Gourds Painted into Golden Melons: Cui Gangyi of Shahe City Boosts Income Through Painted Gourds

Cui Gangyi is a native of Beizhang Village, Xincheng Town, Shahe City. After graduating from Hebei University in 2007, he came to work in Xifeng Village, Xincheng Town, Shahe City. He always harbored a dream: to make golden melons grow from this rural land and lead his fellow villagers to prosperity together.

In the summer of 2013, by a chance opportunity, Cui Gangyi "got to know" craft gourds and resolved to travel to the place of origin to find out more. He stayed at a gourd planting base in Shandong for a whole month.

Back in his hometown, Cui Gangyi received everyone's support, and the village provided him with over ten mu of experimental fields. "It sounds simple, but when you actually do it, it's extremely difficult. Gourds are quite fragile - water and fertilizer conditions, pest and disease control, manual pollination, and so on - if there's the slightest mistake in any step, months of hard work will be wasted." Cui Gangyi explained that for several years, he would go into the fields as soon as he got up and stay until dark, spending all his time in the fields except when sleeping.

In the winter of 2013, Cui Gangyi's gourds were harvested. But another challenge lay before him: traditional manual work was inefficient, and machine production lacked distinctive features.

After market research, Cui Gangyi decided to make painted gourds that had cultural connotations, were combined with local characteristics, and could be mass-produced. He purchased professional equipment and devoted himself to studying the spray-painting technology of related industries. After countless experiments, Cui Gangyi finally mastered gourd painting technology and could depict any pattern onto gourds.

"Shahe has painted gourds." This information spread quickly. Gradually, thick stacks of orders filled Cui Gangyi's desk: "The Twelve Beauties of Jinling" custom-ordered by Rongguo Mansion in Zhengding, "Ten Scenes of Yan and Zhao" custom-ordered by the Hebei Museum, "The Ten Marshals" custom-ordered by a craft shop at Tiananmen Square... Cui Gangyi told reporters: he plans to build a craft gourd planting industrial base, forming an industrial chain integrating planting, processing, and tourism, so that more farming households can participate in the gourd industry.