Wheat-straw Collage
01 · Historical Records
According to documented records, during the Xuande reign of the Ming dynasty, the Nie family of Yangshao Township, Qingfeng County, began engaging in the making of wheat stalk paintings.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qingfeng Nie-family wheat stalk appliqué is a local expression of traditional Chinese wheat stalk appliqué, distributed in Qingfeng County, Henan, and elsewhere. Qingfeng County is located in the northeast of Henan Province and is an important production area of quality wheat in China, providing abundant material resources for wheat stalk painting. In the mid-Qing period, more than ten wheat stalk painting families vied in brilliance, among which the Nie family's wheat stalk painting was one of the typical representatives. In the late Qing, Nie family successors were already able to use wheat stalks skillfully, designing and producing figures, auspicious animals, flowers, birds, and landscapes through process steps such as smoking and steaming, splitting, winding, cutting, and engraving, forming the distinctive Nie-family wheat stalk painting. According to the Nie family genealogy, during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing, the multi-layer pasting technique developed by Nie Wanjuan enriched and elevated the local wheat stalk painting technique. The subject categories of Nie-family wheat stalk painting include gods and Buddhas, auspicious flowers and birds, stories and operas, historical allusions, mountains and rivers, ancient figures, animals, and poultry. Traditional representative works include Five Tigers Welcoming Spring and the Four Beauties. The techniques and process flow mainly consist of two sets. First, the flat pasting technique, which comprises seventeen process steps including material selection, stalk cutting, smoking and steaming, and picture pasting. Second, the multi-layer pasting technique: wheat stalks are selected and sorted by color and shade, after which the stalks are bundled and soaked in a liquid of Chinese medicinal herbs, and the soaked stalks are split open, ironed flat, and dried. According to creative needs, the wheat stalks undergo technical treatments such as shaving, cutting, and scraping; raised parts are joined together; and steps such as shaping and finalizing the form are carried out. Light and dark stalks are set off against one another and pasted in layers from the inside outward. Nie-family wheat stalk painting uses black as its ground color and is simple and weighty; its characteristic lies in the mutual integration and development of the flat pasting, multi-layer pasting, and three-dimensional pasting techniques.
Archival Record of Process Steps
In the late Qing, Nie family successors were already able to use wheat stalks skillfully, designing and producing figures, auspicious animals, flowers, birds, and landscapes through process steps such as smoking and steaming, splitting, winding, cutting, and engraving, forming the distinctive Nie-family wheat stalk painting.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The ironing and boiling techniques handed down in the Nie family formed a distinctive Nie-family routine, promoting the development of local wheat stalk painting.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Wheat-straw Collage · Wheat-straw Collage · Wheat-straw Collage.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Nie-family wheat stalk painting mostly circulated within the Nie clan; at first it was passed down orally from generation to generation, and later the lineage of transmission was recorded in the family genealogy, with six generations being verifiable. Qingfeng Nie-family wheat stalk appliqué is one of the traditional wheat stalk appliqué art forms of relatively large scale and influence and relatively good conservation status in the Central Plains region; its flat pasting and multi-layer pasting techniques and its patterns have influenced and promoted the development of wheat stalk painting in northern Henan, and it possesses artistic, aesthetic, folkloric, and socio-cultural value. Nie Yuanzheng (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1959, from Qingfeng County, Henan Province. Nurtured by his family, he developed a deep love of art from childhood. At the age of sixteen, he had essentially mastered the traditional Nie-family flat pasting technique of wheat stalk painting, and could independently complete the full set of process steps from raw-material treatment such as splitting, scraping, smoking, and steaming to designing the pattern and producing the cut and engraved work. Building on the inherited traditional techniques, he improved the manufacturing technique, pattern design, and mounting and packaging methods in light of modern aesthetic needs, elevating the artistic effect without losing the antique charm and strong local character; his works are renowned at home and abroad. The work First-Rank Pure Lotus, made in 2009, won a national design patent. He is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Wheat Stalk Appliqué.
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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