A Study On The Restoration Of The History, Culture And Traditional Craftsmanship Of Oil-paper Umbrellas In Southern Shaanxi

Utensil culture is not only material culture,but also the materialized form of life style or traditional ethos.Each and every of such artifacts,far beyond mere material existence,is closely intertwined with the political system,the developmental level of science and technology,the cultural psychology,and the aesthetic taste at the time it came into being.The historical and cultural studies of the oil-paper umbrella in the southern Shaanxi Province of China are of great significance in sorting out the rise and fall of the handicraft industry,the identity evolution of craftsman groups,and the historical changes of the social environment in the region from the 1920s to the 1980s.The visual restoration of the traditional oil-paper umbrella making materials and crafts there greatly contributes to preserving this cultural legacy,stitches the relentlessly fragmented regional cultural memories of this region,reconstructs the connection between history,memories,and cultural inheritance,as well as reconciles the traditional with the modern.Centering on the traditional oil-paper umbrella of southern Shaanxi,and combining field investigations,file tracking,umbrella craftsmen interviews and craft re-engineering,the current study is committed to three levels of discussion and research,namely the theoretical,historical and technological levels.The research mainly involves the theoretical guidance of cultural anthropology and art sociology.At the historical level.both horizontal and vertical dimensions,such as the spatial distribution,prominent craftsmen groups,trade associations,files,newspapers,trademarks of the oil-paper umbrella in southern Shaanxi,are probed into.At the technological level,the study restores and reconstructs the material recycling and recovery,technical principles,inheritance of the crafts,cultural memories,and craftsmanship,aiming to outline the production and development pattern of the southern Shaanxi traditional oil-paper umbrella,and to restore and preserve the traditional production process of the oil-paper umbrella there.Eventually,this study emerges as one guided by sound theories,and based on solid historical and social foundations,with its core being process recovery,and its purpose being cultural inheritance and further development.The significance and content of the study introduced,its layout is as follows:Chapter One is the introduction.It presents three major problems confronting the endangered oil-paper umbrella making in southern Shaanxi,its likelihood of extinction,the absence of rescue efforts and research endeavors.Specifically,the development history of the oil-paper umbrella in the region is fragmented and is fading away fast;the craftsmen of the oil-paper umbrella have passed away gradually,making it very hard to retain the cultural memories;and the materials and handicrafts of the oil-paper umbrella are being lost,causing great difficulties for its process recovery.These three major problems are the core tasks of this research.Chapters Two,Three and Four are the body of this research,focusing respectively on history tracking,social memories and process restoration of the oil-paper umbrella in southern Shaanxi.In Chapter Two,the oil-paper umbrella industry in Hanyin County,Ankang City,stands out as a representative case,after an overview of the development and the production spatial distribution of the oil-paper umbrella industry in southern Shaanxi.The study of the origin,development,and rise and fall of the oil-paper umbrella association there leads to the discovery of the oil-paper production and pedagogical changes relating to the craftsman body and the trade organization in southern Shaanxi in particular historical contexts.Drawing on the local archives concerning the oil-paper umbrella production and sales,Chapter Three makes a regional comparison of the commercial scenes.It is found that the rise and fall of the handicraft industry is closely related to the regional geographical location and economic development level,reflecting the imbalance and multi-component characteristics of handicraft production.On the basis of the theoretical discussions in Chapters Two and Three,the fourth chapter focuses on the visual restoration of the traditional oil-paper umbrella production materials and production processes in southern Shaanxi.The umbrella-making materials are hard to come by in southern Shaanxi due to many reasons,such as the changes of technological environment and the demise of craftsmen.It is solved by resorting to materials available in other places and the support from all sides.In practice,under the guidance of well-known craftsmen,the author studies the oil-paper umbrella production for relevant implicit experience and knowledge.Based on such learning,the author creates line drawings,combining the visual presentations and the written analysis of production process and principles to explicitly showcase the previous implicit experience and knowledge.The 68 line drawings help avoid the error resulting from mere text interpretation,and can serve as model image materials for the traditional oil-paper umbrella production process in southern Shaanxi,so as to preserve the endangered manual production technology.Chapter Five concludes with the discussion of the oil-paper culture in southern Shaanxi and the contemporary value of process recovery,which is also the objective and significance of this research.The cultural system of the handicraft industry in southern Shaanxi where the oil-paper umbrella belongs has long showed the symptoms of"amnesia",which has led to the rupture of cultural chain and made us plummet into an irreversible "dead past" more quickly.The cultural crisis and historical crisis that accompany the memory crisis are happening in the case of the oil-paper umbrella in southern Shaanxi.Nevertheless,the strong currents of time and history devour far more than the case of the southern Shaanxi oil-paper umbrella.The cultural experience and memories of the witness of the times need to be retained so that they can pass down far.The preservation and inheritance of such cultural experience and memories should not stay being merely transcribed,nor should they only be discussed about just in terms of their previous existential state at a given point.To explore how to make them a cultural form taking deep roots in contemporary social life is of supreme significance and truly spreads cultural heritage far.Through this research,the author contends that:(1)Both big and small artifacts witness and embody social changes.The development of the traditional hand-made oil-paper umbrella in southern Shaanxi mirrors its concurrent social changes and historical features of the handicraft production and craftsman culture.(2)Artifacts come into being and survive when it is the right time and place.With the passage of time and the changes of space,artifacts are compelled to disappear.The traditional oil-paper in southern Shaanxi originates as the localized product of immigrant culture.Its current plight of becoming extinction results from a new wave of cultural transformation propelled by relentlessly forward-moving currents of time and development.(3)Craftsmen create artifacts and give life to them.With the demise of senior craftsmen,the living memory of the oil-paper umbrella in southern Shaanxi is in danger.The current disconnection with the past will lead to memory crisis and cultural fault.(4)Craftsmanship,embodied in the strict umbrella production and quality standards,is lacking in the impetuously fast-moving modern society,and is worth learning by modern people.(5)The cultural fault of traditional handicrafts and the pain modern transformation exerts on traditional handicrafts are not happening only to the oil-paper umbrella in southern Shaanxi.The current plight of traditional crafts and cultural heritage makes it urgent for us to come up with a way out.