Li Wenling, living in District Shibei, Qingdao is a Chinese paper cutting maestro.
Li Wenling, 65 years old, started to learn paper cutting at the age of 6 and so far paper cutting has accompanied her for nearly 50 years. When mentioning the experience of learning to cut paper, Li Wenling said the credit should be given to her grandma Mrs. Li Zhang’s. At that time her grandma was a locally well-known ingenious daughter-in-law, especially her skillful paper cutting. On the occasion of Lunar New Year, her grandma often made a lot of steamed buns and put them on the Kang (the heatable brick bed) for fermentation. She was afraid that Li Wenling would play on the Kang and break the buns so she asked Li Wenling to sit down and cut paper. Her grandma cut a lively butterfly. Li Wenling was immediately fascinated and desperately learned to cut by imitating the butterfly. Therefrom a pair of scissors and a piece of red paper always accompanies her.
Li Wenling cut the paper with the technique of putting straight the scissors. It is very different from the majority of delicate paper cutting works we see now. They are essentially carved paper or the combination of cutting and carving by imitating molds, which enables the mass production. However, fewer and fewer craftsmen know the technique of using straight scissors, with which it is impossible to realize mass production.
Because of her excellent craftsmanship, Li Wenling was granted the tile “Paper Cutting Maestro” by the Chinese Folk Customs Society. Xing Zhifeng
The only mender in Qingdao
“The craftsman is mending a teapot. The tool in his hand is called diamond. When I was young, if any pan, bowl, jar or vat in our family was broken, we would wait for a mender who usually wandered about the streets for business and asked him to repair them. They would be reused after mending.” Yesterday in the Chen Family mending art exhibition booth during the Raddish Yuanxiao and Sugar Ball Fair, Chen Dalei, a mender, is demonstrating his mending skill at the site to the passing citizens. Madame Wang was telling to her granddaughter about this familiar scene to her.
Chen Dalei is the fifth generation of inheritor of Qingdao Chen Family mending skill. His business card is printed with “I have the diamond to specially mend porcelain.” Chen Dalei was born in the family of mending skill. “Mend pans, bowl and vat, even a strainer can be airtight after mending.” I was brought up in this sales shout. At that time, my grandpa and father carried the cases with a shoulder pole and wandered about streets for business. When they departed, they prepared solid food and left for over one month each time.”
Mending art is also mending skill, namely connect cracked utensil, then drill holes with diamond, secure with nails and restore the appearance. Chen Dalei told us that the mending skill has two kinds. One is “heavy manual labor” to mend pots and pans, the other is “elaborate quality work” to mend ancient and valuable articles and porcelain. Nowadays as the living conditions have improved dramatically, the “heavy manual labor” doesn’t exist. Chen Dalei is a well-known professional in doing “elaborate quality work” in Qingdao.
The mending skill seems to be simple but is very complicated. It takes over 20 procedures to embed a nail inside a bowl. “A mending nail must be made with three hammers. The drilling hole cannot exceed the two thirds of the bowl wall thickness. The nail claw cannot outnumber the half thickness of the bowl wall thickness. This way the bowl after mending is airtight.” Chen Dalei told us that the most difficult works he has ever mended is an antique chinaware from a Canadian museum. “The wall thickness of the cup is only 0.8 mm. It entails extremely elaborate skills. It took me two days to mend this cup which was only 3 cm in diameter and 4 cm in height.” Now foreigners ask him to mend cultural relics due to his reputation. Chen Dalei said, “I am the only mender in Qingdao. In Shandong Province there are no more than 5 people mastering the skill.” Yu Ruixin
