Traditional folk crafts fuel rural vitalization in Shandong

In recent years, Shandong province has increasingly strengthened its protection of traditional folk crafts.

The "three-step development pattern", including protection, poverty-alleviation and sales expansion, has been adopted by the cultural departments at all levels of Shandong to implement the rural vitalization strategy.

As a result, traditional crafts have changed from unknowns to everyone's favorites. 

"The first thing for farmers to do to cultivate lands is to tell if the soil is fertile or not. In an analogy to cultural work, it is indispensable to create a sound cultural ecology if we want to better inherit and develop the traditional rural crafts," said Wang Lei, director of the Shandong provincial department of culture and tourism.

To give play to the potential value of the traditional crafts, Shandong province has actively supported cultural departments, universities, enterprises and institutes from different places to deeply excavate traditional craft culture, carry out classification research and enrich current products.

After investigation, traditional craft projects with profound cultures, excellent manufacturing processes and sound market prospects in Shandong province have been found.

For example, wickerwork technique has been regarded as the focus of poverty alleviation in Linshu county of Linyi city. The county has deeply developed the unique cultural characteristics of the wickerwork craft, expanded the planting area of bitter willow and trained impoverished villagers in the wickerwork craft techniques.

Juye county of Heze city has prioritized developing farmers' paintings and guiding local farmers to participate in suitable training courses. Meanwhile, the cultural publicity department of Juye county has worked on developing its creation themes.

A farmer learns painting at Juye county's Luxi Painting and Calligraphy Institute. [Photo by Ding Yuanyuan/chinadaily.com.cn]

A villager weaves Langya straw, the technique of which has been certified as an intangible cultural heritage by Shandong's Linyi city. [Photo/chinanews.com]