Wang Xingwu, a Miao papermaker in Shiqiao village, Nangao Township, Danzhai County, Guizhou Province, has made various kinds of colored handmade paper with natural plant dyes on the basis of ancient papermaking technology.
According to reports, Shiqiao village is one of the places where the ancient papermaking processes and tools are well preserved. Its leather paper-making skills were listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection lists in June this year.
Wang Xingwu, who has mastered the papermaking technology of eighteen generations, began to explore the production technology of color paper in 1998. He adds plant dyes to the pulp, or inlays, and pastes various flowers and leaves in it. At present, according to the needs of customers, he can produce colorful handmade paper with a variety of textures, modern feelings, and traditional techniques. Recently, in Shiqiao village, the reporter saw a kind of light green and green white concave-convex paper, a kind of brown-red concave-convex paper inlaid with leaves treated with liquid medicine, which is used to make greeting cards. Wang Xingwu cut and bound various kinds of concave-convex paper, wrinkled paper, and Yunlong paper inlaid with flowers and leaves into volumes, which are sold as souvenirs and are very popular with tourists.
According to the research, Shiqiao Miao ancestors used the papermaking technology of Han nationality for reference and made white paper from local rich bark and fir root. The white paper produced here is flexible and one of the traditional Chinese painting papers.