Wanjie Liuqing: I Rely on Live Broadcast to Rescue Endangered Intangible Cultural Heritage

Story introduction Many die, never with a bang. It happens quietly in old streets, remote mountain villages, and dusty old workshops. The craftsmen grow old slowly, and the craftsmanship passed down orally and heart-to-heart throughout their lives is buried in the depths of time along with their memories. The market is full of finished products from the assembly line, and cheap imitations are circulating everywhere. Each and every old craft that belongs to China, just fell silent and disappeared little by little in the gap where no one cared. Shen Yanxun used to travel around the countryside all year round, doing research on intangible cultural heritage and recording folk crafts. In an accident, she fell into countless parallel times and spaces. There is no pop-up system interface here, and there is no golden finger to reach the sky in one step. The standard for judging whether a craft is truly viable is simple and cruel enough: Only when there are people who study it, people who remember it, people who archive it, and people who have roots can it survive. The global cultural observation live broadcast that is unfolding in the dark is silently linked to the world. Thousands of strangers accidentally broke into the live broadcast room and finally saw these old crafts that were about to be completely buried by the times. Every time she traveled through time and space, she would meet the same person - Wen Xuqing. In every life, Wen Xuqing is the last young man to survive in this intangible cultural heritage craft. Staying in poverty, carrying the incomprehension and contempt of others, and enduring boring labor over and over again. Countless times, I was so exhausted that I almost dropped the tools in my hands and completely escaped from this predicament. Shen Yanxun was never here to save the world. She only does the stupidest and most practical things. Grinding nails, dyeing cloth, carving wood, carving characters, threading needles, and cutting wood. Learn the skills bit by bit, memorize them, and archive them. By the way, catch that person who is overwhelmed by the times and is about to be unable to hold on. While salvaging the Chinese cultural heritage that is on the verge of disappearing, While crossing the reincarnation, rushing towards the same lonely soul. There are no exaggerated myths, no shocking legends of salvation. There are only the fireworks from the workshop that have persisted for many years, the thick calluses on the palms of my hands, and the soreness all over my body from day after day. In a desperate situation, two people support each other's tenderness. [CP: Shen Yanxun × Wen Xuqing｜Reincarnation of Fate·Running in both directions] Shen Yanxun: A person who pursues cultural background is restrained, distant, and measured in external affairs. Only towards Wen Xuqing, he is willing to tell everything. Wen Xuqing: The last remaining artist, extremely talented and flexible, trapped in the cracks of the times, accustomed to swallowing all the suffering and loneliness alone. Unit volume ①World One｜Curium Porcelain·Broken Porcelain Replenishes Time Machine-based seamless repairs are in vogue, and the world prefers objects to be flawless. The ancient craftsmanship of curing and nailing is gradually regarded as unnecessary flaws. The old street workshops are becoming increasingly depressed. The old craftsmen cling to hand-written ancient records and refuse to pass them on lightly. The young people are unwilling to endure the hardship and burden. "If porcelain is broken, it can be repaired, but if the heart of a person who respects his craftsmanship is broken, how can he repair it?" "People outside say that curium nails are ugly scars, but scars are signs of life." ②World 2｜Blue Valerian·Vegetation dyed in spring and autumn Chemical dyes are bright and quick to produce, and the ancient plant dyeing methods spread in the Tang and Song Dynasties gradually faded out of public view. The old dyeing workshops are decayed and covered in dust, and the old clan rules have trapped the patterns and formulas. There are almost no orthodox traditional dyeing methods on the market. "The vegetation that has been simmered for several months cannot be as bright as a barrel of chemical dyes. Time never waits for slow craftsmanship." "These patterns hide the prayers of our ancestors. If no one can understand them anymore, they will really die on the cloth." ③World Three｜Thin Wood Carvings of Mountains and Rivers·Fuzhou Cork Paintings Microscopic wood craftsmanship that has no mistakes at all and is completely useless. 