A deaf-mute artisan in east China’s Shandong Province has helped drive the revitalization of culture in rural areas by making clay figurines.
Kang Zhimin makes a clay figurine. (Chinanews.com/Zhang Tianfeng)
Kang Zhimin, from Liuzhuang village, Chengwu county, Shandong, is a fourth-generation inheritor of the craft of making Caozhou clay figurines, which was listed as a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item.
Kang returned home to start a business, and established a pottery art studio in 2017. With hard work, fortitude, and clay figurines with distinctive features, he has made a name for himself. In 2022, Kang’s studio garnered revenue of nearly 2 million yuan ($290,200).
Kang started teaching vulnerable groups, especially people with disabilities, to make clay figurines in 2013 to help them increase their income. So far, he has cultivated over 40 people with disabilities and trained nearly 500 students by teaching the techniques to make clay figurines at special education schools on a regular basis.
Liu Shengqiang, a 54-year-old deaf man who was the first to learn the craft free of charge at Kang’s studio, has become a skilled worker. Having benefited from Kang’s techniques to make clay figurines, Sun Hongxia, a local villager, has developed a passion for the craft.
Kang Zhimin (right) teaches an apprentice to make clay figurines. (Photo courtesy of the media convergence center of Chengwu county)
Chengwu county has held promotional activities to boost consumption of local handmade heritage products, including Caozhou clay figurines, and launched a tourist route featuring intangible cultural heritages.
The innovative development of handmade heritage products can revive traditional handicrafts and inject new impetus into the integrated development of urban and rural areas, said Liu Wenbo, head of the publicity department of the Party committee of Chengwu county.
The official added that the establishment of intangible cultural heritage workshops has provided a source of inspiration for rural revitalization, boosting the revitalization of culture in rural areas while inheriting traditional handicrafts.