As a young teacher at the School of Art Management of Shandong University of the Arts, Yu Liang's students are not only college students on campus, but also thousands of intangible cultural heritage inheritors and enthusiasts.
On the one hand, it answers questions and solves doubts for intangible cultural heritage people and helps them realize their "university dreams"; On the one hand, he also took young students deep into the field to teach them to further understand intangible cultural heritage in the soil where intangible cultural heritage was born. is also like a snail, on the high mountain of intangible cultural heritage "two creations", ten years of perseverance and perseverance.
Let the intangible cultural heritage "go to university" and find the connection point with modern life
As soon as you enter the teaching building of the School of Art Management of Shandong University of the Arts, the first thing that catches your eye is all kinds of intangible cultural heritage exhibits, such as grass willow weaving, black pottery, wood carving, and colored glass...... Fashionable and traditional, it has become a scenery in the teaching building.
"At the end of each training course for the inheritors of China's intangible cultural heritage, we will hold an exhibition for the intangible cultural heritage, sometimes at the school, sometimes at the provincial and municipal cultural centers outside the school. Two days ago, the Weifang inlaid silver lacquer exhibition just ended. While walking, Yu Liang introduced.
Speaking of Yu Liang's intangible cultural heritage story, the training course for inheritors of China's intangible cultural heritage has to be mentioned.
In 2015, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly launched the "Training Program for Inheritors of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage", and cooperated with universities to carry out popularization training and research training for intangible cultural heritage inheritors. Shandong University of the Arts was the first batch of pilot participants, and Yu Liang participated in it from the beginning.
After 2018, Yu Liang became the person in charge of the training class, and like a "class teacher", he not only undertook various teaching organization work such as curriculum setting, expert invitation, student organization, etc., but also had to worry about student relations and living guarantees. He and his team members often spend 3 months or more preparing for the original one-month training program.
"To strengthen the foundation, increase learning, and broaden horizons, we hope to provide students with systematic theoretical and practical creative guidance." Yu Liang introduced that the courses of the seminar mainly include professional theory courses, professional practice courses, creation courses, cultural investigation courses, etc., and in response to the common concerns of intangible cultural heritage people, they also set up short video production, webcast and other courses.
Up to now, the intangible cultural heritage training class of Shandong University of the Arts has held a total of 18 sessions, involving 15 traditional skills projects such as grass and willow weaving, clay sculpture, face sculpture, glaze, nuclear carving, wood carving, kite, black pottery, stone carving, paper-cutting, woodblock New Year paintings, transmission, calligraphy and painting framing restoration, Lu embroidery, Weifang inlaid silver lacquer, etc., and trained 825 students. At the same time, 4 traditional craft workstations have been built in Weifang, Tai'an, Heze, Zibo and other places, and more than 200 trainees have been trained locally. Among them, 1/3 of the trainees have set up a new company or studio after the training, more than half of them have played a leading role in revitalizing the countryside and helping targeted poverty alleviation, and more than 70 people have won the title of national and provincial intangible cultural heritage inheritors and masters of arts and crafts, and some students have gone to Europe, America, Southeast Asia and other places to perform, or sell innovative works abroad.
The de-printing right from Linshu, the capital of willow weaving, was one of the trainees of the workshop. He was originally one of the backbone of the local heritage, and his creative works have won many awards. During the training, the right to start a business, after returning to his hometown, he began to actively prepare, through the spring and autumn of the Guangzhou Commodity Fair, the right to bring their creative products there, soon attracted the attention of overseas merchants, and registered in Hong Kong "one pick" home decoration brand, the launch of wicker lampshades, hanging decorations and other products. Xie Yinquan said that the seminar brought him more of a breakthrough in ideas, teaching him to combine modern design concepts with ancient willow weaving skills, and his works also jumped from the agricultural era to the post-industrial era, getting rid of the outdated impression of rustic and backward willow weaving products. At present, the products of the deprinting rights are mainly sold to Europe.
After the training, Jia Yuping, a dough molding student, cooperated with local cultural enterprises to begin packaging and marketing design of their own dumpling products, and launched the "Qiao Meier" brand to open up the market with the overall brand marketing model.
