Even if you can do the above two things, in order to successfully become an officially certified inheritor, you still need to participate in the examination organized by the county and have the ability to independently complete the designated bamboo carving works. For people who do not have this talent, even if you honestly complete all the training courses, if you cannot produce your own works, it will be a waste!
Just like many directors and actors with formal training, no matter how good their academic performance is, if their acting is exaggerated and their directorial works are cringeworthy, their ratings on Douban plummet and they fail to gain market recognition, even if they get a doctorate, it's all for naught.
“Bamboo carving is different from bamboo weaving. It requires a high level of basic skills. Back then, I spent three years honing my skills under my master’s guidance before I was considered a master. Then I started by making bamboo tubes and small ornaments. Those who can make large pieces have basically studied for seven or eight years.” Jiang Youliang patiently explained to those who wanted to become his apprentices.
Everyone turned pale after hearing these words.
Do I have to study for another seven or eight years before I can receive a monthly subsidy of one thousand yuan?
I'd rather be a security guard in a residential community; at least I could earn three or four thousand yuan a month.
Oh, I almost forgot, apprentices aren't eligible for subsidies; in fact, they have to pay out of pocket during their apprenticeship! o(╥﹏╥)o
Then look at Jiang Youliang's aged and deformed hands...
In less than three days, all the people who had come to ask to become his apprentices had disappeared!
Jiang Youliang was a little angry, feeling that young people nowadays really couldn't bear any hardship.
Because no local young people were willing to learn bamboo carving from him, Jiang Youliang had no choice but to accept his son's suggestion and register video accounts on several platforms as an "inheritor of Langshan bamboo carving culture intangible cultural heritage".
Although Jiang Xiaoman was extremely busy, she was still very concerned about her father's "career".
After registering the account, Jiang Xiaoman made an appointment with his father to do bamboo carving under the surveillance camera in his yard during the day, so that his father could get video resources, since he was often not at home during the day.
It was much easier at night; Jiang Youliang was making bamboo carvings, and he could film him from the side.
To the collective speechlessness of the fans, one night when it was Jiang Xiaoman's turn to do a live stream, the kid actually gave up and pointed the camera at his father. Just when the fans thought that the old man would be appearing on camera today, the style of the scene changed unexpectedly. Jiang Xiaoman, like playing with nested dolls, brought out another set of live streaming equipment!
Good heavens! So, they're watching Jiang Xiaoman's live stream alongside Jiang Youliang's?
Why not just go to Uncle Jiang's live stream?
Fans angrily went to Jiang Youliang's live stream room, and then... many of them inexplicably couldn't leave.
Logically speaking, Jiang Youliang is an old man with a face full of wrinkles. He can't sing or dance, and he can't act cute or charming. Why would anyone be so foolish as to pay attention to a man in his fifties?
Hilarious! Who knows?
The fans knew that as they watched Old Man Jiang's rough hands chiseling and hammering on the smooth bamboo, they would unknowingly fall asleep... It was even more effective than the expensive sleep aid pillows they bought online!
Good heavens~ What kind of amazing sleep-inducing blogger is this?
I love it!
Follow me now, and next time you have insomnia, come and watch Old Man Jiang's bamboo carving!
Jiang Xiaoman watched helplessly as the number of viewers in her live stream plummeted, while her father's previously deserted live stream quickly filled up with people!
Some fans, in a rather whimsical way, made wishes in the live chat:
May the god of sleep grant me a dream before 10 o'clock!
May the God of Sleep protect me from staying up late! And reduce hair loss!
Jiang Xiaoman: ? ? ? ?
Could these people be followers of Jiangxia?
Did you enter the wrong live stream?
Live streams that teach skills are not uncommon online. Many bloggers, with the spirit of imparting knowledge and skills, are eager to slow down the details and teach every knowledge point to their fans, which has made a great contribution to the promotion and development of traditional Chinese culture!
However, it is rare to see someone like Old Man Jiang who remains silent throughout the entire process, focusing solely on his bamboo carving.
