Old Arts, New Life

Qingshan Village is covered in bamboo, but the ancient craft of making bamboo paper is nearly extinct.

Zhou Ping, a cultural and creative planner, quits his job and returns to his hometown. He restores an abandoned old papermaking workshop and learns more than seventy traditional papermaking steps from stubborn old craftsmen. Faced with villagers’ skepticism and counterfeit goods flooding the market, he neither clings blindly to tradition nor abandons the craft’s essence.

He searches for a way to bring bamboo paper into the modern age and inspire young people to return.

Traditional crafts need not be confined to museums. In the everyday life of the countryside, old arts can find new life.