Shougongzhixiejiyi
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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. 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."
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Neilianshengqiancengdibuxie Making Craftsmanship · Shougongzhixiejiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xing Jun (per the official inheritor archival record): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1959, a native of Tianjin. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the Handmade Shoemaking Craft (Laomeihua Handmade Shoemaking Craft), an item of intangible cultural heritage. A Laomeihua handmade shoemaking technician. In 1975 he began learning the traditional handcraft of kunjian shoes from his father Xing Baoru; with the craft on the verge of being lost, he withstood the pressure, continually studied the specialized technique, and actively innovated product varieties. He encourages young people, on the basis of transmission, to dare to innovate, combining technique with art and adapting to contemporary trends. He mainly serves the elderly women of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region who still have a need for these shoes.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- He Kaiying 03-1373
- Xing Jun 04-1881
- Lai Shufang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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