Most importantly, he wasn't showing off his skills; he was simply immersed in the world of bamboo carving, which captivated netizens who stumbled upon the video. It was truly mesmerizing!
Upon learning that Jiang Youliang had opened a personal account, the county's Intangible Cultural Heritage Center also followed the center's official account. However, seeing Jiang Youliang silently engrossed in making bamboo carvings in the live stream, Director Chen sighed inwardly.
This is yet another inheritor who only knows how to bury himself in his work but doesn't know how to promote or publicize his work!
Isn't it precisely because fewer and fewer people know about their intangible cultural heritage that it has almost been lost to this day?
Sigh, it seems that Jiang Youliang will follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and fail miserably... Huh?
Director Chen couldn't help but raise his hand to rub his eyes. The next second, he saw the number of viewers in Jiang Youliang's live broadcast room soar. In just half an hour, it actually exceeded 10,000?
"Could it be a system bug?" Director Chen shook his phone in disbelief and decided to restart it to see what would happen.
What if my phone is broken?
Director Chen's phone was a hand-me-down from his son, and it was slow to restart. By the time he finally managed to open the short video platform again and find Jiang Youliang's live stream, he saw that there were already more than 30,000 people watching.
The live chat was also very lively, with a bunch of people making wishes and others calling him "Dad" (these are probably Xiaoman's girlfriend fans), leaving Director Chen completely bewildered.
...
Jiang Youliang's intangible cultural heritage live-streaming classes have an exceptionally high viewer retention rate. This is because big data works like this: the more people watch, the more recommendations are given.
By New Year's Eve, Jiang Youliang's personal video account had already surpassed 100,000 followers.
In other words, less than a month after he officially received the title of inheritor of Langshan bamboo carving intangible cultural heritage, he had already completed the KPI set for him by the intangible cultural heritage center ahead of schedule and received a special contribution award of 10,000 yuan.
Director Chen: "..."
He understands the young people of this era less and less!
Just as fans were completely engrossed in Jiang Laohan's intangible cultural heritage (hypnosis) live stream, Jiang Laohan, who consistently streamed every day without fail, suddenly announced a one-day hiatus.
Because he's going to the county town to see a movie with his son!
Fans: ...
What movie is so good that even a seasoned homebody like Old Man Jiang is willing to leave the mountains and travel over mountains to see it in the county town?
Is there some blockbuster film suddenly appearing in this year's Lunar New Year film season?
Fortunately, some of the people following Jiang Youliang were die-hard fans of Xiaoman, and soon some enthusiastic fans solved the mystery for the new fans—
Old Jiang and Brother Xiaoman went to see what was probably the movie "The Road to Splendor" that was filmed in Langshan Village this year.
It's said that someone from their village even played a fairly important supporting role in it.
No wonder the whole village mobilized; everyone chartered a bus to go to the county town to watch a movie.
Movie tickets aren't cheap these days.
But everyone has money in their hands during the Chinese New Year.
Moreover, this year, not only those who went out to work have money, but even the elderly and women who stayed at home have earned money with Jiang Xiaoman and Shan Yan.
With an annual income of tens of thousands of yuan, spending a few dozen yuan to watch a movie is something I can grit my teeth and be willing to do.
Besides, this movie was filmed in their village! How many lifetimes would it take for such a thing to happen? If they don't hurry up and go see it, how will they have the nerve to brag to their relatives in the next village during the New Year?
And so, on the first day of the Lunar New Year this year, the villagers of Langshan Village got up very early, which was unusual for them. The village chartered a bus and headed straight for the county town!
Jiang Xiaoman, that stingy guy, even on the first day of the Lunar New Year, he had to find a cheap movie screening room for the village. It was in a commercial plaza on the outskirts of the county town. He had checked online and found that of the three cinemas in the county town, this one usually had the lowest attendance rate!
Sure enough, when he called the cinema to negotiate a private screening, he immediately got a 30% discount—this is the Lunar New Year film season, and cinemas in the main urban area are already doing well if they don't raise prices, let alone give you a discount.