3D printed imitations are circulated in batches, and the micro-carving skills gained through years of hard work are no match for the finished product produced by a machine in just a few minutes. The old craftsman's eyesight deteriorated and he could no longer hold the carving knife stably. "A square inch of wood can hold thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, but it cannot hold a little patience in the world." "I have been carving all my life, but what I fear most is not that the wood will be damaged, but that no one will take a serious look at it anymore." ④World 4｜Movable type carries the fragrance of books·Wood movable type printing Printing and digital printing are popular everywhere. Carving wooden movable type is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and consumable. Family rules strictly control the spread of skills. Many rare and old type molds were eventually burned as firewood. "Printing everything is very fast, but it no longer has the warmth of words carved out with a knife." "The typefaces are still piled up quietly in the workshop. Those who are willing to sit on the bench and watch over them have already left." ⑤World Five｜Charcoal ash retains the flavor of the New Year·High-density ash-dusted New Year pictures The Spring Festival market is covered with offset-printed assembly line New Year pictures. The New Year pictures drafted with willow charcoal and hand-painted with minerals fade away year by year. Too many blessing opera stories remain only in the oral memories of the older generation of craftsmen. "New Year's Eve comes every year, but the flavor of the new year that belongs to the land has long been printed on plastic paper." "The charcoal ash disperses as soon as you blow it away. What if the remaining memories also disperse with it?" ⑥World 6｜Hazy warp and weft weaving·Yongchun paper weaving painting Rice paper is cut into hair-thin threads, and the warp and weft are intertwined to form a painting. The artistic conception is elegant and beautiful, but it is extremely unpopular and takes a long time. Printed imitations are circulated as original works, and few people know about authentic hand-woven paintings. "To tear the paper into thin threads and then weave it back into the picture, the world always thinks it is a stupid thing that is not worth it." "It is too fragile. When the wind blows, the moisture soaks it, or people forget it, it will be completely broken." ⑦World Seven｜Sand Fire Tempered Pottery Soul·Rongchang Antao The market is full of smooth and exquisite glazed industrial ceramics. The ancient method of making pottery with bare red clay and open fire in a dragon kiln has a high rate of defective products and requires people to keep the kiln in check. Young people are afraid of hardship and move away, and the old dragon kiln has long been overgrown with weeds. "Everyone prefers smooth and perfect porcelain, and no one cares about old pottery covered in pyrotechnic grit." "It only takes a moment to put out a kiln fire. It often takes an entire generation to rekindle it." ⑧World 8 | Ancient mountain and sea weaving patterns·Li textile, dyeing, weaving and embroidery The Shanhai tribe has no written books, and its thousands of years of history are all hidden in the texture of the fabric. The waist loom and plant dyeing are gradually lost, young people take off their traditional clothes, and the ancient patterns are no longer interpreted. "The cloth is still in the world, but no one has recognized the stories recorded on it." "The moment we take off this embroidered garment, do we also lose part of our roots?" ⑨World Nine｜Thousand Needle Embroidery Yi Soul The Yi people have no written history, and sacrifices, life and death, and tribal beliefs are all preserved by stitches. Machine embroidery and heat transfer imitations are flooding the mountains, old embroidery ladies are getting older year by year, and vegetation dyeing and sacrificial patterns are on the verge of extinction. "When the last old embroiderer stops stitching, half of this nation's memory will disappear with the stitches." "People outside the mountains only like beautiful embroidery pieces and never care about the faith hidden deep in the stitches." ⑩World Ten｜Building mountains and rivers without nails·Building wooden arch bridges with mortise and tenon joints There are many reinforced concrete bridges all over the world. The wooden arcade bridge without nails or rivets was built entirely based on oral techniques passed down by old craftsmen, and no complete engineering drawings have ever been preserved. "Steel can build a bridge thousands of feet long, but it cannot replicate the thousands of years of wooden wisdom of the ancients." "These algorithms and rules installed in the minds of the craftsmen are completely taken into the soil as soon as the people leave." ⑪World Eleven｜A lonely boat crossing the sea·Building a watertight compartment boat Steel motor ships completely replaced the old wooden sailing ships. The ancient shipbuilding techniques of splicing wooden dowels and caulking with hemp silk and putty are gradually declining. The old shipyards on the seaside are depressed and abandoned, and the number of old shipwrights is declining year by year. "Ancient ships could survive the stormy waves, but they could not survive the ups and downs of the times." "We can build ships that can withstand strong winds and waves, but we cannot retain young people who are willing to devote themselves to building ships." Concept: Craftsmanship has been quietly rotting away in the times. I have been stupid enough to pick it up, and I have picked up the person who has endured until he is about to collapse again and again.