Oil-Paper Umbrellas of Luzhou
Like most contemporary rural towns in China, Fenshuiling Town, located in the southeast of Jiangyang District in Luzhou, seems to be a place lacking in vitality. It is said that it was once a commercial hub and material distribution center among the three provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. However, when I arrived, I saw a long, winding old street lined with shops that were either tightly closed or lazily half-open. The street was devoid of people inquiring about prices, and few were walking around. Only a few food shops had steam rising from the stoves at their entrances, with large pots of tofu cooking on them. It was noon, and a few people inside the shops were eating quietly, without much conversation.As we walked down the street, our presence brought a bit of life to it. However, the few locals on the street were not surprised by our arrival. They only gave us a quick glance as we passed by, then continued with their tasks. Occasionally, a dog or two lay on the ground, seeming too lazy to even open their eyes to look at us.
The most striking impression this town left on me was the vigorous growth of its plants. Giant camphor trees often lined the streets, their lush branches and leaves forming huge canopies. The trunks required eight or nine people to encircle them, and I thought they must have grown for five or six hundred years to reach such a size, but I was told they were only one or two hundred years old. Looking around the town, I saw green mountains surrounding it, their color as fresh as new paint, as if the vibrancy of life was everywhere, capable of reviving even the most sorrowful and dull soul.
Yet, a quiet mountain valley can be the hometown of a phoenix, and a seemingly cold and desolate Fenshuiling Town can have a charming and enchanting side. When a local friend led us into a narrow alley and into an old house with a hundred-year history, we saw a scene completely different from the old street:
The Unique Scenery of Fenshuiling Town
Many people are busy. Some are using machines to cut wood into stick-like shapes, others are busy drilling tiny holes in the wooden sticks, some are attaching wooden strips to the sticks to form the ribs of the umbrella, while others are wrapping silk thread around the ribs. Some are pasting patterned paper onto the umbrella ribs, and others are applying paste to the paper. I cannot describe their work in detail because, as far as my eyes can see, their processes are complex, their division of labor is precise, and their movements are subtle and careful, exhibiting a rhythm and patience entirely different from machine production.
They are all middle-aged men and women, dressed as simply as the locals I saw on the old street. Like the locals on the old street, they are silent, but they possess a concentration and serenity that is different from the laziness and leisure of the street's inhabitants. Their expressions are profound, as if they carry a distant place in their hearts. That distant place is called tradition—a tradition of the ancient craft of making oil-paper umbrellas.
You should know that Fenshuiling Town, a remote town at the intersection of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, is the birthplace of one of China's Han cultural symbols—the oil-paper umbrella.
The large century-old house we entered is the factory where the world-renowned Luzhou oil-paper umbrellas are made.
Fenshuiling Town in Luzhou, Famous for Producing Oil-Paper Umbrellas
According to legend, the umbrella was invented by the wife of Lu Ban.
Carpenter Lu Ban had to go out to work every day and was often drenched by rain. Inspired by the shape of a pavilion outside her door, Lu Ban's wife used bamboo strips to create something resembling a pavilion, covered it with animal skins, and supported it with a stick underneath. This was the earliest umbrella in Chinese history. Later, after modifications by Lu Ban, the umbrella became an item that could be closed like a stick and opened like a cover.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun improved the papermaking technique, which in turn improved the umbrella-making technique. This led to the invention of the oil-paper umbrella, which involved brushing tung oil on the umbrella paper to make it waterproof.
Although an umbrella is a common item, making one is a task that requires high-quality materials and advanced techniques. An umbrella must withstand being opened and closed thousands of times without damage, the oil paper must endure repeated soaking in rain without detaching from the ribs, and the umbrella's top must not deform when used in a storm. From selecting raw materials to the finished product, more than a hundred processes are involved, each with strict technical and quality standards.
Making Oil-Paper Umbrellas
Located at the junction of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, Fenshuiling Town is a naturally suitable place for the home of oil-paper umbrellas. The area is lush with vegetation, providing an abundance of paulownia wood ideal for umbrella handles. The old nan bamboo from the deep mountains is highly flexible and resilient, making it perfect for creating umbrella ribs that withstand strong winds without deforming. Bamboo is also the best material for making the paper for oil-paper umbrellas. Tung oil and graphite for printing intricate designs can be sourced from the mountains.As early as the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the people of Fenshuiling Town recognized their resource advantages and began to study the techniques for making oil-paper umbrellas. Almost simultaneously, the people of Luzhou started producing the now-famous Luzhou Laojiao.
