Lifelike dragonflies and grasshoppers, dragons and vermilion birds that are "not angry and self-righteous", and vivid zodiac animals...... The seemingly ordinary palm leaves, after a pair of skillful hand tearing, pulling, winding, folding, piercing, interspersing, were soon woven into a variety of insects, fish, birds and beasts, this skill carries many people's childhood memories. Beginning in the Three Kingdoms era, the palm weaving technique has a history of more than 1,700 years, and the palm weaving and Hunan embroidery, chrysanthemum stone and known as the "Changsha three uniques".
To make brown weaving handicrafts, the materials and tools required are not complicated. The palm leaves used are all over the mountain villages in the south of the Yangtze River, and the tools are ordinary scissors, needles, awls and pliers. In the studio of Zhou Jialin, the third generation of Changsha palm weaving, 14-year-old Tang Haoren is learning to do palm weaving under the guidance of the teacher. "Now there are many young people who love the art of palm weaving, want to learn from the teacher, I also hope that someone can pass on the palm weaving skills, Haoren is very talented in learning palm weaving, he is my youngest apprentice." Zhou Jialin smiled and said in sign language that many people learned that she recruited children and students as old as Tang Haoren, and they also sent private messages one after another, wanting to send more and more children to learn art, she thought that this also provided more opportunities and possibilities for the inheritance of brown weaving culture.
Tang Haoren is a particularly introverted child, usually quiet and few words, narrow social interactions, not good at taking the initiative to communicate with others, but he has a bright mind, in the hands-on ability to show extraordinary unique talent, from the age of seven or eight, he began to explore the overall assembly of robot dolls (Gundam), especially like painting and handicraft, which also laid a certain foundation for learning brown weaving. Recalling the acquaintance with Mr. Zhou Jialin, Tang Haoren said that he was a student of Changsha Special Education School, and Mr. Zhou happened to come to the school to give students a class on the "Palm Weaving Club", planning to collect a few good seedlings as apprentices. In 2021, after being introduced by the school teacher, Tang Haoren, who is only 11 years old, officially learned from Zhou Jialin. At the beginning, Mr. Zhou Jialin taught him the simplest basic weaving techniques, step by step, Tang Haoren studied and practiced hard, and it didn't take long to complete some small works independently.
In order to train systematically, Tang Haoren went to Mr. Zhou Jialin's studio on time every Sunday to study, regardless of the weather, never stopped. Although Mr. Zhou Jialin couldn't speak, he was always smiling, always reminding him to pay attention to details and correct deviations. Tang Haoren, who has become close to the teacher, has changed his usual taciturn, and when he talks about the feeling of learning brown weaving, he is full of confidence and natural generosity, "Mr. Zhou always takes the trouble to teach me the technique over and over again, tells me the experience again and again, and helps me master the key points of weaving." "With the brown weaving technique from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, Tang Haoren when weaving geckos, snakes and other works, in the face of some of the complex weaving methods will suddenly get stuck, practice many times did not find the trick, will also retreat, want to weave other easy works. At this time, Mr. Zhou Jialin would always give him encouragement in time, pat him on the shoulder, and stretch out his hands to signal him not to be afraid of difficulties. Due to the roughness of the palm leaves, Zhou Jialin's hands were strangled by the palm leaves for a long time during the palm weaving, and the fingerprints of 10 fingers were almost smoothed. Zhou Jialin wanted to tell Tang Haoren in this way that she had also had a period of hard study, and Tang Haoren naturally had a heartfelt admiration for the teacher in his heart, and secretly vowed that he would never live up to the teacher's expectations and must learn to make brown weaving.
In the past, the traditional brown weaving was a single small piece, which was sold very cheaply, 3 or 5 yuan each, and was only a kind of street grassroots art. Zhou Jialin pioneered the combination of a single brown weaving into a large-scale literary and creative work with a theme idea, won many awards, went abroad, and ascended to the international elegant art palace, which greatly enhanced the economic and cultural value of brown weaving. Why do you insist on learning brown weaving? Tang Haoren said that under the guidance of the teacher, he would like to bring together the development history and weaving techniques of palm weaving, study and innovate design, and better inherit and carry forward the art of palm weaving. Mr. Zhou Jialin not only inherited the traditional old weaving method, but also innovated some new weaving methods such as fish scale feathers, dragon back fins, horse neck manes, etc., and also organized a factory to make the palm weaving productized and industrialized, and sold well in international and domestic exhibitions.
Skillfully pass on the art, build dreams silently. Tang Haoren often lamented that he was lucky, met a good master with boundless love and careful teaching, led him to embark on the road of palm weaving art, he wanted to pass on the art of palm weaving like Zhou Jialin, and introduce the promotion of palm weaving culture to all over the world.
Source: Furong District Rong Media Center Furong Flower|Tang Haoren: We must carry forward the art of palm weaving like a teacher
Editor: Zhang Jing