By Chen Yi
With wax as ink and cloth as paper, after repeated impregnation, wax removing and rinsing, flying phoenixes finally come into being. Then, craftsman will turn batik cloth with blue background and white figure into a pencil bag. The other day this batik pencil bag work named “Flying Phoenixes in Shanghai” won the excellent commemorative commodity award (the third prize) of the 15th "Laofengxiang Cup" Shanghai Tourism Commodity Design Competition sponsored by Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism. Designer of the work is Yang Ning, representative inheritor of the district intangible cultural heritage: the traditional batik skill.
Traditional crafts join hands with life fashion
Yang Ning has over 100 pieces of batik works, many of which are integrated with modern elements: an iPad cover with batik and leather stitching, a batik gold bag with the Magnolia theme, a make-up mirror covered with batik cloth, a jewelry with batik elements, etc. Yang Ning believes that in order to make the batik technology go wider and further, batik works should become more practical and fashionable.
The design of batik pencil case originated from this. An ordinary stationery product has a unique culture, as it carries good meanings of auspiciousness, enterprising and happiness. Yang Ning hopes that the pencil case with the phoenix pattern brings good luck to students and help them success in the future. "This pencil bag can be used to hold some tubular cosmetics and other things. It's very portable. As a tourist commodity, I also consider its positioning, pricing, function and practicability," Yang Ning said.
It is understood that Hongkou District currently has 40 intangible cultural heritage projects (1 at national level, 5 at municipal level and 34 at district level), involving 8 categories. There are 21 representative inheritors, 26 protection units and over 100 protective inheritors. In Yang Ning's view, carrying forward intangible cultural heritage not only lies in the expansion of inheritance team, but also requires every inheritor to make continuous progresses and innovation while protecting and excavating the connotation of intangible cultural heritage.
Recently, Yang is still concentrating on the production of temari, another ancient traditional craft. Compared with simple elegance and steadiness of batik works, temari has rich colors, different patterns and various patterns. It has beautiful meaning and can be used as art decorations or small toys on hands. Yang plans to take the "temari craft" for the inheritor of the 2nd intangible cultural heritage project. For this, she meticulously makes colorful and trendy temari with themes of Christmas, tie-dye and the red culture. She also made reduced temari into more life-oriented objects, such as car hangers, sachets, necklaces and earrings. "Each of my works has creativity. I have been exploring a combination of traditional crafts and lifestyle," Yang Ning said.
Organizing activities to spread intangible cultural heritage
Yang told that she enjoyed the calm and peace brought by making handicrafts. During the epidemic outbreak in 2020, she created a lot of batik and temari works at home. Putting on self-made batik shawl, national style earrings, Yang felt inner satisfaction. She hoped that more people would try to decorate the beautiful life with their hands. She believed that the intangible cultural heritage culture means not only exhibits displayed in glass cabinets, but also trendy products close to ordinary people.
Yang carried out extensive cooperation with the district cultural center, sub-districts and enterprises and held various intangible cultural heritage experience activities and lectures, so as to let traditional culture enter communities, enterprises, shopping malls and schools. In the thousands of cooperative activities, the age span of the participants ranged from three-year-old children to the elderly. The cultural company under her name has won the title of "Top Ten Social Subjects of Public Cultural Content Supply in Hongkou District" for three consecutive years. In addition, Yang cooperated with a number of public welfare organizations to carry out public welfare activities for children with mental illness, Down's syndrome, depression and autism. In her view, the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage should cover everyone.
When referring to the prospect of the future, Yang hoped to further broaden the scope of cooperation, promote the innovative development of intangible cultural heritage through cross-border combination, and turn the old tradition into a new fashion.