The people of Fenshuiling Town climb the mountains to select the best wood and old nan bamboo. They drill holes, assemble frames, and thread lines in the wood and bamboo, which have undergone anti-corrosion treatment. They meticulously set up various small mechanisms to repel rainwater. They draw the most beautiful designs on the paper—on this round paper that converses with the sky, they unleash their imagination, painting faces, landscapes, flowers, and birds, expressing their praise and blessings for life. They then coat the paper with the finest tung oil...
Fenshuiling Town People Climb the Mountains to Select the Best Wood and Old Nan Bamboo to Make Oil-Paper Umbrellas
The natural resource advantages, the diligence and hard work of the people of Fenshuiling Town, and perhaps also the excellent geographical advantage of Fenshuiling Town—located at the junction of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, serving as a distribution center for materials—allowed Fenshuiling's oil-paper umbrellas to quickly spread far and wide, blooming under the rainy skies of China.We can no longer recreate the grand scene of every household in Fenshuiling Town producing oil-paper umbrellas 400 years ago. However, historical data provides a glimpse: from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, Zhuzi Street, near the Xiaoshi Wharf in Luzhou, was known as the "Oil-Paper Umbrella Street" of Luzhou. At its peak, there were over 100 oil-paper umbrella factories of various sizes in Luzhou, employing tens of thousands of people and producing 20 million umbrellas annually. Undoubtedly, Fenshuiling Town, the first place in Luzhou to produce oil-paper umbrellas, was the most important production base.
The land nourishes its people. The people of Fenshuiling Town, with their intelligence and ingenuity, turned the abundant vegetation of the mountains into a beautiful industry, making this small town under Luzhou's jurisdiction, originally at the border of the three provinces, known to the world.
Zhuzi Street was the "Oil-Paper Umbrella Street" of Luzhou at the time
It can be said that Luzhou is the natural T-shaped stage for oil-paper umbrellas.
Nourished by the Yangtze and Tuojiang Rivers, Luzhou is lush and verdant. When I visited in September, everywhere I looked—from fields, mountain forests, streets, to alleys—was a shimmering, oily green, with not a single withered leaf in sight.
Luzhou is located at the transition zone between the southern edge of the Sichuan Basin and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, a place with significant topographical variations. Whether in the mountainous towns or urban areas, the terrain is steep and undulating, full of twists and turns. The hotel where I stayed, Nanyuan Hotel in Jiangyang District, was near the roaring Yangtze River, but there was a 100-meter height difference between the river and the hotel, requiring one to look down to see it. From the Yangtze River to the hotel, several winding roads with flowing traffic ascend, presenting a rare ruggedness and winding nature unlike the plains.
Such topography, combined with an oil-paper umbrella, endows Luzhou with endless charm, like poetry and painting. Imagine on a rainy day, someone slowly walking uphill with an oil-paper umbrella, like a colorful cloud gradually emerging from the mountains. That person, holding the umbrella, seems like a graceful fairy, her face hidden beneath the umbrella, her hand with painted nails. Or, watching someone from afar, descending slowly from the heights with an oil-paper umbrella, the slope around them green, the colorful umbrella contrasting with the lush surroundings, the person and the slope forming a visually stunning geometric and color harmony. At the street corner, at the end of an ancient alley, a vibrant oil-paper umbrella with raindrops dancing on it suddenly appears, enchanting even the sky.
Without oil-paper umbrellas, Luzhou by the Yangtze River would just be a city of liquor. Indeed, the fame of Luzhou Laojiao is immense. In Luzhou, stores and advertisements featuring Luzhou Laojiao are everywhere, as are sculptures of drinkers, either lying down or standing askew, holding goblets aloft. The Yangtze and Tuojiang Rivers nearby seem to stagger along, appearing drunken and unsteady.
Liquor fills Luzhou with masculine energy. Naturally, people think of Luzhou as a highly masculine yet romantically charming city, a place where revolutionaries, wanderers, and poets linger. The uprisings led by Liu Bocheng and Zhu De's stay in Luzhou in the 1920s clearly illustrate this point.
It is the oil-paper umbrellas that have transformed Luzhou’s temperament. They reveal to the world that Luzhou, besides exuding the intoxicating aroma of liquor, also possesses the charm of oil-paper umbrellas. These umbrellas give Luzhou a classical feminine beauty, filled with gentleness and sweetness, alongside its bold and carefree masculine spirit from the liquor.
Family Workshops, Making Oil-Paper Umbrellas
Since the 1980s, the oil-paper umbrella industry in Luzhou has begun to decline. Despite the constant rain, the people of Fenshuiling Town started to find themselves idle and empty inside. Watching the steel-framed umbrellas clog the streets, the people of Fenshuiling felt lost. Many left the oil-paper umbrella production scene, heading to distant places. Yet, some remained, guarding this ancestral craft.
