August 13, 2019
I walked into Pingshang Village with my movie friends Chen Fengbing and Zhang Jianbin.
I met Li Mudan, the branch organization member, at the village committee. She and Zhang Yanqing, a college student who introduced talents, were busy with statistical work on the village's toilet reform work.
Li Mudan said that according to the town’s requirements, this work will take three years to complete. Although rural toilet reform is a good thing that benefits the people, many difficulties will still be encountered during the implementation process, some of which come from objective factors and some from human factors. As rural grassroots cadres on the front line, they have to face it one by one.
Li Mudan also works as an accountant, so she is quite busy throughout the day. As long as she is in the village, she has no free time. She was either doing this or doing that.
Her years of experience in various tasks in the village have made her the backbone of the team, and she is able to accomplish the tasks she undertakes with excellence. So she knew the situation in the village very well, and she took us around some places in the village.
72-year-old Liu Meiying is an old folk paper-cutting artist. She is famous in her hometown. Under the influence of her grandmother and mother, she fell in love with the art of paper-cutting since she was a child. She learned to cut window grilles and patterns on flower-picking shoes, and she saved many different styles of paper-cutting pictures. Neighbors, as long as someone comes to ask for help, she will give it warmly.
When she got married that year, the clothes she wore were all made by herself, and the patterns embroidered on her shoes, pillows and quilts were all designed and created by herself. This ingenious daughter-in-law is respected by people.
In those years, because of poverty, she could not afford to buy clothes. Everything the family wears is sewn stitch by stitch by themselves. Nowadays, her life is rich, but her frugal behavior has not changed, and she is still used to wearing clothes made by herself.
On the National Day in 2011, "People's Daily" reported on the paper-cut works she created for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Party in the form of pictures, expressing a rural woman's love for the Party and the motherland. A sincere heart. All these have inspired the enthusiasm and energy for paper-cutting creation.
Liu Meiying also revealed that she is planning to create an eight-meter-long scroll of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" during her lifetime. The first step of the copy has been completed. This is a huge project. She would spend years creating it. As a seventy-year-old, she has her own dreams and pursuits, which makes us sincerely admire her. It was her optimistic and open-minded attitude towards life that made her later life full of fun. In her words, she used the spirit of the Long March to continue creating "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".
Liu Meiying is able to devote herself wholeheartedly to paper-cutting creation because her husband can be her strong support. He fully supported her over the years.
On this day, she was going to the paper-cutting exhibition hall in the village. Her husband took her there in an electric car, otherwise. It would take them half a day to walk.
When we walked in the village, we could deeply feel that it was under the influence of Liu Meiying, a folk artist, that the themes of morality and filial piety culture could be seen everywhere on the walls of the village. Paper-cut paintings and these unique cultural atmosphere have become a beautiful scenery of this village.
In addition to paper-cut works, the Pingshang Village Paper-cutting Exhibition Hall also has calligraphy and art works. Liu Meiying pointed to the paper-cut work of Dafu and said: This work "My Motherland and Me" took more than six months to create. The work describes the changes in the countryside since the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, and shows a beautiful picture of people's happy life.
Upstairs in the exhibition hall is Yangcheng Zemei Crafts Co., Ltd. This company is a joint-stock cooperative enterprise founded by 60 villagers last year. Become a base for villagers to generate income.
The company also cooperated with the County Paper-cut Association to create a "practice base". Many young people come here to learn and pass on this traditional skill very well.
This year’s Spring Festival, the craft lanterns created by Zemei Company are deeply loved by the people and are selling well in every village in the township. This is an economy that has just started. With the passage of time and the accumulation of experience, Zemei Company’s tomorrow will be bright and sunny...
The following are pictures from Murakami