CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- “The grandpa of palm fibre weaving” in Chongqing is hot again! Days ago, 70-year-old Yu Mubing became a trending topic on the internet with the hashtag “A senior man born and raised in a mountain village weaves over 100 toys from leaves for his granddaughter”. In the video, Yu weaved various shapes of animals from palm leaves, such as tiger, dragonfly, rabbit, grasshopper, crab and bird - they were all vivid. Netizens commented below: “He’s a genius!” “His hands are magical !”

Yu Mubing, 73 years old, is from Shizhu County, Chongqing and the inheritor of county-level palm woven intangible cultural heritage. Early in 2020, his grandson-in-law Long Xi inadvertently posted a short video in which Yu was weaving, which became rather popular on the Internet. Then his granddaughter and grandson-in-law continued to post videos about his weaving craft, which made their social media account named “Grandpa’s handicrafts” become popular. Now their followers of a short video application have reached 482,000, and the total number of followers on the internet has exceeded one million.

Long told the reporter that Yu learned how to weave at the age of 12 and it was Yu’s father who passed on this skill to him. Although Yu is now more than 70 years old, he is still adept at weaving since he can weave a small inset or flower in several minutes. Long said: “My grandfather-in-law expects to keep pace with times and continues to create innovative works. He oftentimes immerses himself in challenging works that the young generation is fond of. After the astronauts of Shenzhou landed on the earth, he spent one week weaving new knitting named ‘Heroes Reaching for the Stars’, which won many praises on the Internet.”

As more and more people liked his videos, Yu came to realize the importance of heritage. The reporter learned that the senior man not only learned how to use a smartphone by himself, but also taught those young netizens how to weave on live streaming every week. In addition, his videos about detailed steps of weaving will be posted on the short video platform from time to time.

According to Long Xi, to date, Yu has created thousands of works including over one hundred species and he will persist in this field until one day he can no longer weave. “Now my grandfather-in-law has several students, and my wife and I are also the inheritors of this craft.” Long suggested that he and Yu will contribute to the inheritance of this craft. This year they will scale up it in the local region and promote its industrial development. That is how they can spread the intangible cultural heritage far and wide. (Translated by Huang Ziming, Fathom Language Limited)