Guo Taiyuan, 91, shows his skill of making woodprint pictures at a museum in Kaifeng, Henan province. Photo provided to China Daily
Guo Taiyuan has devoted his life to the craft of woodprint pictures.
The inheritor of this centuries-old craft from Kaifeng city in Central China's Henan province is thrilled to see his lifetime passion drawing massive public attention these days.
As the Chinese Lunar New Year approaches, the 91-year-old craftsman says it reminds him of the "good old days".
Putting up woodprint pictures during the Spring Festival, as the Chinese New Year is called, used to be a tradition. The images, with diverse patterns of good connotations, were an essential part of the celebrations in the past.
But with rapid changes in Chinese society in the past few decades, such traditions have been forgotten.
Thanks to an experimental crowdfunding project recently launched on Taobao.com, one of the largest online retail platforms in China, traditional intangible cultural heritage, including the New Year woodprint pictures from Kaifeng, are making a comeback.
The project was jointly launched by Taobao owner, Alibaba, and the official Taobao shop of Beijing's Palace Museum. It aims to meet fund-raising targets. The money will otherwise be returned to the sponsors.
Deducting the costs for designing, manufacturing and shipping, the rest of the funds raised will go to the craftsmen to help protect their works.
For the project, professional designers from the Palace Museum's shop combined pop-culture elements such as cartoon images with traditional craftsmanship to attract younger people.
Craftsmen like Guo then created works based on the new designs.
When pictures of these heritage items associated with the Spring Festival, such as those showing the "dragon and phoenix bringing prosperity", were promoted on Taobao in January, they drew huge public interest.
In the first few days, more than 10,000 people participated in the project, raising a total of 350,000 yuan ($53,000) to successfully launch five separate crowdfunding initiatives, respectively for New Year woodprint pictures, paper-cuts of Gaomi in East China's Shandong province, steamed buns from nearby Jiaodong city and handmade cloth shoes and pillows.
"I thought New Year pictures were only about the god of fortune or 'door gods'. I didn't expect them to be so cute," says Tang Yan, one of the participants in the crowdfunding project.
So far funds raised for the New Year woodprint pictures have surpassed 50,000 yuan. According to the amount they pay, sponsors will get different benefits, including pictures made by Guo.
"The crowdfunding for intangible cultural heritage is just the beginning of a series of efforts to protect and rejuvenate such heritage, taking advantage of the Internet," says Alibaba's Li Xiang, who is in charge of the project.
"It's not true that we don't need the old crafts anymore. But the old crafts need some new carriers and ways of spreading."
"With the help of the Internet, we hope that we can reclaim the traditional Spring Festival atmosphere and help more elements of intangible cultural heritage return to ordinary Chinese families," he adds.
