Tracing the memory of shipping deep in history

Reporter Gong Xue Intern Hu Qian

Character business card: Long Congfa, the inheritor of Wuhan's national intangible cultural heritage of wood carving and ship model, enjoys the honor of "Master of China Arts and Crafts".

His works represent the new style of Hubei's wood carving and ship model craftsmanship, making our province's wood carving and ship model skills famous overseas.

The style of the works is clear, delicate and majestic, integrating ornamental, ideological and collectible.

Representative works include "Dragon and Phoenix Boat","Big Cypress Drum Boat","Dragon Boat Festival","Five-toothed Battleship", etc.

The vast sea areas, winding rivers, and dotted lakes have nurtured hundreds of millions of China people and given birth to a profound and profound ship culture.

China's ancient ships, which have lasted for thousands of years, are in various shapes, carrying the nation's outstanding wisdom and unique beauty.

How to trace the shipping memories scattered deep in history? Long Congfa, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor of wood carving and ship models, and his works provide a way.

The family's ancestral wood carving and boat model skills are the fourth generation.

When he was 8 years old, he worked as his father's assistant and cut materials.

At the age of 12, he officially learned skills.

Over the past 60 years of ups and downs, Long Congfa witnessed the rise and fall of wood carving ship models.

In 1936, his father Long Yunhua founded the "Long Hongxing Playing Shipyard".

Long's ship model has since had its own factory and brand.

In 1939, the French military ship "Xiao Gangjian" and the gunboats "Bai Nian" and "Duda" made by "Long Hongxing" spread to foreign countries, and Hubei wood carving ship models were famous overseas.

At the age of 21, Long Congfa followed his father from Yichang to Wuhan to complete a political task-making decorations for the Hubei Hall of the Great Hall of the People.

The "Big Cypress Drum Boat" and "Dragon Boat Festival" collaborated by his father and son are still preserved in the Hubei Hall.

Later, Long Congfa stayed in Wuhan City to work at the Crafts and Carving Factory, leading his apprentices to teach art.

In 1984, Wuhan and Duisburg, Germany became sister cities.

The mayor of Wuhan presented his "East China Sea Dragon Boat" as a gift.

In 1988, Long Congfa devoted himself to making the retro warship "Five-Tooth Warship", which was permanently collected by the China Military Museum.

In 1994, due to the rapid rise in wood prices and the gradual shrinking of overseas markets, Long Congfa's Wuhan City Craft and Carving Factory was forced to abandon the production of traditional wood carving ship models and instead relied on completing small batches of foreign orders for modern yacht ship models to survive.

Struggling to support, the engraving factory closed down in 2010.

While working in the Wuhan City Crafts and Carving Factory, he taught many apprentices, many of whom were talented.

However, after the reform and opening up, they all rushed to other places to seek other positions and gave up this craft.

Time goes by, and only the Long family still adheres to this traditional skill.

"Every work embodies thinking about history." Long Congfa introduced that when designing "Zheng He's Treasure Boat", he consulted a large number of historical materials and documents to understand the ship-making technology, ship facilities, and cultural connotation at that time.

"Zheng He's treasure ship was made strictly in accordance with historical records, with nine masts and twelve sails."

If the ship model of Long Congfa is enlarged to the same scale, it will be a real thing that can be launched into the water.

The ship models he made were not similar in shape, but also pursued similarity in spirit, showing the original way of sailing, such as sailing, steering, etc.

Making a wood carving ship model, designing, cutting, sampling, carving the ship's shape, making parts, assembling, painting...

It takes a series of processes to take several months to several years.

"The wood carving ship models passed down from our ancestors are very different from foreign spliced ship models." Long Congfa said that no matter whether a big ship or a small boat, they are meticulously carved with each knife.

In terms of carving techniques, we pay attention to "the skin of shallow embossed does not hurt the face, and the deep embossed works deeply and vividly without hurting the bottom." He also pursues hollow out fine shuttles.

The shuttle pattern is a fine job.

Your eyes cannot be blurred and your hands cannot be shaken."You can't even mess up the rhythm of your breathing, otherwise, all your previous efforts will be easily wasted."

On the basis of inheriting the family's wood carving ship model, Long Congfa improved and innovated the carving process to make it more in line with modern people's aesthetics.

"Chinese Dragon" is Long Congfa's latest work and the largest work to date.

He concentrated the beautiful scenery of Hubei such as the Yellow Crane Tower, Guqin Terrace, and Xingyin Pavilion, and distributed them on the hull of the ship.

The name "Chinese Dragon" symbolizes the rise of central Hubei.

With the spring breeze of a culturally strong province, Long Congfa's wood carving ship models are also gradually recovering.

At present, he has signed a cooperation agreement with Wuhan City Tourism Development Investment Group to deeply introduce folk wood carving ship models to the market.

Talking about inheritance, 74-year-old Long Congfa is anxious and eager to recruit apprentices and teach skills."The cultural treasures passed down by our ancestors must be successors."