Intangible cultural heritage inheritor takes on apprentices and builds a cooperative to boost farmers' incomes and help them prosper

Sun Jinhua shows reporters the handmade tiger cloth shoes

Handicrafts produced by Sister Zhu Handicraft Workshop

Dazhong Net, Binzhou, June 1 report(Reporter Wang Yaming) Intangible cultural heritage is culture, and it is also folk craftsmanship passed down through generations. Using the inheritance and development of these skills to increase farmers' incomes is exactly what Sun Jinhua, an intangible cultural heritage inheritor with skilled hands from Sanhehu Town, Bincheng District, Binzhou City, has been doing. On June 1, at the Sanhehu Town Party Building Comprehensive Service Center, the "Scientific Development in Bincheng" national mainstream media interview team approached this intangible cultural heritage inheritor to explore her story of turning folk craftsmanship into wealth.

Sun Jinhua, 55 years old this year, is the inheritor of Binzhou cloth tiger shoes folk handicrafts. In rural Binzhou, there are many women who can do excellent needlework. Organizing these village "skilled hands" and using old crafts to earn more household income is something Sun Jinhua has been persisting in for two years.

In 2015, in order to pass on skills such as handmade thousand-layer sole cloth shoes, handmade cotton-padded clothing sets and handmade cotton quilts, Sun Jinhua established the Sister Zhu Handicraft Workshop in Sanhehu Town, Bincheng District, Binzhou City and began taking on apprentices, so that while passing on this craft, rural women could be driven to earn a bit more household income with their "craftsmanship." At present, Sun Jinhua has taken on 8 apprentices, who use their spare time to make handicrafts such as handmade thousand-layer sole cloth shoes, warm baby cotton-padded clothing sets and homesick cotton quilts, and put these handicrafts up for sale in online shops, while also accepting customer custom orders.

Because the handicrafts produced by Sister Zhu Handicraft Workshop are deeply loved by a wide range of customers for their comfortable wearing feel and their innovation in form, which retains the traditional look while incorporating contemporary elements. Today, the cloth tiger shoes, warm baby cotton-padded clothing sets, handmade cotton quilts and other products made by Sister Zhu Handicraft Workshop are sold far away to cities such as Hong Kong, China, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Under Sun Jinhua's leadership, not only can she herself earn an annual income of 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, but she has also helped 8 apprentices earn an annual income of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan each. While inheriting and developing intangible cultural heritage, she has boosted farmers' incomes and helped them prosper, enabling folk craftsmanship to create wealth.

Through productive protection, old objects and old crafts have turned from sleeping, sealed-away rural memories into a new vehicle for poverty alleviation. The living inheritance of intangible cultural heritage has enabled ordinary farmers to earn money through art, and has also given folk culture that originally needed protection the vitality to elevate itself.