N China's 61-year-old peasant woman innovates traditional straw plaiting skills

After the process of dying corn husks, bundling them up and trimming the redundant parts with scissors, the former inconspicuous husks have been transformed into vivid artwork with various themes by a 61-year-old peasant woman from north China's Shanxi province.

Yang Jinhua, from Yaodu district, Linfen city of Shanxi province, shared that she first came into contact with a poverty-reduction project concerning corn husk artwork at the local bureau of retired veteran cadres as early as 2017 when she studied paper cuttings at a university for the elderly in Linfen.

What impressed Yang most about this form of art lies in that it can combine abandoned corn husks with art, turning waste into a wide variety of artwork.

"I began to try to create corn husk plaited articles on my own, starting with the most basic items such as peonies, car cushions and small pillows," Yang recalled.

After mastering the traditional straw plaiting skills, Yang began to explore ways to innovate the traditional techniques, integrating iron elements from flower baskets and silk flowers into corn husk artworks. Yang has combined straw plaited work with shallow relief to make the works more three-dimensional and vivid.

In recent years, Yang has created more than 40 creative corn husk artworks, with themes such as "spring, summer, autumn and winter,” "three-dimensional animal series" and "shallow relief.”

Yang has currently embarked on the road of passing on the art form. In 2018, she won a special prize in a competition held in Linfen and qualified as a straw plaiting training teacher.

From 2019 to 2020, there were 1,187 items of daily necessities sold in the poverty alleviation project concerning straw plaited art at the local bureau of retired veteran cadres, totaling 132,187 yuan (about $20,211). There were 129 pieces of flower decorations and other products sold, totaling 75,860 yuan, which led to an income increase of more than 200 local poverty-stricken people.

"I didn't expect such a big market for the artworks," Yang said, adding "I hope to better spread the art of straw plaiting, contribute to the spread of traditional culture, and lead more people in mountainous areas to shake off poverty and become rich.”