Tantou Shizi Village


Shizi Village, famous for hand-made fragrant powder paper making, is located in Tantou Town, Longhui County,Hunan Province.

He Shengyong, a local village in the town, is  over 70 years old. His ancestors made a living by hand-made paper. He has been engaged in the traditional hand-made paper industry for 61 years. He has a large-scale workshop at home, and the tools are complete. Excepting for the father and son to do their own papermaking, there are also 3 helpers in the workshop.

Handmade papermaking was handed down from Cai Lun's papermaking. Handmade paper is made from bamboo, and the bamboo is turned into paper by more than ten manual processes such as foaming, cooking, washing, drying, dyeing, paper-picking, pressing, and baking. The paper is called local paper which was mainly used for writing, washing and worship in ancient times. This kind of handmade paper is famous for its pliability, whiteness, smoothness, smoothness and durability. It often has certain characteristics that cannot be possessed by mechanical paper.

Especially, in a small stone mountain in the northern suburb of Tantou Town, there is a unique non-mud and non-stone material in the world. The locals call it a stone mud, which is rich in various natural nutrients. Excavate it from the cracks in the stone, use the thick wood stick to break the smash on the stone joint, then wash it in the water, remove the slag, and precipitate it to get a fine white powder, then paint it. Brushed to a local high-quality jade board, dried, bound, cut, and spiced, it became a "fragrance paper." Women use it to wipe their faces. The fragrance is permanent, which can remove both greasy and white skin. It is no wonder that people say: “The beach is the most beautiful in the water!” The powder paper has been exported for more than 100 years. It is the only one that is popular among Southeast Asian, European and American women.

In history, paper and papermaking industry was very popular in Taitou Town. The evergreen bamboos in the four seasons and the unique underground lava water quality have made the reputation of Tantou paper, which have been interpreted by local paper,colored paper, fragrant powder paper, the so-called " the three must in Tantou Town".

Tantou New Year's painting is the only hand-painted woodblock watermark painting in Hunan. Although it has more than 300 years of history, the information about the ancient conditions of Tantou New Year's painting is very rare. In recent years, its reputation has been directly chasing the traditional Chinese “Four New Year Paintings” and has attracted wide attention from home and abroad.


 

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