Life-changing policies 

Jin has personally witnessed the ups and downs of the hand embroidery industry in China. At 16, she joined Hangzhou Arts and Crafts School, which specialized in traditional handicrafts. Initially, there were 16 students in Jin's hand embroidery class, but only three remained upon graduation in 1988. And Jin was the only one who chose the skill as a career. She went to work at a local art and craft research institute until it was closed 10 years later. Even her school had closed by then.

Jin said in the 1990s, people sought other jobs to make quick money. Computer-based machine embroidery was another disruptive factor, being faster and much cheaper. All those led to the downfall of the industry.

When Jin's research institute closed, she and her teacher set up a studio of their own. But business was poor and they could hardly afford the rent. Their studio was closed in 2003 and Jin had to stay at home for a couple of years. "That was the lowest and hardest period of my life," she said. "You have to have a studio of your own in order to be seen. Nobody wants to come to a teacher's home for classes."

In 2005, the State Council of China called for strengthening protection of intangible cultural heritage. Craftspeople were evaluated and grouped into different levels such as national and provincial levels. Governments at all levels issued favorable policies and awarded craftspeople according to their skill levels. From 2008 to 2010, the Hangzhou Municipal Government offered Jin a free studio of 36 square meters in a popular tourist street in the city.

The Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum, established in 2009, has provided free studios to some 30 renowned handicraft artists, including Jin and her teacher. Wang Yingxiang, Director of the museum, said the Hangzhou Municipal Government is sponsoring long-term and short-term teaching programs, with an annual investment of 1.2 million yuan ($168,480) for five years. In the first round of their programs, five chosen masters are training 24 students carefully selected from 280 college graduates. "Most handicraft masters are at an advanced age. It is important to pass on their skills to the next generation before it's too late," Wang said.

The museum also sponsored the 30-day free hand embroidery course in August, which cost over 200,000 yuan ($28,080). In return, participants had to leave their works created in class with the museum. In the future, the latter will offer other free classes such as wood carving.

There are approximately 200 similar projects across the country, sponsored by governments at different levels. Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality alone has reportedly invested some 180 million yuan ($25.2 million) in infrastructure for centers of intangible cultural heritage with local characteristics.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism collaborates with colleges and universities to revive traditional handicrafts in areas of preservation and innovation.

In 2008, Jin joined a hand embroidery course at Tianjin University organized by professor and writer Feng Jicai, who is said to have set up China's first digital database of intangible cultural heritage. Upon completing the course, Jin created a new style instead of repeating traditional patterns. Her design was embedding the silhouette of a female body in a vase, decorated with blue peonies and butterflies, creating a romantic and dreamy atmosphere. She named it "In Love with Blue and White Porcelain." Despite the criticisms of many old masters, Feng nevertheless exhibited Jin's work in a gallery. Jin said this turning point greatly boosted her confidence. "I want to express my inner feelings with more innovative works, and I care less about winning prizes."

The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage took effect on June 1, 2011. One year later, on April 10, Hangzhou joined UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, becoming the first city in China to be called City of Crafts and Folk Art.

Jin's career took off. She rented a 220-square-meter studio on her own from 2011 to 2018. And she is frequently on the list of the local government's delegations to foreign countries such as South Africa as an envoy of traditional Chinese handicrafts. Meanwhile, prices of Jin's works have soared, the minimum being 50,000 yuan ($6,994). "The value of my work is measured by my time input and experience," she said.

The national Plan on Revitalizing China's Traditional Crafts issued in 2017 listed 10 major tasks for the revival, one of which was to promote intangible cultural heritage education in universities, middle and elementary schools.

In September 2018, the Hangzhou Jiangnan Elementary and Middle School offered Jin a free studio of 800 square meters for 10 years. She is now based there, teaching her art to students between 10 and 15 years old.

Wen Shishan checks his oil paper umbrella at his home factory in Fuyang, Zhejiang, on May 20 (ZHANG JING) 

Connecting the East and West 

According to Chen Anying, Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Chinese Government has paid great attention to traditional handicrafts partly because they are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Most traditional handicrafts make use of natural resources, such as bamboo and paper.

"Traditional handicrafts are an embodiment of ancient wisdom and the relationship between man and nature. They are a living cultural heritage that is still in extensive application today," Chen said.

He added that traditional Chinese handicrafts became part of the Western culture via trade in the 18th and 19th century. For example, the Meissen porcelain made in Dresden, Germany, was greatly influenced by the blue and white porcelain made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province in east China. Conversely, the porcelain made in Canton City, nowadays Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province, bore the heraldic coats of arms of Western families.

"The cultural exchanges, however, were suspended when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) fell into decline. Today, the Belt and Road Initiative is activating those past memories shared by Chinese and Western civilizations," Chen said.

The cultural heritage protection program at Tsinghua has attracted corporate partners such as BMW. Since 2015, BMW has joined Tsinghua on three road trips, discovering traditional handicrafts in underdeveloped regions such as Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, northwest China.

