සියවස් 6ක පහන්කූඩු මාළු ගමෙන් පිටට ගෙනයන වං

Man breathes new life into traditional fish-shaped lantern craft

A master of traditional Wangmantian fish-shaped lanterns has recently innovated his craftsmanship by transitioning the lanterns' "skin" from delicate paper to fabric, thus enabling the lanterns to be distributed and enjoyed beyond their local origin.

Wangmantian Village, located in Shexian County of Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province, boasts the tradition of making fish-shaped lanterns to pray for harvest and good fortune for over six centuries.

Wang Chengfeng, an intangible cultural heritage inheritor of making Wangmantian fish-shaped lanterns, is the first to sell these culturally significant lanterns to interested buyers from outside of the village.

As it hasn't been easy to make these easily-damaged lanterns available to the wider world, Wang has determined to develop a new way of producing them based on durable fabric.

"The reason we insist on change is that two years ago, a customer from Tainan, Taiwan expressed a great fondness for our intangible cultural heritage products. He showed great interest in a dragon lantern depicting a carp transforming into a dragon. I remember clearly that I shipped it via express delivery by the SF. The dragon lantern cost 900 yuan (about 126 U.S. dollars), and the shipping cost me 398 yuan (56 U.S. dollars). Because our fish-shaped lantern was being appreciated in Taiwan, I thought of the customer as a friend and didn't mind if I made little to no profit. However, a week later, the customer informed me that the lantern was damaged," Wang said.

"I felt very upset at that time because when someone buys your product, you want to deliver the best -- a flawless item. The experience confirmed my belief that if we want our fish-shaped lanterns to stand out and be recognized culturally, we must put in the effort to switch to fabric," he said.

While the scenes of traditional fish-shaped lantern festivities continue in Wangmantian, turning fish-shaped lanterns into cultural products consumable beyond the mountains requires innovation, and Wang has decided to change the material used to make the fish "skins".

"Previously, there was an old tailor who made tofu bags, so he had a lot of plain white fabric. Since fish-shaped lanterns need to be painted, the material, regardless of type, must be plain white. Traditionally, we didn't use fabric but cotton paper, which would hold candles inside. Large fish-shaped lanterns could hold nearly 100 candles, while smaller ones might have 30 or 40. The candles would flicker in the wind, creating a visually stunning effect. The visual impact during the Lantern Festival and our outdoor performances is completely different," he said.

The traditional Wangmantian fish-shaped lanterns still use Xuan paper because there is another important local custom after the fish-shaped lantern festival ends.

"After the fish-shaped lantern festival ends, we will, along with visitors from outside the region, tear off cotton paper together. This is called 'eating fish meat,' which signifies wrapping up the festival by 'eating' all the fish meat,' which signifies wrapping up the festival by 'eating' all the fish meat," Wang explained.

After extensive experiments with various fabrics, Wang has settled on a specialized white lining fabric that maintains the vibrant contrast of the colors.

"The traditional Wangmantian Lantern Festival is mainly held at night, requiring the lanterns to be lit. For coloring these fish-shaped lanterns, we primarily use black, red and white to create a bright contrast. This visual contrast looks better overall. If you mix black, red and green, it doesn't look as good. We tried many different types of fabric, but none were satisfactory -- some lacked tensile strength, while others couldn't stretch properly. After numerous attempts, we finally settled on a type of white lining fabric used for clothing. This fabric doesn't bleed colors, so we generally use this type," he said

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