Kite making skills (Weifang kite)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: kite making skills (Weifang kite)

Applicant: Weifang City, Shandong Province

Project No.: 438

Project No.: VIII - 88

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Shandong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Weifang City, Shandong Province

Protected by: cultural center of Hanting District, Weifang City

Kite making skills (Weifang kite)

Applicant: Weifang City, Shandong Province

Weifang City is located in the middle of Shandong Peninsula, bordering Bohai Bay in the north and Yellow Sea in the south. In spring, the wind is windy and rainy, and the wind direction is single, the instantaneous fluctuation is small. It is this special geographical environment that gave birth to Weifang kites, which are mainly produced in Yangjiabu area of Hanting District, Kuiwen District and Weicheng district.

Weifang kites flourished in Yangjiabu village in the early Ming Dynasty. At that time, the villagers already had the woodblock printing technology of New Year pictures. In their spare time every spring, they used the paper and pigment of New Year pictures to draw various patterns and make kites. At the beginning, they only entertained themselves or gave gifts to relatives and friends, and then gradually developed into commodities. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795), kites had become an important handicraft industry.

In the Ming Dynasty, Weifang kites were mainly board kites. Later, it gradually formed a series of hard winged kites, with long strings of centipedes as the most (up to 360 meters), soft winged kites as skillful, and cheese kites as strange. The content includes character stories, birds and animals, fish and insects, etc. At present, there are nearly 100 professional kite makers in xiyangjiabu village, with more than 300 kinds of kites and an annual output of nearly one million kites. The main inheritors are Yang Qixin, Yang Qimin, Yang Lianmin, Yang Naizhong, Yang Xueshun, etc.

Weifang kite has the characteristics of taking off smoothly and flying high. Whether it's soft wing, hard wing or string type, three-dimensional kite, in addition to the board kite need to fall, the other does not need any auxiliary things can smoothly soar into the blue sky. Although the binding method is simple, there are less than three bamboo strips and more than seven bamboo strips, but it pays attention to uniform bamboo strips, regular skeleton, left-right symmetry, center of gravity tie line, concise image, bright color and strong contrast. However, in recent years, due to the consideration of production cost, the traditional cultural connotation has been ignored, the materials have been changed, nylon cloth and carbon steel pipe have been used, the traditional skills have been lost, and the local characteristics of Weifang kites have also been lost.