There are many such stories in the workshop. Watching groups of intangible cultural heritage inheritors get inspired by the training, Yu Liang has indescribable joy and pride, "We can use our professional accumulation to help intangible cultural heritage people find the connection point with modern life, so as to realize the self-renewal and life continuation of intangible cultural heritage, which makes people full of enthusiasm."
Take students to "go to the field" to inject youthful power into the ancient intangible cultural heritage
In addition to facing the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, Yu Liang also led groups of young people into intangible cultural heritage, fell in love with intangible cultural heritage, and contributed to the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage.
In the school classroom, Yu Liang mainly offered courses such as "Cultural Heritage Laws and Regulations", "Intangible Cultural Heritage Investigation and Declaration Writing", and "Introduction to Intangible Cultural Heritage".
In the eyes of student Zhang Mengyao, Teacher Yu is serious and rigorous in class, and her thoughts are profound, "the more you learn, the more you will like to listen to Teacher Yu's class." What particularly interests Zhang Mengyao is "Intangible Cultural Heritage Investigation and Declaration Writing". Walking out of the study, asking questions in the field, cognizing, discovering and studying in the soil where culture was born, you can better appreciate the essence and charm of intangible cultural heritage.
Yu Liang's deep love and sense of responsibility for intangible cultural heritage also comes from the investigation of intangible cultural heritage. In 2009, Yu Liang, who was still studying for the cultural heritage major of Shandong University of the Arts, followed his tutor to visit a number of intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and was deeply moved by their exquisite works and perseverance, "Some intangible cultural heritage works are not only exquisite, but also have their own practice and exploration in the integration and transformation of inheritance and modernity, but it cannot be denied that some are still facing various problems in inheritance and management." At that time, Yu Liang realized that the predicament of intangible cultural heritage may not only be the successor of the inheritance of skills, but more importantly, whether the intangible cultural heritage itself has the vitality of self-maintenance and development, "This requires not only the efforts of the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, but also the efforts of the whole society.
After completing his doctoral studies at the Chinese Academy of Arts, Yu Liang returned to his alma mater in 2015 and opened a number of intangible cultural heritage-related courses, and invited intangible cultural heritage inheritors to come to the campus to pass on relevant skills to students.
In 2019, Yu Liang became the academic commissioner of the National Representative Inheritor of Intangible Cultural Heritage Recording Project. Up to now, he has led the student team to complete the investigation and declaration of more than ten intangible cultural heritage skills, such as Shang's curium art, Rizhao plane pottery, and lotus eagle buckle making skills.
In addition, Yu Liang also led the students to continuously explore the "two creations" of intangible cultural heritage, and successively won awards in the "Shandong Intangible Cultural Heritage + Tourism Cultural and Creative Competition", the "Yellow River Cup" 2020 Shandong Cultural and Creative Design Competition, and the "Taishan Design Cup" Shandong Handmade Innovation Design Competition. In 2021, his works were selected as the 60 most representative intangible cultural heritage products in Shandong Province in the "Tiangong Kaiwu Qilu Ingenuity".
Taking the silver medal of the handmade product design group of the 4th "Taishan Design Cup" Shandong Handmade Innovation Design Competition, "Tuoshuo Qilu: Transformation and Utilization of Jinshi Chuantuo Technique" as an example, Yu Liang introduced that they will make some calligraphy, calligraphy and painting in line with modern aesthetics into desktop ornaments or hanging paintings through Chuantuo skills, in order to let the Jinshi Chuantuo art that gradually fades out of the historical stage return to people's lives. In addition, the work also pays attention to the cultivation of the public's artistic literacy, buyers can watch video tutorials by scanning the code, and process the semi-finished products, not only can they experience the fun of rubbing process, but also give their own handmade works to relatives and friends.
"College students have a more acute perception of the times, and their colorful interests can bring more vitality to the excellent traditional Chinese culture, including intangible cultural heritage." What makes Yu Liang happy is that more and more young people are taking the initiative to choose intangible cultural heritage majors and are committed to contributing to the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage.