The wind outside the house stirred up the snow, and the fire inside the house was red.
Seventy-four-year-old Liu Shengyu holds a paper file and a small wooden mallet and chisels hollowed-out flowers, copper coins and auspicious words on a stack of rice paper. His son, Liu Bin, wears finger covers and uses a thin-pole brush to dye the rice paper of different shapes layer by layer, ...... colorsThe room was filled with the sound of clanging and the gurgling of pots of tea boiling over the fire.
The Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon is approaching, and Liu Shengyu and his son spent nearly 10 months making spring leaves and masks to usher in the sales season. Posting spring leaves and covering faces before the Spring Festival is a unique folk custom in Tongwei County, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, and spring leaves and masks are also one of the indispensable local New Year goods.
Liu Bin arranges the finished spring leaves and face covering at home (photo taken on January 31). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Yanxin.
Spring leaves and masks are a kind of ancient art varieties in Tongwei paper-cutting, a provincial intangible cultural heritage of Gansu Province. Tongwei County has a profound cultural heritage and has the reputation of "the hometown of Chinese calligraphy and painting art".
Spring leaves, also known as hanging money, its traditional pattern is composed of three kinds of ancient money, and the color is mostly red, yellow and green. The cover is larger than spring leaves, and the patterns are diverse, such as peonies, lotuses, chrysanthemums, etc. Every year on the thirtieth day of the lunar month, Tongwei people will paste spring leaves and masks on the eaves rafters, door frames, window frames and other high places, looking forward to auspiciousness, health and harvest in the coming year.
This is a spring leaf attached to the eaves of a house (photo taken on January 31). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Yanxin.
The winter scenery in the northwest is bleak, the colorful spring leaves and masks are like flowers and trees, no matter how old the farmhouse is, as long as the spring leaves and masks are pasted, there is a New Year's atmosphere. Liu Shengyu said that in Tongwei, every household will paste this kind of paper-cut during the New Year.
Liu Shengyu's parents relied on spring leaves and mask-covering skills to support a large family. "We have little land in our village, and the food we have harvested throughout the year is not enough to eat, so my father has to force himself to learn a trade. Liu Shengyu said.
Since then, before the Spring Festival, Liu Shengyu's house is always bustling, and people come here to buy spring leaves and face coverings made by his father. Under the influence of his ears and eyes, Liu Shengyu gradually fell in love with this skill and inherited his father's mantle.
Liu Shengyu makes spring leaves at home (photo taken on January 31). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Yanxin.
Origami, staple paper, drawing, chisel paper, yellowing, dyeing ......The process of making spring leaves and covering faces is all handmade, and there are more than 60 kinds of paper files used to carve different patterns alone. Although it is only sold on the eve of the Spring Festival every year, Liu Shengyu and his son will start making it in May.
Dyeing, as the last important step, tests the patience of the craftsman the most. The color should be dyed one by one, and each time you apply it, you should press it with your fingers to squeeze the color dry to avoid crossing. It is not until one color has soaked a stack of 80 sheets of rice paper to the bottom and dried thoroughly that the next color can begin.
Even though the process is cumbersome, Liu Shengyu always insists on doing it step by step. "At the end of the year, farmers are looking forward to sitting on the kang and eating a bowl of hot noodles, looking at the colorful rice paper swaying in the wind under the beams. He said.
Liu Bin shows a face covering with the word "Fu" written on it (photo taken on January 31). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Yanxin.
Father and son share a strong sense of ingenuity and innovation, not only refurbishing the patterns and colors every year, but also creating "customized" greetings and patterns for customers in need.
Now that the living conditions are better, everyone has moved into the building, and the demand for spring leaves and face covering is not as high as before. However, the custom of posting spring leaves and covering faces during the Spring Festival is still retained, which is more like retaining people's memory of traditional New Year's customs and emotional sustenance for the Spring Festival. Liu Bin said. (Reporter He Wen, Ren Yanxin).