By Rui Hu, EDITOR

Li Qingyang is making the bow

There are more than 280 procedures to make a traditional bow in 3 years. Li Qingyang, a craftsman that inherited the traditional skill of hand-made bow, whose  craftwork  has categorized under cultural heritage in Jiulongpo District of Chongqing.

Li told reporters, he fell in love with archery initially, he remembered the first time he tried the archery and felt wild and bold. Archery lighted up his interest and passion in bows, he started to search the video clips about bows online, and he quit his job in order to focus on hand-made bow in 2005. Since then, he has become the renowned archer and the director of Chinese Archery Association.  

It is hard to imagine how complicated to make a bow in ancient time. “You could only experience the wild feeling in poem about Genghis Khan and his archery” according to Li. To collect the materials in all seasons is the only way to make a good bow. There are 5 steps briefly to complete the hand-made bow, which including the making of cowhells, the base of bow, and ox horn, then to pave the cowhells in the winter, judge the shape of bow in the next spring. In terms of Li, a nice bow needs a soul with time traveled back and respect to the hero.

Painting process of the bow

Archery made Li felt the spirits of hero

By inheriting the skill of making bow in southern style of China, craftsman is hard to make a living. Nevertheless, Li enjoys the craft.  In his eyes, the southern style hand-made bow has typical features of Bayu, and it contains rich culture and wisdom of tradition. 

Source: CQWB