Chenghe Town in Xiangzhou District, Xiangyang, is one of the top three wickerwork production and exportbases in China. It has been called “a land of wickerwork”. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, wickerwork technicians, avoiding chaos caused by war from areas including Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Anhui to Chenghe, gradually brought wickerwork techniques of different styles to Chenghe Town. After centuries of development and integration, Chenghe wickerwork, with unique characteristics, has been formed. Developing from planting and weaving to making trades, the wickerwork industry has been popular in Chenghe for over 300 years, and now, the Chenghe wickerwork product has become a national geographical indication product. In 2020, Chenghe wickerwork was in the sixth batch of Hubei provincial intangible cultural heritage.

The Journalist: How many processes are there in Chenghe wickerwork? Is it hard?

Liu Dingwen: There are 5 processes including planting, peeling, drying, soaking, and weaving. Nearly every Chenghe person can do it. If we want to do it well, we must learn seriously. After the beginning of spring, we select thick stems with a high survival rate for cutting. We do it every ten years and we can get two harvests within a year. The first harvest is during the transition between summer and autumn, and the second is around the Spring Festival. Those gathered wickers are of enough moisture and easy to be peeled. In the past, we used chopsticks to pick up wickers to peel. Now we have specific machines and steam boilers to do it more efficiently. To avoid being moldy and discolored while storing, we dry the peeled wickers. Before weaving, we always soak the dry wickers in water to make them soft. The final step is weaving which is the hardest.

The traditional Chenghe wickerwork method is the mainly flat weaving method for household baskets, dustpans, and so on. In daily work, Chenghe wickerwork technicians have made lots of creative methods, including cross-weaving, vertical weaving, miscellaneous weaving, wooden weaving, nail weaving, rotary weaving, twisted weaving, patterned weaving, tied weaving, and masonry weaving. Exported as artworks, Chenghe wickerwork products are developed with more categories and techniques. To make more beautiful products, I once did market research and learned from the master, and then I carried out innovations according to my ideas.

The Journalist: As the inheritor, how do you inherit this technique?

Liu Dingwen: Inheritance of intangible cultural heritage techniques relies on the people of all generations. Young people are needed to inherit Chenghe wickerwork. So, I encourage my son and my daughter to attend. I feel happy that they agree and understand my enthusiasm and perseverance to wickerwork.

So, in their spare time, I taught them the techniques of Chenghe wickerwork. While teaching, I began to know that “going global” is important for intangible cultural heritage. Except for learning weaving, after discussing with me, my son and daughter separately chose international trade and English as their majors in college to explore the international market more for Chenghe wickerwork in the future.

While other graduates sought their fortunes in big cities, my son and daughter returned to Chenghe Town to establish their careers. In 2020, we established Xiangyang Chenghe Craftworks Co., Ltd., and my son and daughter ran the business including trade. Now, they have taken over all the business of the company from me, and I have “retired”.

Since they took over the company, they have explored the market while conducting innovations in products to diversify products and enhance the added value. In the past, we export products like dustpans and baskets whose prices are about dozens of yuan. In recent years, we have developed outdoor furniture and a set can be sold for 100 to 3,000 yuan. In recent years, the company’s max output value has reached over 30 million yuan. Except for using traditional wickers for weaving, we combine wicker weaving with other arts like fabric art to carry out innovations on furniture to better satisfy customers’ needs and revitalize Chenghe wickerwork, the intangible cultural heritage technique.

Chenghe wickerwork is a collective inheritance technique, and we need more people to join us. Now, many people devote themselves to it and our craftsmen cooperate with schools to set up wickerwork courses and establish practical bases with schools to make children better know Chenghe wickerwork and inherit it.