The late Berthold Laufer, a distinguished German-born sinologist, wrote in his book, Paper and Printing in Ancient China, "The Chinese as the inventors of paper were the first who printed books, many centuries before Gutenberg… At present European typography and even paper and printer's ink dominate China, but one cannot say that the productions of these modern presses are as elegant, graceful and artistic as the time-honored block-print."

Huang Xiaojian, 66, a Chinese woodblock printing master based in Hangzhou, is the only one in the country who can do block printing with embossed effect. The technique had been lost when the old masters died and Huang decided to bring the technique back to life.

However, he didn't have a clue until 2009, when his son bought a copy of The Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting and Calligraphy from a gallery in Hannover, Germany. The Manual, compiled by ancient Chinese printmaker and publisher Hu Zhengyan (1584-1674), contained perfect examples of block printing with embossed effect. Huang said, "As I held the book in my hands, I was beaming with excitement. It shed a light when I was probing in the darkness."

Breakthroughs finally came in 2011, when Huang succeeded in making his first piece of block print with embossed effect. He spent another six years carving wood blocks to imitate The Manual. Huang's copy has been recently published in Hangzhou.

Yu Wanlun coats his paper umbrella with tung oil at his studio in Hangzhou on October 23, 2017 (ZHANG JING) 

Social media craze 

Huang's friend Wen Shishan, a master of traditional oil paper umbrellas, turned to social media to revive the art. "If well made, an oil paper umbrella can last for more than 10 years. They can stand the rain, snow and strong gusts of wind," the 56-year-old said.

Wen's village in Fuyang, Zhejiang, has a history of over 400 years of making oil paper umbrellas. Their materials are 100 percent organic, with bamboo frames covered by layers of paper in China wood oil. The paper is called peach flower paper because it is particularly soft, thin and resilient. And the oil is pressed from nuts of tung trees.

However, when umbrellas with new materials such as nylon were introduced in the 1950s, oil paper umbrellas began to be quickly replaced. The factories closed and few people learned how to make them.

In 2018, Wen teamed up with Zhang Jianhua, a 24-year-old college graduate, who posted videos of Wen making the umbrellas on Douyin, or the Tik Tok, a Chinese micro video sharing platform. According to a report published by Douyin, 88 percent of the nearly 1,400 items on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage had videos on the app by the end of April 2019, registering a total number of over 24 million, with 106.5 billion views.

On August 24, Wen and Zhang made debut speeches at the Douyin handicraft artists' conference in Shanghai in east China. Wen said he had never imagined he would attract 600,000 fans. One of his videos got 900,000 likes. According to Zhang, their peak volume of orders via Douyin reached 60,000 yuan ($8,451) in 24 hours.

Another online celebrity is 35-year-old Yu Wanlun from Luzhou, Sichuan Province in southwest China. Yu has a studio in Hangzhou, where he demonstrates steps in making oil paper umbrellas to tourists and student groups. By the end of September, the number of his fans on Douyin exceeded 1 million. Yu said his sales were up by 60 percent in the first quarter of 2019, compared with that of the previous year.

Inspiring modern designers 

Oil paper umbrellas have become a muse for many designers at home and abroad. Lei Zhang from China, together with Christoph John from Germany and Jovana Bogdanovic from Serbia, transformed the unique features of oil paper umbrellas into a paper chair called Piao, which won a "Best of the Best" Red Dot Design Award in 2011.

Yang Mingjie, 44, a top influential designer nominated by Forbes China in 2015, transformed the oil paper umbrella concept into a lamp, called "Light of Bamboos." He said, "Compared with modern industrialized umbrellas with metal frames and nylon cloth, the beauty of an oil paper umbrella lies in the game of light and shadow playing on its bamboo structure and paper."

Yang's personal favorite transformation of traditional Chinese handicrafts was a chair inspired by ancient architecture and furniture in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. His design integrates woodworkers' mortise and tenon joint technique with modern ergonomics.

"I want to dissect the crafts, uncover the logic behind their construction, and then re-design them," he said. "Compared with Japan and Italy, development of traditional Chinese crafts in modern times has been stagnant. I want to see if design can change the society."

Cultural database is the future 

General Counselor of Chinese International Arts and Culture Promotion Association Hsieh Yung-Cheng, said, "Recording and preserving traditional Chinese handicrafts isn't enough. The future lies in building a cultural database for traditional Chinese handicrafts, establishing a cultural intellectual property (IP). By licensing the cultural IP for commercial or educational purposes, intangible Chinese cultural heritage will become China's brand."

"If digitalized, traditional Chinese handicrafts can take advantage of the Internet to go global, realizing the concept of Culture Plus. This can help Western countries know classic traditional Chinese handicrafts, profoundly impacting cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world," Hsieh said. "It is also important for Westerners to come to China and comprehend the value and essence of traditional Chinese handicrafts."

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar 

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