Maonan flower bamboo hat wins craftsman award at bamboo culture festival

Recently, a flower bamboo hat made by Tan Sujuan, an inheritor of the flower bamboo hat making techniques from the Maonan ethnic group in Hechi's Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county, won the craftsman award at the 11th China Bamboo Culture Festival.

The 11th China Bamboo Cultural Festival took place from Oct 19 to 21 in Yibin, Southwest China's Sichuan province. The event included a summit, exhibitions, and a visit to the area's largest bamboo enterprises. It is the largest, highest-rated, and most influential bamboo industry event in China.

During the event's intangible cultural heritage exhibition, Tan showed Huanjiang's national intangible cultural heritage "flower bamboo hat" to exhibitors and audiences.

Tan said to better inherit and develop the flower bamboo hat, marketization development is needed. Marketization can increase the income of the hat's inheritors, and encourage them to better inherit and promote the intangible cultural heritage as well as attract young people to join their team. Meanwhile, marketization will bring competitions, which will make inheritors improve their skills, and stimulate their enthusiasm and creativity according to market demand.

"In the next step, we will innovate the knitting skills for creating the flower bamboo hats, and publicize our innovation to let more people understand the traditional Maonan culture," Tan added.

Maonan natives dance with flower bamboo hats. [Photo/IC]