Xing Jun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Xing Jun, Male, Han, from Heping, Tianjin, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Shougongzhixiejiyi (Ⅷ-115). The tradition is documented in Heping, Tianjin. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shougongzhixiejiyi in Heping, Tianjin: Laomeihua settled in Heping District, Tianjin in 1911; the styles on its counter have always been the four — kunjian, embroidered, hangyuan, and camel-saddle shoes — each going through fifty process steps and sharing one thousand-layer sole. The base uses two layers of white cloth as interleaving paper, with hemp thread stitched 81 times per square cun; in the dog days it uses Anhui hemp, in winter switching to Zhangjiakou oil-hemp. The He family passed the craft from Xing Baoru to his son Xing Jun, father to son; cowhide soles use the opposed-needle reverse-lasting, and today it mainly serves elderly women in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. The Tianjin Laomeihua handmade shoemaking craft has a history of nearly a century since the founding of the Laomeihua shoe shop in the early years of the Republic (1911); its traditional handcraft is mainly embodied in four traditional handmade products: the kunjian shoe, the embroidered shoe, the hangyuan shoe, and the luotuo'an (camel-saddle) shoe.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1959 in Tianjin Municipality. A representative bearer of the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects in handmade shoemaking craftsmanship (Laomeihua handmade shoemaking craftsmanship). A technician of Laomeihua handmade shoemaking. In 1975 he began learning the traditional handmade craft of kun jian shoes, the pointed shoes worn by women, from his father Xing Baoru. When the craft was on the verge of being lost, he withstood the pressure, steadily deepened his professional skills and actively innovated new product varieties. He encourages young people to innovate boldly on the basis of transmission, combining technique with art so as to keep pace with contemporary trends. His work mainly serves older women in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region who still have a demand for such shoes. Within the documented technical tradition of Shougongzhixiejiyi in Heping, Tianjin: The traditional handcraft of making these four shoe types comprises fifty process steps; the craftsmanship is exacting, the workmanship fine, the process requirements high, the procedures fairly complex, and the technical difficulty great. Their common feature is the traditional thousand-layer-sole craftsmanship; the skill is superb and can be called a treasure of ethnic folk craft transmission, beloved by consumers for a century. The traditional craft makes a thousand-layer cloth sole, using two layers of white cloth as "interleaving paper" (formally called "gebei," stiffened cloth), with the sole reaching 36–40 layers of white cloth (or 14 layers of interleaving paper plus a padding core). The raw materials must be free of stray color and may not use rotten cloth. On the interleaving paper one draws the pattern, cuts the sole shape, binds the edge, wraps the bottom shape in fresh white cloth as the lowest layer, lays the padding, twists hemp rope, circles the edge mouth, uses a silk stencil to print color and press a mark onto the cloth sole, then, using the printed color as a guide, hand-twisted hemp is used to stitch the sole — 81 stitches per square cun. For sole-stitching, hemp from Anhui is required in summer, while oil-hemp from Zhangjiakou, Hebei is used in winter. This is because Anhui hemp gives moderate softness and firmness for summer wear, whereas winter oil-hemp soles are sturdier and more durable. The stitched soles are stacked in a large vat and soaked through with 60-degree water, pressed under a two-inch-thick wooden lid, and the vat mouth sealed all around for 24 hours, so that the sole and thread do not separate and the strength is increased. After removal from the vat, the sole shape is corrected with a wooden mallet and dried in sunlight or an oven — this process is the "steaming-and-shaping" of the sole. The process strictly follows the ancestral oral instruction for sole work: "no missing stitches on the sole, the stitching thread must be taut and firm, the insole must have grace, and the shoemaking stitches must be even." To this day Laomeihua still transmits this traditional cloth-sole making craft; besides the thousand-layer cloth sole, it also makes traditional high-grade cowhide soles, using the traditional opposed-needle reverse-lasting technique, which yields features such as handsome appearance and comfortable breathability. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Process Records": The traditional handcraft of making these four shoe types comprises fifty process steps; the craftsmanship is exacting, the workmanship fine, the process requirements high, the procedures fairly complex, and the technical difficulty great.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2012, Xing Jun was announced in the fourth batch of national representative bearers for Shougongzhixiejiyi, with Heping, Tianjin as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Shougongzhixiejiyi in Heping, Tianjin: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2011 (batch 3), with Heping, Tianjin as its declared area, and Tianjin Laomeihuaxie Shop Co., Ltd. as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Xing Jun · National Representative Bearer Archive