Chen Yunhua: Using bamboo to create art and wealth

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China lists bamboo weaving as a national intangible cultural heritage with the Ministry of Culture naming Qingshen County in Sichuan Province as the home of the art.

The area has produced many bamboo weaving masters, one of whom is 75-year-old Chen Yunhua.

CGTN's Hou Na interviews Chen Yunhua. /CGTN Photo

This is an art of extreme delicacy...

Chen Yunhua, who started as a humble street craftsman, is the crème de la crème of the business. He said when he was very young, he realized that bamboo weaving could bring wealth and change his life.

By the age of 15, he was well known in the village as a "handy guy," supporting his family by weaving bamboo. In 1968, along with other villagers, Chen started the first bamboo weaving workshop in Qingshen County.

This became the origin of the county’s bamboo industry.

Chen teaches CGTN's Hou Na bamboo weaving. /CGTN Photo

His vision went far beyond the small town. "It was 1972 when US President Richard Nixon visited China that our bamboo weaving products first came to the world stage," he said.

Chen teaches his students at the workshop. /CGTN Photo

From painting, calligraphy, packaging, and furniture…

Over the past four decades, Chen and his team have been granted over 20 patents and their handicrafts have gone global. Now he's busy passing on the art so his fellow villagers can make a living from it.

Chen teaches his students at the workshop. /CGTN Photo

Bamboo weaving is a constant rising industry. Chen says bamboo represents the core spirit of Chinese culture, and he will not stop innovating and making new products to meet the demands of people from around the world.

Chen's work has been presented to the president of Cameroon. /CGTN Photo

In 2008, he built a bamboo weaving museum which has given the industry a broader space for development, attracting a large number of tourists to visit and shop.

Over the past 40 years, he has run more than 500 training courses and trained tens of thousands of people.

CGTN filming at a bamboo weaving workshop. /CGTN Photo‍

In Qingshen County alone, more than 30,000 farmers have raised their income through bamboo weaving; the annual income in the region now ranges from RMB30,000 (5,000 US dollars ) to more than RMB200,000 ( some 33,000 dollars.)

But Chen isn't satisfied as his aim is to help the art thrive wherever bamboo grows.