Liu Jiafeng, a bamboo-weaving master in China, has maintained a commitment to the inheritance of bamboo weaving for years, dedicating himself to the improvement of the traditional craft.

Liu Jiafeng creates a tea cup using bamboo strips. (Photo/Jian Chaolong)

Growing up in a remote village rich of bamboo in Jingbian Township, Quxian County, southwest China's Sichuan province, the 74-year-old craftsman has been fond of bamboo weaving since he was young.

When he was 7 years old, Liu wove strips of bamboo into a fan with the help of his uncles. It was the first woven bamboo work he had ever completed.

After that, Liu tried cutting bamboo into strips by himself for the very first time, which is a necessary preparation for the weaving process. However, as a beginner back then he couldn't even make strips, and his fingers and palms were left with cuts.

Instead of being frightened by failure, the little boy continued to practice shaving bamboo and was gradually able to make thin and soft strips.

With self-made bamboo scrapers, Liu could now make bamboo strips with a width of merely 0.3 mm and 0.02 mm thickness.

Engaged in bamboo weaving for several decades, Liu's works have won over 70 awards in Chinese and international exhibitions.

Liu Jiafeng's work. (Photo courtesy of Liu Jiafeng)

One of his proudest works is a bamboo weaving of the White Tara, which was incarnated as the Chinese princess symbolizing purity. Liu drew his inspiration from a thangka, a Tibetan Buddhist painting.

Due to the complexity of the thangka, Liu was faced with many challenges in reproducing the artwork using bamboo. Instead of giving up, he innovated new weaving methods of jacquard and changed two-layer flat weaving into three-layer weaving.

It took him a whole year to finish the bamboo-weaving painting of the White Tara, which was as delicate and exquisite as the original thangka. This artwork won a golden award during the bamboo craft fair of the 2018 Global Bamboo and Rattan Congress held in Beijing.

Liu Jiafeng's works. (Photo courtesy of Liu Jiafeng)

In 1980 an art factory was established in the county with Liu as the head, but later in 2001 the factory was transformed into his own bamboo weaving company.

In recent years, Liu's company has secured an annual output of over 60 million yuan (about $9.2 million), providing a total of 1,000 jobs for local villagers.

Since 2017, Liu has also been invited to give lectures in universities and colleges, such as Tongji University, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, and Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, as part of a program in China to protect cultural inheritance.