlin had already set up a portal in another place. The woodcarving "Eight Horses Figure" completed by Jiang Changlin had already been sold for more than 20,000 yuan. Ding Zhurong introduced that whether it was the rough wood carvings of the Tang Dynasty or the Ming dynasty Ming Chang, the skills of numerous tricks in the Qing Dynasty, Jiang Changlin could master and integrate the traditional wood carving crafts into the modern home decoration, achieving notable results. Ding Zhurong is quite pleased.

In fact, there are many people who like woodcarving. I have a good business now, and my income is OK. It's no problem keeping my life. However, young people prefer to go out to work instead of sitting down to learn wood carvings. How traditional wood carvings can be improved and how they can adapt to the development of the society may require the government to guide them. The power of the individual cannot be solved. "For the prospect of wood carving, Ding Zhurong is full of confidence but all fear.

Government guidance is the key

It is understood that Changshun County has taken measures to protect local traditional arts, such as conducting surveys on folk wood carving craftsmen and collecting local fine wood carvings. Due to incomplete work, there has been little success.

Guangshun wood carving is undoubtedly affected by the impact of the outside. Ding Zhurong said that with the development of the times, the ancient rigid arts can not meet the needs of the market, it must be combined with modern Western techniques.

“Guangshun wood carving has a long history, contains rich traditional cultural spirit and is an outstanding cultural heritage of our nation.” Jin Shunrui, party secretary of Guangshun Town, told the author: “Under the modern social culture and economic situation, traditional handicrafts must be developed. The trough must be implanted with modern elements, integrated with innovation, and it can get out of its predicament, how to innovate and develop in the inheritance, and make the Guangshun wood sculpture a bigger and stronger traditional craft. We will use local experience to make further explorations based on local experience.”