Wenzhou strives to burnish its image with culture

Flourishing culture industry

Tantou village, located in Wenzhou's Yongjia County, has quietly held on to the craftsmanship of Wenzhou porcelain for two thousand years. Last October,the village started renovations and constructions of new workshops in order to rebuild and promote its cultural brands.

Within two months, the village had torn down shabby buildings in a 96,500 square kilometer area and established 22 cultural and creative workshops.

These workshops produce a large variety of local crafts including Wenzhou porcelain, Wenzhou embroideries, and wooden carvings, all of which are now entering markets beyond the village borders.

Jin Kexing, an inheritor of four intangible cultural heritages, moved to Tantou village with his family to take advantage of this new trend. He had learned the techniques of bamboo carving, lacquer painting, clay figurines and silk figurines from his father and grandfather. He said the village now has a better environment to live and work, and the establishment of the workshops may help more people to know about the local fork arts.

"We hoped more people could know Wenzhou porcelain and Wenzhou ancient culture by rebuilding the village," said Xu Wu, a village official. "Meanwhile, we promoted the development of the local culture industry and created a better life for the villagers."

In addition to small business entrepreneurs, Wenzhou also attracted some big name designers to set up shops there. Zhu Xiaojie, who was educated abroad, returned to China in 1993 and later set up the company Opal in Wenzhou.

The design center of Opal employs 30 craftsmen devoted to artistic creation. The traditional culture of Wenzhou is closely related to China's philosophical tradition of Taoism, and the designs of its porcelain and other folk arts are often inspired by it. With the aesthetics in the products of Opal, these inspirations are on full display.

In 2016, the output of Wenzhou's culture industry reached 84.8 billion yuan (US$12.7billion) with an annual increase of almost 16 percent, according to Lin Bizhu, an official of the Wenzhou municipal government.

"Wenzhou is in the key period of economic transition," Lin said. "We must support the new industry to gain further development."