Fuzhuling paper curtain making skills.
Fuzhuling paper curtain making skills, traditional skills of Xinluo District, Longyan City, Fujian Province, one of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Fujian Province.
Fuzhuling paper curtain curtain surface is smooth, the gap is even, the bamboo silk is rounded, the resilience is sufficient, the corrosion resistance is cold-resistant, the weaving is excellent and ingenious, and the service life is long, which has always been favored by the production of high-end cultural handmade paper. The production process of bamboo paper curtain is complex, and each process is a manual operation. The wiring specification, every detail is ingenious, amazing.
The 72 processes that need to be experienced in the production process of Fuzhuling paper curtain papermaking include material selection, bamboo cutting, scraping, gratemaking, filamenting, wire drawing, polishing, sorting, cord processing, curtain weaving, lacquering, etc., the production skills are still mainly inherited by the family, and the key technology is not passed on.
Paper has a thousand years of life, and the ink rhyme is ever-changing. As the seventh batch of intangible cultural heritage of Fujian Province, Fuzhuling paper curtain has always been favored and praised by calligraphy and painting lovers. However, few people know that as an important part of the traditional production skills of rice paper, the production of bamboo paper curtains used for paper fishing is also a cultural heritage that has been inherited and innovated by craftsmen for hundreds of years.
For a long time, Fuzhuling paper curtains have been sold to Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Anhui and Taiwan, and as far as Japan, South Korea, Thailand. Later, with the shrinkage of the handmade paper industry, many craftsmen gradually abandoned the paper curtain craft, and at present, there are less than ten elderly Chi clansmen in Buzhuling, Wanan, Silla.
In 2022, the production skills of Fuzhuling paper curtain were included in the seventh batch of intangible cultural heritage of Fujian Province. The fifteenth-generation inheritors Chi Canghai and Chi Sihua are representative inheritors at the municipal level.
The project is located in Fuzhu Village, Wan'an Town, Xinluo District, at the southern foot of Meihua Mountain in the National Nature Reserve, with an altitude of 1,000 meters, and the high-altitude climate is very suitable for the growth of oil bamboo for paper curtains.
At present, there are more than 460 people in 136 households in the village, all of whom are surnamed Chi. During the Yongqian period, the eighth ancestor Chi Ying passed on to Jiangxi Xingguo Weng Renyan master to learn the paper curtain making skills, and the whole village began to make a fortune by making paper curtains, which has been passed down for more than 300 years in 15 generations.
Historical origins. Fuzhuling is close to Liancheng Juxi, located in the national nature reserve - the southern foot of Meihua Mountain, sparsely populated, as high as 1000 meters above sea level, forest coverage rate of 72%, suitable climate and fertile woodland humus layer produced by the bamboo resources are abundant, to meet the demand for papermaking. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the production of handmade paper in western Fujian entered the peak, the core area of handmade paper production in western Fujian - Liancheng Quxi, Gutian, Juxi with the prosperity of the handmade paper industry, the competition for resources is increasingly fierce, in order to expand the living space of the family, looking for a suitable place to live in papermaking, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the ancestor of the Chi family of Fuzhuling - Chi Chunfu led the family to move from Liancheng Juxi to Fuzhuling to plant bamboo and paper.
During the Yongqian period, Weng Renyan, the paper curtain master of Jiangxi Xingguo, found Fuzhuling and taught Chi Yingchuan and others the cultivation of oil bamboo and the production skills of paper curtains.
Once the Fuzhuling paper curtain came out, it quickly replaced the original paper curtain produced with bitter bamboo with its strong and durable quality, coupled with excellent workmanship and smooth curtain surface. Since then, Fuzhuling has bid farewell to papermaking, and has lived a rich life by making curtains for generations. Paper curtain making skills have been passed down to Fuzhu Village, Wan'an Town, Xinluo District, Longyan City since the Yongqian period of the Qing Dynasty, and have been passed down for 15 generations and 300 years. The well-made, durable paper curtain makes Fuzhuling the only production area for high-grade paper curtains in western Fujian and even Fujian, with no less than 5,000 paper curtains produced every year.
However, with the shrinkage of handmade paper production and the aging of employees, the output fell to less than 100 sheets. Until the 90s of the 20th century, handmade paper production enterprises in South Korea and Taiwan (nearly 400 paper troughs) entered the mainland market, and the fourteenth generation of Chi Yanqin was hired to produce paper curtains, and the ancient traditional skills of western Fujian sprouted. At present, the output of Fuzhuling paper curtain has recovered to an annual output of about 1,100 sheets, mainly sold to Zhejiang, Anhui, Shanxi, Taiwan and other provinces and Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asian countries, the traditional skills out of the mountains, to the country, to the world.