Umbrella Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
According to tradition, during the Xianchun reign of the Southern Song dynasty, when the Chancellor Ma Tingluan (son-in-law of the Zhang family of Jialu, Wuyuan) retired to live in Jialu Village, Wuyuan County, he brought back an oil-paper umbrella from the capital. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, as Huizhou merchants rose to prominence, the Jialu paper umbrella—a specialty of Wuyuan County—traveled with their footsteps across the Yangtze River basin and became a traditional famous-brand product of Jiangnan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Jialu paper-umbrella making craft is one of the representatives of China's traditional umbrella-making crafts, distributed in Wuyuan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province. The county lies in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, has a subtropical monsoon climate, with layered ranges of hills, crisscrossing mountain streams, and a high forest cover, and abounds in luobo trees, mao bamboo, shui bamboo, tung oil, persimmon oil, and pi trees—fine raw materials for making the Jialu paper umbrella. The Wuyuan Jialu paper umbrella uses aged bamboo, at least four years old and more than one chi in girth, grown on sunny, ridge-top slopes for its frame; its canopy is made of bark paper produced from the highly flexible wild mulberry bark and brushed with plant-derived tung oil for water resistance; the entire manufacturing process is completed entirely by hand. The Jialu paper-umbrella making process is fine and meticulous, with more than 60 steps when subdivided, and 22 main steps: selecting materials, cutting the bamboo, shaving the green, splitting the strips, shaping the ribs, drilling, sawing the grooves, sawing the hub, stringing the hub, steaming and boiling, sun-drying, fitting the handle, fitting the key, winding the canopy ring, mounting the paper, gluing the canopy edge, painting, rolling up, applying tung oil, threading the decorative cord, fitting the grip, and finishing the top. The bark-paper canopy resembles the xuan paper used for calligraphy and painting; artisans inscribe poems and paint pictures on it, adding an aesthetic pleasure beyond mere utility. The Wuyuan Jialu paper umbrella is ingeniously designed—light, durable, easy to carry, and elegant in appearance—and has won wide favor. The oil-paper umbrella is a traditional rain-sheltering implement of the Chinese nation, with a history of use stretching more than a thousand years to the present. From then on, the umbrella-making craft was passed down through the generations in Jialu. As the folk rhyme goes: 'Jingdezhen's porcelain and Jialu's umbrellas—and Hangzhou's silk needs no choosing.' At present, two enterprises—the Wuyuan Jialu Paper Umbrella Factory and the Qinghua Zhu'an Tang Umbrella Factory—still make oil-paper umbrellas entirely by traditional hand methods, with over 100 artisans, an annual output of more than 100,000 paper umbrellas, and sales expanded to many cities in southern China, with some products also sold to Taiwan and several countries overseas. The Jialu paper-umbrella making craft carries the wisdom and creativity of China's working people in adapting to local conditions and using natural resources to meet their living needs, and bears witness to the changes in local social life. The Jialu oil-paper umbrella is light, durable, and easy to carry, suitable for both sun and rain; the artistic creation on its canopy integrates poetry, calligraphy, and painting with rich forms of expression, making it not only an essential companion for travel but also an exquisite piece of folk art.
Archival Process Record
The Wuyuan Jialu paper umbrella uses aged bamboo, at least four years old and more than one chi in girth, grown on sunny, ridge-top slopes for its frame; its canopy is made of bark paper produced from the highly flexible wild mulberry bark and brushed with plant-derived tung oil for water resistance; the entire manufacturing process is completed entirely by hand.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The fame of the Jialu paper umbrella was carried outward by Huizhou merchants: in the Xianchun reign of the Southern Song, the Wuyuan native Ma Tingluan brought an oil-paper umbrella back from the capital, and after the rise of Huizhou merchants in the Ming and Qing, this umbrella traveled along the Yangtze to become a famous brand of Jiangnan. The locality abounds in luobo trees, mao bamboo, shui bamboo, tung oil, and persimmon oil; the umbrella ribs are taken from aged bamboo, at least four years old and more than one chi in girth, grown on sunny ridge tops, while the canopy uses bark paper made from wild mulberry bark. Of the full set of more than sixty steps, the principal twenty-two run from selecting materials, cutting the bamboo, shaving the green, and splitting the strips, through mounting the paper, gluing the canopy edge, painting, applying tung oil, and finishing the top. Today the Jialu Paper Umbrella Factory and the Qinghua Zhu'an Tang Umbrella Factory still work entirely by hand.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Representative inheritors at all levels play an important role in taking on apprentices, in product design, and in the improvement and innovation of the craft. The component-joining and integration techniques employed in this craft hold certain research and learning value in the fields of mechanisms and craftsmanship.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Bi Liufu 03-1405
- Song Zhiming 03-1406
- Dai Gensheng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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