Machine production caused oil-paper umbrellas to lose a significant portion of their practical market, but they retained another resilient presence. Beyond being a functional umbrella, the oil-paper umbrella serves as a messenger of civilization, an important component of millennia-old Han culture. Imagine, without oil-paper umbrellas, wouldn't the qipao feel lonely? Wouldn't the rain-soaked alleys of Jiangnan be too empty? How would the love story between Xu Xian and Lady White Snake at the Broken Bridge of West Lake in "The Legend of the White Snake" begin? Would Dai Wangshu's classic poem "Rainy Alley" become mundane?
In the Chinese language, the oil-paper umbrella is rich in meaning. It symbolizes fertility. In the Hakka dialect, "oil paper" sounds like "have children." In traditional Chinese characters, the character for umbrella contains five human figures. Thus, in the past, when a woman got married, she often brought two oil-paper umbrellas as part of her dowry, wishing the newlyweds to have children soon. It signifies safety. It was a talisman for scholars traveling to the capital for exams or officials taking up new posts. In ancient China, along with clothes and books, a scholar's or official's bundle would always contain a red oil-paper umbrella, known as a "bundle umbrella" or "protection umbrella," hoping for a safe and successful career. Even today, many places still have the custom of giving high school graduates an oil-paper umbrella as a wish for success. It signifies completeness. The open umbrella forms a circle, a symbol of completeness that everyone loves. It signifies good fortune. In many local customs, the tung oil used in oil-paper umbrellas is believed to ward off evil spirits and attract good luck. Therefore, families use umbrellas to protect their feng shui and dispel negative energy. Oil-paper umbrellas are also used in Taoist ceremonies and various rituals...
The people of Fenshuiling Town have reexamined the cultural significance of oil-paper umbrellas. They returned to the production sites of these umbrellas. They climbed the mountains to gather the best nan bamboo and resumed drilling holes and assembling intricate mechanisms on paulownia wood. They painted flowers and patterns on the umbrella surfaces: a Huangshan pine tree to bless virtuous people with longevity; a dragon and phoenix to wish newlyweds love and happiness; a pair of dragons playing with a pearl to wish newborns joy and prosperity. They hung oil-paper umbrellas all over the sky of Fenshuiling Town, with the ambition to make the sky vibrant and auspicious.
Luzhou's Oil-Paper Umbrellas Become China's Intangible Cultural Heritage
The people of Fenshuiling Town who were engaged in making oil-paper umbrellas have transformed from artisans to cultural custodians. Their oil-paper umbrellas have been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage and are protected as a national geographic indication product. A local named Bi Liufu has become the only legally recognized national-level inheritor of the oil-paper umbrella-making craft in China.
Walking through that century-old mansion used as an oil-paper umbrella factory, I immediately felt blessed. Every person I saw had an aura of serenity and kindness on their face—a serenity and kindness nurtured by long immersion in tradition. I received countless blessings: the peonies, dragons and phoenixes, flowers and birds, and landscapes on the oil-paper umbrellas all wished me happiness, peace, health, and fulfillment. I have every reason to believe that everyone here could be called Bi Liufu—respecting tradition with reverence, wishing for a smooth and prosperous life, and being full of good fortune. What a fitting name for all those engaged in making oil-paper umbrellas.
Stepping out of the century-old mansion that serves as the production base for oil-paper umbrellas, I was greeted by a sky adorned with dozens of oil-paper umbrellas of various sizes and colorful patterns. The light filtering through the umbrellas played like a child, dodging and frolicking, as if engaged in a joyful game. I can swear that it was the most beautiful colorful sky I had ever seen.
Shortly after leaving Luzhou and returning home, my friend from Luzhou sent me a gift: a box containing two bottles of Luzhou Laojiao, local specialties such as lotus seeds and dried longan, and an oil-paper umbrella.
The umbrella was very small. It was red, with peonies painted on its surface, accompanied by the phrase "Heavenly Fragrance and National Beauty" in running script. This umbrella was so small that its surface was smaller than a tabloid newspaper, as tiny as a baby umbrella. The delicate ribs beneath the paper surface were like the fine bones of a newborn.
I immediately opened the umbrella. The scent of tung oil from Fenshuiling Town wafted over me. I was instantly enveloped and surrounded by the mountains and rivers of Fenshuiling Town and Luzhou, along with the 400-year tradition of making oil-paper umbrellas. My house seemed to be filled with an auspicious glow.
I placed the small umbrella next to my television, hoping it would protect and bless everyone inside and outside the screen. I couldn't help but feel that this tiny baby umbrella was alive, that it would grow, and that when we left the house, it would spin, leap, and dance on its own, spreading blessings to every corner of my home.
