Chapter 192 Plays the Felt-Making Show for Tribal Members

Xu Que took out a media player he had previously redeemed from the system's inventory and placed it in front of the primitive people of the Black Deer Tribe, playing a documentary about felt-making. The player showed a large crowd gathered in a nearby village; upon closer inspection, they discovered people were queuing to make felt. Similar scenes had appeared more than once before, and occasionally recurred.

In the past, felt makers were highly respected in rural areas.

With the changing times and social development, many people have moved out of their cave dwellings and no longer yearn for earthen beds. Felt has quietly disappeared from people's lives, and felt makers are becoming increasingly rare.

As the older generation of felt-making artisans gradually passes away, this intangible cultural heritage is facing the danger of disappearing.

Today, wool has many uses and has become an indispensable part of people's lives. However, felting is disappearing from people's lives, and the craft of felting is also disappearing.

In the past, the most common use of wool was for felting. This felting technique has a history of thousands of years and is mainly prevalent in northern regions.

The art of felt making was introduced by Mongolian nomadic tribes. During the late Song and Yuan dynasties, Mongolians, Hui, Han, and other ethnic groups lived together in Northwest China. At that time, Mongolians lived in felt forts and used felt as bedding. Some residents learned the art of felt making from the Mongolians. From then on, the art of felt making took root and flourished in Northwest China, and the profession of "felt maker" came into being.

The main materials used for felt making are wool and cow hair. It is a purely manual operation that generally requires more than a dozen steps, including carding, spreading, spraying water, spraying oil, sprinkling bean flour, spreading more wool, rolling the felt, binding the felt together, rolling the connecting strips, unbinding the connecting strips and pressing the edges, washing the felt, shaping, and drying the felt.

In the past, felt makers were highly respected in rural areas. However, with changing times and social development, many people have moved out of their cave dwellings and no longer cherish earthen beds. Felt has quietly faded from people's lives, and felt makers have become increasingly rare. As the older generation of felt makers slowly passes away, this intangible cultural heritage is facing the danger of disappearing.

However, for over a thousand years, felt played an extremely important role in the lives of people in Northwest China. Felt kang (heated brick bed) felt, felt shoes, felt hats, rain felt, and door curtains were all necessities for people living in mountainous areas. Due to the abundance of raw materials, felt making was once a major craft for making a living, and people went out to learn the craft. As a result, a group of craftsmen emerged who made a living by felt making and wool weaving.

Making felt is hard work. First, you have to use a rope to hang the bow around the roof beam, put the prepared raw wool under the bow, and then the felter puts a plectrum on his arm to pull the cowhide bowstring, beating the wool again and again until it is fluffy and soft, like a ball of cotton.

The felt makers strictly follow the operating procedures and never miss a single step.

The process is as follows: First, remove impurities from the wool, clean and dry it, chop it into short sections, and then card it thoroughly. Next, spread the carded wool on a bamboo mat, spray it with cool water, add some black flour and cooking oil to the wool, and mix them in proportion to make the felt dense and smooth. Sprinkle a layer of wool, sprinkle a layer of flour, and then spray a layer of cooking oil. Use tools to smooth the wool, then roll up the bamboo mat, tie it tightly with rope, and repeatedly thump and roll it, which is called "falling the curtain" in the trade, to form a felt base. After that, place the felt base on a wooden board that is tilted next to a water trough, pour boiling water on it while rubbing and rolling it back and forth with your feet until the water is squeezed out and the wool is fully bonded, and flatten the four corners to make it take shape. Finally, wash it with clean water and dry it in the sun.

It can be said that the "rolling" of felt making requires not only skill but also physical strength. After rolling it back and forth, the legs will ache, feel tired and numb. People without leg strength cannot persevere.

The three treasures of a felt maker are a slingshot, a bamboo screen, and willow branches. The tools for making felt seem very simple, but to use these three tools well and to do the three processes of slingshotting, washing, and kneading properly requires physical strength and patience.

Felt making is a collective task involving two or more people. The monotonous tunes hummed while making felt are used to unify movements, boost morale, and count the number of times the felt is rolled. Using numbers as words, the short, lively tunes are actually a way for the felt makers to encourage each other and work together.

Taking the making of a large felt, four feet wide and six feet long, as an example, requires twelve catties of wool, one catty of flour, and three ounces of sesame oil. It takes three people six hours to complete several steps, including carding, spreading, and washing. If you cut corners in any step, the quality of the felt will definitely decrease. A well-made felt depends not only on the excellent quality of Ningxia Tan wool but, more importantly, on the superb craftsmanship of the felt maker.

There are many types of felt. According to the type of wool, there are spring wool felt, sand wool felt, and cotton wool felt, etc.; according to the size, there are four-six felt, five-seven felt, single felt, and prayer felt used by Hui people, etc., dozens of varieties; according to the color, there are white felt, flowered felt, red felt, and tile-blue felt, etc. The felt makers make each one exquisitely.

Because of his diligence, hard work, and constant practice, He Zhaoyuan has become renowned in the felt-making industry. His felt is famous for its softness, comfort, evenness, cleanliness, beauty, and durability. Over more than forty years, these rural folks have hand-rolled nearly ten thousand felt mats. Many households at the foot of the mountain in the village still have felt mats they made on their kang (heated brick bed), some over forty years old, still smooth and sturdy as ever. He also has a unique skill: he invented a method of adding flour and vegetable oil to the felt, allowing the felt made from goat hair to "stand up." "The skill of a felt-maker is judged by the final step," he says. The final step, kneading the edges of the felt, is the most crucial. Because the uneven edges cannot be trimmed with scissors, they must be kneaded by hand.

Without extensive experience and superb craftsmanship, one cannot produce felt with perfectly straight, angular edges. He Zhaoyuan's felt, however, has distinct, sharp edges, as if cut with a knife.

During the era of the collective farming movement, because of his exceptional felt-making skills, he was allowed to earn work points to supplement his food rations by making felt.

"Back then, felt making was a lucrative business. There was a lot of work, and when things got busy, we would often work through the night. We could make up to three felts a day. In a month, we could earn more than seventy yuan. We would pay sixty yuan to the production team and still have more than ten yuan left over." When talking about those years, the felt maker He looked proud and honored, because at that time, the cadres' monthly salary was only a little over ten yuan.

In the home of a felt maker, there is a seven-foot-long wooden bow with fluffy fibers, which is over four hundred years old. This bow was originally passed down from the family of Huang Guanglin, an old felt maker in Zhongning County.

Because he loved that large felt-making bow, he spent a fortune, exchanging six hundred catties of rice for it. From then on, He Zhaoyuan, then in his prime, carried the bow on his shoulder every day, going from street to street. This bow, which had been with him for nearly fifty years, had a dent more than an inch deep on its surface from rolling out nearly ten thousand felt strips. Now, this large bow has become a family heirloom of He Zhaoyuan's family, and he always takes it to see whenever someone comes to visit.

With the development of the times and the improvement of people's living standards, the felt-making industry has gradually faded from people's lives. Although some people still occasionally ask He Zhaoyuan to make felt, the felt-making industry is on the verge of disappearing. For more than 40 years, He Zhaoyuan has trained many apprentices. However, with the changing times, these apprentices have all switched to other industries, and their skills have been abandoned halfway.