In Menghai County, Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, there is a well-known Dai Folk Traditional Handmade Paper Village. It can produce more than 10 million Dai papers of different specifications every year, with an annual output value of more than 9 million yuan. The paper is sold to all parts of the country and countries such as Japan and South Korea.
This village is called manzhao. It is located in the east of Menghun Town, Menghai County, 3 kilometers away from the town government. It belongs to the mansao village committee of Menghun town. It is a Dai village. There are 186 households in the village, of which 170 are engaged in papermaking. Yankan is making paper.
Entering manzhao village, you can see "window frames" drying out in the sun everywhere. "This is' manzhao handmade paper '. The rectangular bamboo frame is called paper curtain. When the paper is half dried, it will be pressed flat on the paper curtain with a smooth instrument for polishing to make the paper smooth and tough. Finally, the paper will be gently removed from the paper curtain for treatment." Yankan said that the raw material of paper-making is the bark of mulberry plants. Before drying the hand-made paper, it needs to go through many processes, such as picking, soaking, cooking, washing, beating, papermaking, drying, calendering and uncovering. The whole process does not add any chemicals. It is handmade throughout the whole process. The paper produced is not only environmentally friendly, but also has good fiber toughness, softness and smoothness, and will not age for a long time.
Yankan is the Secretary of the Party branch of manzhao village, the leader of the villagers' group, and the chairman of the manzhao Dai traditional handicraft paper professional cooperative. In addition, he is also the provincial representative inheritor of the Dai traditional papermaking skills and the chief technician of Yunling.
"The traditional paper-making skills of the Dai people we use were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection lists in 2006. This craft, which has a history of more than 800 years, has now become a stable economic source for villagers to live a prosperous life." Yankan said.
When I was a child, Yankan saw papyrus papyrifera bark turn into handmade tissue paper through one process after another. It felt very magical. In this way, Yankan developed a strong interest in the traditional papermaking of the Dai people. Through his family's words and deeds, he mastered a full set of manual papermaking skills at the age of 16.
However, the traditional small workshop production of each household makes it difficult for the Dai handmade tissue paper in manzhao village to form an industry, and the overall economic benefit is very small.
In 2011, in order to improve the sales of Dai traditional papermaking and increase villagers' income, Yankan, under the guidance of the manzhao village Party branch and after consulting with villagers' representatives, took the lead in registering and establishing the manzhao traditional handmade papermaking professional cooperative. It organizes and carries out two centralized trainings every year to teach its own technical experience.
"Our raw materials for handmade papermaking are purchased and distributed by the cooperative. The cooperative provides the villagers with information about the product specifications, paper thickness, paper cleanliness and so on needed by the purchasers. After the villagers produce the finished products, they uniformly recycle, manage and store them. This business model realizes the unified purchase and marketing of raw materials and finished paper. Because of the low labor intensity, the elderly can also engage in paper production in the village today The annual output is more than 10 million pieces, and the average annual income of each household in papermaking alone can reach 30000-50000 yuan. " Yankan said.
In order to further extend the industrial chain of Dai traditional paper making, manzhao village Party branch introduced professional designers to innovate and develop new products according to market demand. Li Jinyuan introduced manzhao's oil paintings created by traditional manual papermaking.
There is a Datura studio in the village. The person in charge is Li Jinyuan, who graduated from oil painting.
In his studio, there are oil paintings created by manzhao's traditional hand-made paper, as well as cultural and creative products such as pottery, bamboo weaving and Dai brocade that integrate Xishuangbanna elements and culture.
"Because of my love for traditional culture, I quit my job and came to manzhao in 2019 to set up this studio. Through creation, I made art and manzhao's traditional hand-made paper perfectly integrated, so that more people could learn about the process of manzhao's traditional hand-made paper, and I hope to create more products with national characteristics of 'Xishuangbanna that can be taken away'." Li Jinyuan said.
At present, the traditional handmade paper in manzhao village has been used for copying scriptures, making Kongming lamps and other daily uses, and more than 50 products have been derived, including packaging paper, handbags, gift boxes, paper fans, lamps and decorative paintings.
"In addition to buying in the village, people can also buy our various Dai paper products online." Yukangkan said. Yukangkan and her Dai paper crafts exhibition hall.
Yukangkan, born in 1990, is a native of manzhao village and the daughter of Yankan, the inheritor. She has been working outside since graduating from university. Because she loves Dai paper as much as her father, as a party member, she returned to the village in 2020 after receiving the call of the general Party branch of the village to strengthen the manchuchuchuai Dai paper industry. Now she not only "inherits her father's business" and has mastered a full set of Dai manual paper-making skills, but also designs innovative products of Dai paper, and makes Dai paper products break regional restrictions through e-commerce, Let more people buy manzhao's folk products through the Internet. Influenced by yukangkan, many young people in the village have also opened e-commerce and played live broadcasting.
Under the guidance and support of the Organization Department of Xishuangbanna Prefecture Party committee and the Organization Department of Menghai county Party committee, the Party branch of manzhao village leads the party members and the masses in the village to inherit, protect and develop the traditional handmade papermaking skills of the Dai people. Today, the intangible cultural heritage of handmade paper has developed into an industry, and the "money bags" of villagers have also been expanded. Dai paper has not only become the business card of manzhao, but also a characteristic label of the Dai culture in Xishuangbanna.
"In the future, we will strengthen the research and development of Dai paper characteristic products, organically integrate art with Dai paper culture, develop new products, further expand the market, and turn this ancient skill of Dai paper into a new way to become rich and pass it on forever." Yankan is full of hope for the future.
