Cen Brothers and the Xinyi Iron Wok Shop
I had heard from Liza and Claire (LuRu Home) there was a guy around making wrought iron-woks all by hand. They have one of those woks but not a clue where I can find the maker. I asked some friends and one of them told me a collegue got one done and was so amazed by the process that he took a video during the whole making of.
At the end I ran through a 3-year old article talking about the Cen brothers, the last craftsmen left in Shanghai able to make woks, activity that soon will disappear since no one is willing to learn such a tough job. But it seemed like they were going to distroy the whole area (shikumen houses and lanes next to Dongbaixing Lu metro stop) to build new houses. So I took my bike, some motivating optimism and went there, hoping to still find the place and the artisans. Well good news people, they're still there! |
Just as written in the article, while you head to the end of Baoyuan Lu you start hearing the hummering becoming louder and louder until you get to the very end of the narrow and livily road. There, under some trees in a super small backyard next to the road, the Cen brothers keep on doing what they've been doing since 1984. From a rounded iron foil and long hours of hard work they create a beautiful wok. They sell to both Chinese and tourists and the price is just around 100 yuan. Unfortunately my terrible Chinese knowledge didn't allow me to get more info. They've been dedicated different articles though, on SmartShanghai http://www.smartshanghai.com/blog/1533/Covet_The_Wokmakers.html and on Cnn Go http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/none/shanghais-wok-man-citys-dying-art-521912 were you can get more information about their job. Moreover one of their woks appear on the cover of “Breath of a Wok” by Grace Young.
|
Custom handmade Chinese beds
When I got to the cross between DongTai Lu and ZiZhong Lu, ready to look for some Miao embroidery around the antique market, I chanced upon a couple of guys (over 60) working at the corner of the road while talking with some friends. I stopped by and started looking at what they were doing: a solid wooden frame was kept one meter from the ground and, starting from the edges of the frame, they were very carefully entwining some natural strings.
Between a picture and a video, one of the guy sitting next to them and looking at the process explained me they were making a Chinese bed frame, that hard base so healthy for your back and so uncomfortable for the ones who are not used to it. They've been doing this job for 50 years, making natural bed frames with a prize range around 1500-1600 (to verify). If you want to start sleeping better you know now where to go! |
|
Gui and Miao Minority Embroidery
(they also started discussing about the price, the material and finally sentenced it was a good purchase!) I reached the place I was most interested about.
Mr. Zhang Qing is an adorable man selling some beautiful Minority clothes and jewels, which I can assure you are 100% original. Every piece of cloth is finely embroidered and produced by the National Minorities in Guizhou (贵州), you can find Old Dresses, Old Embroidery Flake, Old Wax Printing, Bed covers , Handwork Embroidery, Traditional Jewels etc. When I asked Mr. Zhang who made all those fine handcrafted goods, with his sweetest smile, he proudly showed me a picture portraying different women beautifully dressed in the Miao traditional way. The price range is not too high considering the quality of the products, the hard labour and the expertise behind every piece. I'm already considering to go back for some shopping! There are also a couple of more stands selling Gui and Miao dresses and products, and all of them are equally |
My friend Yao Yan told me about the beautiful Gui and Miao Embroidery that you can find in one of those hidden and busy streets just in the center of the city!
That's how I've found out about the Antique Market in Dong Tai Road, a place I never heard about during more than one year of stay (call me dumb). There were quite a few tourists around and when I asked a small group of them how they knew about the place they told me they just ended up there without even knowing a market was there in the first place. This bustling narrow street is packed with little stands and a wide range of Chinese souvenirs and goods, I cannot tell you whether it's original stuff or fake, for sure a bit of both. While I was walking down the road with my brand new wok at hand, collecting comments and approvals from the Chinese vendors around |
After this first day of exploration I just have one thing to say: it's definitely true that when buying an original handmade craft, might that be a dress, a wok, a ceramic vase, you're always bringing home with you a piece of story, just like you were taking with you the passion, the skills and the time a person put in that product.
It's full of meaning and no one will ever be able to take that value away from it, not the fashion, not even the utility it may have in your life, it will just gain importance along time (call me emotional).
It's full of meaning and no one will ever be able to take that value away from it, not the fashion, not even the utility it may have in your life, it will just gain importance along time (call me emotional).