Kite making skills (Tianjin kite making skills)

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

Applicant: Nankai District, Tianjin

Project No.: 438

Project No.: VIII - 88

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Tianjin

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Nankai District, Tianjin

Protection unit: kiteway (Tianjin) Cultural Media Co., Ltd

Kite making skills (Tianjin kite making skills)

Applicant: Nankai District, Tianjin

Kite making has a long history in China, and its origin can be traced back to the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. Mozi and Luban used wood to make bird like instruments, which were called "wooden kite". In the Han Dynasty, bamboo strips were used to form bird like skeletons, and paper was pasted on them, which was called "Zhiyuan". Later, bamboo whistle and bow string were added to the paper kite. When flying, the wind caused the whistle to ring and the string to sing. The sound was pleasant, just like the zither, so it was called "Kite".

Chinese kites are mainly produced in Beijing, Tianjin, Nantong, Weifang, Lhasa, etc. Kites are divided into hard wings and soft wings. Hard winged Kite skeleton can not be disassembled, strong wind; soft winged Kite skeleton can be disassembled and boxed, easy to save and carry, when flying, all parts can move freely, such as "dragon head centipede" kite's dragon head binocular can rotate, claws can bend and stretch, bird like kite can spread wings to fly among the clouds, goldfish like kite can swam slowly, and so on. In addition to these, there are three-dimensional kites such as palace lanterns and flower baskets.

Kite making technology integrates a variety of manual skills. It is composed of skeleton binding, pasting, painting and other links. Among them, skeleton binding is the most important. If the skeleton is not tied well, the kite can not fly. In addition to the use of silk and silk, the paper is usually made of tough and windy cotton. Painting is also very important in kite making. Many skillful kites have been collected as works of art. Peach gum can be properly added into the color paint to make the color more bright and damp proof.

Kite flying is a traditional folk custom in China, which is beneficial to health. Qingming Festival, the wind up, is a good time to fly kites. Weifang, Shandong Province, is a traditional kite producing area in China. Zheng Banqiao, the magistrate of Weixian county (now Weifang City, Shandong Province) in the Qing Dynasty, once described the grand occasion of kite flying in Weixian County in his poem, with the words of "paper flowers flying all over the sky like snow" and "butterflies fighting for spring". Now Weifang holds a kite festival every year to carry forward the traditional kite culture. At present, inheriting kite making skills is of great significance for protecting folk handicrafts, enriching people's cultural life and improving the health of the masses.

In 1892, Wei Yuantai, the founder of "Weiji" kite, founded "Weiji changqingzhaizacaipu" in Tianjin Drum Tower. In more than 70 years of artistic practice, Wei Yuantai combined the drilling and tenon of woodworking, the copper hoop connection skills of tin welder and Tianjin folk painting techniques, and applied them to the kite making, making a detachable and foldable soft winged Kite, thus winning the title of "kite Wei". Kites made by Wei have unique artistic styles, such as changeable shape, realistic painting, smooth flight, exquisite special effects, easy to carry and so on. The kite making skills of Wei family were inherited from Wei Yuantai to the second generation of Wei Shenxing, and then from Wei Shenxing to the third generation of Wei Yongchang and Wei Yongzhen.

Tianjin kite making technology includes eight technological processes: creativity, design, material selection, frame binding, color painting, surface pasting, flight test and final assembly. All kites are made by hand, using high-grade silk fabric and top-grade bamboo as fabrics. The finished kites can be disassembled and folded, which is convenient for collection, mailing and transportation. "Weiji" kites can be divided into integral type and combination type, which can be divided into decorative type, flying type and flying and decorative type. Kites vary in size. Giant kites can reach hundreds of meters, while small ones are only the size of matchboxes. The shape of kites includes characters, utensils, animals and so on, as well as special effects such as deformation and ringing.

After more than a hundred years of generations of inheritance, Tianjin kite making skills show great advantages in technology, drawing and other aspects, with unique historical and cultural value, is an important object of folklore and folk craft history research.