2021-02-27 14:36:12 GMT2021-02-27 22:36:12(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
HANGZHOU, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) Wen Shishan, 57, wandered in a bamboo grove, holding a machete in search of ideal materials to make oil-paper umbrellas, an old craft dating back to over a millennium ago.
Situated in Hangzhou, capital of east China s Zhejiang Province, Wen s workshop boasts more than 800,000 fans on the popular Chinese short-video platform Douyin. The digital renaissance of the ancient handicraft can be traced in part to Zhang Jianhua, a short video maker born in the 1990s.
In 2018, Zhang began to help Wen film the production process of the oil-paper umbrellas, driven by a fierce reluctance to let the fine art vanish into thin air.