Zhou Yonggan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhou Yonggan, Male, Unspecified, from Xinghua, Jiangsu, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Chuantongmuchuanzhizaojiyi (Ⅷ-137). The tradition is documented in Xinghua, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Chuantongmuchuanzhizaojiyi in Xinghua, Jiangsu: Xinghua's Zhuhong Town, with its crisscrossing creeks, is the most suitable place for boat building in the northern Jiangsu water network; aged fir is sourced locally, and the four auxiliary materials—iron nails, hemp fiber, lime, and tung oil—make up a boat's skeleton; there are over a dozen process steps: material selection, preparation, cutting, proportioning, splitting planks, sorting planks, joining planks, hull assembly, hemp caulking, and oiling. In the late 1980s, more than 270 households in the town built boats, turning out over ten thousand a year; today fewer than seventy people remain. The Zhou Yonggan family's boat making dates back to the early Qing dynasty; he began learning the craft at sixteen from his father Zhou Fuyou. The wooden boat was an important tool in the life, travel, and labor of people in the ancient water towns; over a long course of practice, a distinctive wooden-boat-making craft took shape and has been transmitted to the present day. In the late 1980s, more than 270 households in the whole town of Zhuhong were engaged in wooden-boat making, producing about ten thousand boats a year.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in December 1964 in Xinghua, Jiangsu Province, he is of Han ethnicity. He is a national representative bearer of Traditional Wooden Boat Building Craftsmanship, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He holds the title of arts and crafts master of Taizhou City. He was born into a family long engaged in traditional wooden boat building. The history of wooden boat building among the Zhou family of Zhuhong can be traced back to the early Qing dynasty. At sixteen he took up the family trade, learning traditional wooden boat building from his elder kinsman Zhou Fuyou, and he now serves as president of the wooden boat association of Zhuhong Township, Xinghua City. In forty years of practice he has constantly innovated while inheriting the traditional craft, developing with his distinctive skills a range of new wooden boats, including pointed-bow boats, painted pleasure boats for scenic areas, wooden sightseeing and leisure boats and dragon boats. Some of his boats have been sold to Japan, the Netherlands, the United States and other countries. Within the documented technical tradition of Chuantongmuchuanzhizaojiyi in Xinghua, Jiangsu: This craft is complex in content and numerous in process steps; the boats it produces are simple and dignified, light and nimble, sturdy and durable. With historical development, the uses of wooden boats gradually expanded from agricultural, ferry, inland-river, and coastal fishing applications to the fields of transport, commerce, and mail transport. Within Zhuhong Town, Xinghua City, Jiangsu Province, rivers, lakes, and creeks crisscross—a typical watery marshland—and the wooden boat became an important implement in people's daily life. Zhuhong wooden boats use aged fir with a tough, resilient texture as the main material, and iron nails, hemp fiber, lime, and tung oil as auxiliary materials; the entire production process includes more than a dozen steps such as material selection, preparation, cutting, proportioning, splitting planks, sorting planks, joining planks, hull assembly, hemp caulking, and oiling, each carried out entirely by hand—a complex craft of great difficulty. The boats produced have shallow draft, great buoyancy, and high load capacity. Putuo District of Zhoushan City faces the East China Sea and has a developed fishing industry. Over a thousand years, countless skilled craftsmen for building and repairing ships have emerged on Putuo Island, among whom the Cen family wooden-boat workshop is a representative. The Cen family has built wooden sailing boats remarkable in both quantity and variety, mainly series such as large antique wooden sailing boats, fishing boats, and replica antique boats. Its manufacturing process mainly includes sixteen links such as design, lofting, laying the keelson, and fabricating the bottom shell; the tools used in boat building, such as the dragon saw, seam-pulling saw, and long and short hammers, are quite unique. Because of the changing times, steel fishing boats have been increasingly popularized and promoted. Under these circumstances, traditional wooden-boat hand workshops keep shrinking and the boat-making craft is gradually being lost; inheriting, protecting, and further developing the wooden-boat-making craft has become an urgent matter. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Recorded Craft Procedures": This craft is complex in content and numerous in process steps; the boats it produces are simple and dignified, light and nimble, sturdy and durable. Zhuhong wooden boats use aged fir with a tough, resilient texture as the main material, and iron nails, hemp fiber, lime, and tung oil as auxiliary materials; the entire production process includes more than a dozen steps such as material selection, preparation, cutting, proportioning, splitting planks, sorting planks, joining planks, hull assembly, hemp caulking, and oiling, each carried out entirely by hand—a complex craft of great difficulty.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

For many years he has devoted himself to safeguarding and transmitting the craft and to training successors.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Zhou Yonggan · National Representative Bearer Archive