Lvcheng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Lvcheng, Male, Han, from Shengzhou, Zhejiang, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving (Ⅶ-51). The tradition is documented in Shengzhou, Zhejiang. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving in Shengzhou, Zhejiang: The production areas of Shengzhou bamboo weaving are mainly downtown Shengzhou and the bamboo-producing townships of Cangyan, Changle, Chongren, Huangzhe, Tongyuan, Shihuang, and Ganlin. Craftsmen divided the work by category—baskets, plates, jars, boxes, vases, screens, animals, figures, buildings, furniture, lamps, and so on—with specialized workers for design, strip splitting, weaving, and assembly. In former times it was operated in workshop form; after 1949 it shifted to collective production and marketing, and besides domestic sales its products were exported overseas for a long time. Shengzhou bamboo weaving began more than two thousand years ago in the Warring States period; by the Han and Jin dynasties its craftsmanship had already become refined, and during the Ming and Qing dynasties the standard of weaving improved further, with bamboo weaving becoming an indispensable article of daily use among the people. After 1949, bamboo weaving craftsmen cooperated to run workshops and established the Shengxian (Shengzhou) Bamboo Strips Production and Marketing Workshop, which in 1954 was reorganized as the Shengxian (Shengzhou) Bamboo Ware Production Cooperative; in 1959 it was renamed the Craft Bamboo Weaving Factory and was acclaimed “the number one bamboo weaving mill at home and abroad.” After the 1990s, plastic products of all kinds replaced bamboo-woven daily goods, demand for bamboo weaving steadily declined, and bamboo weaving craftsmen found it increasingly hard to make a living. The Shengzhou Craft Bamboo Weaving Factory ceased production in November 2002; Shengzhou bamboo weaving lacks successors and urgently needs rescue and support.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Lvcheng is anchored in the documented technical standards of Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving in Shengzhou, Zhejiang. Within the documented technical tradition of Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving in Shengzhou, Zhejiang: Shengzhou lies in eastern Zhejiang, on the upper reaches of the Cao’e River and at the western foot of the Siming Mountains. It is rich in bamboo resources, and its bamboo splits well into strips, making the area suitable for developing the craft of bamboo weaving. Shengzhou bamboo weaving is found throughout the city’s bamboo-producing areas, with substantial production in downtown Shengzhou and in Cangyan, Changle, Chongren, Huangzhe, Tongyuan, Shihuang, and Ganlin. During the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, bamboo weaving workshops appeared in Shengzhou, mainly producing fine-strip bamboo-woven vessels such as carrying baskets, examination baskets, incense baskets, food baskets, and shoe baskets. Shengzhou bamboo weaving comprises twelve major categories—baskets, plates, jars, boxes, vases, screens, animals, figures, buildings, furniture, lamps, and utensils—with more than seven thousand designs and varieties. Its production process is quite complex, generally passing through design, shaping, mold making, material estimation, processing of bamboo thread and strips, moth- and mildew-proofing, dyeing, weaving, carving of fittings, assembly, and lacquering. The working of bamboo thread and strips alone involves steps such as sawing the bamboo, bending it, splitting it, dividing it into sections, splitting strips, splitting thread, drawing strips, scraping thread, and scraping strips; there are, moreover, more than one hundred weaving techniques. Shengzhou bamboo weaving has four distinctive varieties: woven simulated animals, bleaching, flower-grain patterns, and blue-bodied lacquerware. Representative works include “Six Harmonies Pagoda,” “Yue Fei,” “Su Wu Herding Sheep,” and “The Six Steeds of Zhaoling.” The bamboo weaving “Nine Lions Playing with an Embroidered Ball” is displayed in the Zhejiang Hall of the Great Hall of the People and has been highly praised; the bamboo weaving “The Vast Sea Returns the Pearl,” presented by the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government as a gift to the new government of the Macao Special Administrative Region, drew a chorus of acclaim. Shengzhou bamboo weaving is renowned for its exquisite weaving, its numerous techniques, and its rich variety of designs. Its weaving methods encompass both coarse and fine work. Fine weaving can fit 150 bamboo threads into a single inch—exquisite and delicate, thin as a cicada’s wing; coarse weaving makes full use of the elasticity of bamboo, with clever insertion and nimble weaving—bold and unconstrained, meticulous and plain. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Working Procedures": Its production process is quite complex, generally passing through design, shaping, mold making, material estimation, processing of bamboo thread and strips, moth- and mildew-proofing, dyeing, weaving, carving of fittings, assembly, and lacquering. The working of bamboo thread and strips alone involves steps such as sawing the bamboo, bending it, splitting it, dividing it into sections, splitting strips, splitting thread, drawing strips, scraping thread, and scraping strips; there are, moreover, more than one hundred weaving techniques. "Nine steps in preparing the splints": Preparing the splints alone involves nine steps, and there are more than a hundred weaving techniques in the full process. "Nine Lions and the Pearl Returned": Its signature works include Nine Lions Playing with an Embroidered Ball, displayed in the Great Hall of the People, and the Pearl Returned to the Sea.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Lvcheng was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving, with Shengzhou, Zhejiang as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving in Shengzhou, Zhejiang: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Shengzhou, Zhejiang as its declared area, and Shengzhou Culture Tourism Chanye Development Center (Shengzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Center, Shengzhou Yue Ju Culture Shengtai Safeguarding Qu Service Center) 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. Lvcheng (Shengzhou, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Lvcheng · China ICH Official Archive