"Luckily I came with Xiaoman. I saw that the group-buying tickets online were 60 yuan each, but we only had to pay 40 yuan each for the whole theater. It's such a good deal!"
The movie theaters didn't lose money either.
Perhaps because they got a good deal on the ticket price, the villagers, who rarely come to the county town to watch a movie, saw that others would buy popcorn, cola, milk tea, and other treats when they went to the movies, so they bought some too.
This is way more profitable than selling movie tickets!
The cinema manager chuckled and even added Jiang Xiaoman on WeChat, saying that she could contact him for future private screenings and he would definitely get her a discounted price.
"The Road to Glory" tells several touching stories about my country's rural revitalization efforts. Although it is a patriotic film, the directors are all skilled at making commercial films, so the pacing of the story is excellent. Before the first story was even over, the villagers were already moved to tears.
The story featuring Jiang Yuan and Lang Ying was the third one. To everyone's surprise, the first one to appear was not the famous actor Jiang Yuan, but Lang Ying, a supporting actress!
The familiar scenery of Langshan Village, under the photographer's lens, becomes dreamlike and ethereal, like a fairyland.
In this beautiful, idyllic mountain village, a familiar figure staggered onto the hillside.
"It's Lang Ying!"
"Sister Eiko!"
A series of gasps rippled through the screening room.
This is Lang Ying, an acquaintance of theirs, but she is not only Lang Ying.
Although Lang Ying's hair was disheveled and her clothes were tattered, her clear and stubborn eyes and her sharp and slender features gave people a kind of beauty full of strength and wildness!
The villagers held their breath.
The subsequent plot unfolded almost like it was written from gossip they were familiar with:
A young woman, unable to bear a son, was abused by her husband's family. To protect her two daughters, she had no choice but to divorce her husband and move into the abandoned wooden house of the mountain keeper.
Next, Wang Xian, a poverty alleviation cadre played by Jiang Yuan, arrives in this poor mountain village. He raises poverty alleviation funds everywhere, purchases new high-yield potato varieties for the villagers free of charge, and encourages the villagers to switch from the old varieties to the new ones.
During a rainstorm, Wang Xian, who was in the mountains promoting a new variety of potatoes, didn't have time to find shelter and unexpectedly discovered Lang Ying and her two daughters, who were starving and skin and bones, hiding in the mountain keeper's wooden hut...
"Are they Da Niu and Er Niu?" the villagers exclaimed again.
Because they couldn't find suitable child actors, the director ended up having Lang Ying's two daughters make cameo appearances in the scene.
However, it was precisely because of this that the scene of the two little girls clinging affectionately to their mother instantly brought tears to the eyes of the soft-hearted aunts and sisters-in-law in the village.
At this moment, they couldn't help but wonder if Lang Ying, after divorcing Jiang Erming, had really lived like in the movie, raising two children and having to be frugal with potatoes?
Chapter 207
The villagers of Langshan Village don't really understand the significance of the red-skinned potatoes that everyone is growing. They just think that this variety has a higher yield, fewer pests and diseases, and a higher selling price than the old varieties.
Therefore, although this new variety of potato cannot be saved for seed and additional money must be spent to buy taro seeds every year, the cost of buying taro seeds is nothing compared to the bumper harvest brought by high yield.
At this moment, seeing poverty alleviation cadres like Wang Xian trudging through the mud and falling repeatedly on the mountain road, yet still relentlessly promoting the new potato variety to each household, the villagers couldn't help but shed tears of emotion.
This director is truly something else; one second he can move you to tears, and the next he can make you laugh through your tears.
I don't know if the screenwriter was a good friend of Lang Ying, but in the later revised version of the script, Lang Ying's scumbag ex-husband was portrayed as a villain who went against the cause of rural revitalization.
As it turned out, this scumbag was too greedy and stole the potato seeds that were being given away to the villagers for free. Unexpectedly, these potato seeds were slightly poisonous, and the whole family foamed at the mouth and had to be taken away by ambulance...
"Hahaha~" A burst of hearty laughter echoed through the movie theater.
Ordinary people love to see stories where bad guys meet a tragic end.