How to Become a Carpenter in the New Generation
Traditions and Cultural Heritage: Genesis, Reproduction, and Preservation,
8 February 2023
,
Page 258-268
https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/mono/978-81-19039-58-6/CH24
Abstract
This paper is aimed at helping the traditional carpenters to become modern carpenters. We will focus on a small town in the northeast Fujian, China, where there are a lot of traditional carpenters but few of them do woodwork nowadays. The paper can be divided into three parts.
In the first part, we will start from two aspects based on life histories of the elder carpenters. Firstly, we wish to find out the status of the traditional carpenters, involving their 'shifu' (masters), material sources, rituals, consumers and so on. Secondly, we assess the influential factors nowadays, such as intangible cultural heritage policies, ecological environment, tools, markets.
Secondly, realizing the huge gap of the 'nowadays' and the 'past', we reveal that the main problem is located at the absence of the 'bridge'. We compare the different ways between the training and the birth of a traditional and new carpenter. This part uses internet to seek more possibilities in the modern time with new tools, making a new market.
- Carpenters
- traditional
- woodwork
- masters
- Fujian
- China