Wheat-straw Collage
01 · Historical Records
Heilongjiang wheat-stalk appliqué is practiced in Harbin and other areas of Heilongjiang Province; it emerged in the 1880s and was created by Qiao Ruyi.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
To make a living, Qiao Ruyi brought the wheat-straw braiding craft of his native Shandong to Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, and on that basis developed the wheat-stalk appliqué technique. Heilongjiang has fertile land and beautiful scenery; its wheat has a long growing period, high degree of lignification, and fiber-rich stalks, laying a material foundation for the sustainable development of this craft. Harbin brings together the traditional history and culture of the north while blending Chinese and foreign cultures; its rich historical accumulation provides broad creative space and artistic inspiration for wheat-stalk appliqué. Through transmission and development by later generations, Heilongjiang wheat-stalk appliqué has, on the basis of flat appliqué, developed techniques such as half-relief and three-dimensional round carving, and processes such as “grabbed fiber” and “torn fiber”; its colors have developed from the natural color of wheat stalks to works in many colors, with a strong three-dimensional effect that is simple and natural. Wheat-straw painting is a typical representative of wheat-stalk appliqué: using wheat stalks as raw material and their natural luster, grain, and texture, it passes through more than a dozen manual steps — selecting material, soaking, boiling, steaming, smoking, dyeing, scraping, cutting, braiding, carving, printing, pressing, scalding, branding, and mounting — and draws on artistic methods such as Chinese painting, papercutting, and sketch, vividly rendering traditional subjects such as flowers, landscapes, architecture, figures, and animals in wheat stalk on cardboard. In the course of its survival and development this craft has formed a distinctive artistic charm; representative works include “Fragrance Filling the World” and “Peace and Prosperity for the Nation.” Over a long period Heilongjiang Province has accumulated the rich history and culture of northern China while also blending the results of convergence among multiple ethnic cultures and of cultural exchange between China and abroad. In addition, the craft uses environmentally friendly, renewable wheat stalks as raw material, making it very friendly to the ecological environment and sustainable.
Qiao Ruyi and the Shandong straw craft
Appearing in the 1880s, the craft was created by Qiao Ruyi, who brought his native Shandong straw work to Harbin and developed it into a picture-making technique.
The dozen-odd steps of straw painting
Straw painting takes the stalks through selecting, soaking, boiling, steaming, fumigating, dyeing, scraping, cutting, braiding, carving, stamping, ironing and pasting.
Half-relief, three-dimensional carving and feather-splitting
Later generations added half-relief and full round carving to flat pasting, along with feather-splitting and tearing, expanding the palette beyond the straw's own colour.
The straw craft museum and training centre
Ma Wenxia led the building of a skills database, a straw-craft museum and a training centre, and wrote the teaching manual that anchors its transmission.
Fragrance Fills the World and Peace for the Nation
Representative pieces designed by Ma Wenxia, exhibited and awarded repeatedly, with products sold at home and abroad.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Heilongjiang wheat-stalk appliqué has Harbin as its main center of transmission, the technique having been passed down master-to-apprentice in the line of Qiao Ruyi for eight clearly traced generations. Ma Wenxia joined the Harbin Arts and Crafts Factory in 1972 and has worked on wheat-stalk appliqué ever since; she has led inheritors in establishing an inheritor technique database, a wheat-straw craft intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, and a wheat-stalk appliqué training center, and has compiled the textbook “Wheat-Stalk Appliqué Technique Course,” teaching it in the training classes of various schools.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Wheat-straw Collage · Wheat-straw Collage · Wheat-straw Collage.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The craft has been transmitted in the world through masters teaching apprentices, with a clearly traced lineage of eight generations. As a typical representative of the migrant culture of China's northeast region, Heilongjiang wheat-stalk appliqué has historical, artistic, and cultural value that cannot be overlooked. Ma Wenxia (record from the official inheritor archive): Female, Han ethnicity, born in August 1952, from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. She is a senior arts and crafts engineer, a national model worker in the light industry sector, and a recipient of the May 1 Women's Pacesetter award from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. Since joining the Harbin Arts and Crafts Factory in 1972, she has worked continuously in wheat-stalk appliqué production. Works she has designed and produced have repeatedly been shown in exhibitions and have won awards, and the products sell at home and abroad. Her representative works include “Peace and Prosperity for the Nation” and “Fragrance Filling the World.” She has led inheritors in excavating and organizing relevant materials, established the inheritor technique database and the wheat-straw craft intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, founded the wheat-stalk appliqué training center, and compiled “Wheat-Stalk Appliqué Technique Course,” teaching in the training classes of various schools, doing a great deal of work to protect and transmit the art of wheat-stalk appliqué. She is a representative inheritor of wheat-stalk appliqué, a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Wenxia 05-2679
- Jiang Yunhua 05-2680
- Nie Yuanzheng 05-2681
- Deng Youpu 05-2682
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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