If we say that the Jingcheng Badge Factory was inadvertently injured in the waist, it began to fail.

It is purely a mistake made by history.

Then other traditional arts and crafts manufacturers can't help but leave.

It can only be said that it was deliberately targeted and stumbled by history.

Moreover, when I got up, I stretched my legs and tripped, and when I got up, I tripped! It was an extremely bad situation!

Why do you say that?

Because this is the actual situation.

Although after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the arts and crafts industry in Beijing made real contributions to the national economy.

However, the fate of the entire industry is quite bumpy, and it has been repeatedly teased by history.

When it comes to survival, we have been facing extremely difficult situations.

Not to mention protection and development, it is already very difficult to preserve skills without losing ground.

This is definitely a regrettable incident that makes people quite depressed and helpless when mentioned.

There is no doubt that the arts and crafts industry is the treasure of our country’s traditional culture and art and the accumulation of five thousand years of civilization in our country.

Especially the arts and crafts in Beijing reflect the highest level of arts and crafts in my country because of its unique social environment and strong historical foundation.

This is not nonsense.

From the companion capital of the Liao and Jin Dynasties to the imperial capital "at the feet of the emperor" of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Governments of successive dynasties recruited a large number of outstanding craftsmen from all over the country to serve in the palace, and established various institutions dedicated to the management and production of arts and crafts.

For example, "Shaofu Jian, Imperial Jian, Manufacturing Office, Ruyi Pavilion" etc.

This has led to the formation of a gathering of famous artists and skilled craftsmen in the capital's arts and crafts, which enables them to learn from the excellent craftsmanship of all ethnic groups and regions.

Only then can we absorb the essence, integrate it and create a unique national traditional craft characteristic of "never getting tired of expensive materials, never getting tired of exquisite workmanship, never getting tired of skillful craftsmanship, and never getting tired of sophisticated products".

Talent is famous both at home and abroad for its unique style, wide variety, exquisite skills, elegant and precious authentic palace art.

It is precisely because of this that the arts and crafts in Beijing have a strong vitality that is completely unmatched by other industries in the previous major social and economic changes, and have survived quite tenaciously.

Like in the Ming and Qing dynasties, although foreign capital invaded.

However, the traditional arts and crafts industry in Beijing has almost never encountered competition from corresponding "foreign goods".

Not only are the production techniques still passed down from generation to generation, but they are also gradually developed due to the needs of export.

Many of the capital's arts and crafts are regarded as treasures with high collection value by foreign art connoisseurs.

Especially after the Revolution of 1911, the maritime ban was greatly lifted.

The arts and crafts in the capital have become highly prized products that foreign countries are competing to buy, and there has even been a scene of "foreign estates".

(Note: Yangzhuang is an institution set up by foreign businessmen in Beijing that specializes in collecting arts and crafts).

According to written records only from the Guangxu Dynasty to the 1920s, no less than 30 expositions were held around the world at that time.

The arts and crafts industry in Beijing only participated in the exhibition ten times, but won gold and silver awards each time.

It can be seen that the arts and crafts in Beijing have always been the pillar industry of Beijing’s economic development.

As early as before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the reputation of "Beijing's work" and "Exquisite work" has been well-known at home and abroad, and has become an invaluable intangible asset of our country and nation.

In the early days of liberation, even if all industries were withered, the arts and crafts industry was still facing a situation where it could not survive.

However, the newly established People's Government conducted a survey on the traditional arts and crafts industry, and the conclusion it reached was very shocking.

The research report at that time stated, “Although there are only 19 special handicraft factories and workshops left in the city, as long as production can be restored to normal levels, more than 10 million U.S. dollars in foreign exchange can be obtained a year. If this amount is used to buy

The food is enough to feed the people of the city for two months."

Sure enough, with the government's strong support, remarkable results have been achieved.

The arts and crafts industry in the capital soon became the "top" export product at that time.

Live up to expectations and start supplying blood to the country.

Until 1953, it only took a few years.

The annual output value of Beijing's arts and crafts industry has increased from US$730,000 in 1949 to more than US$7 million, an increase of nearly ten times, which is very close to the original planning goal.

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The arts and crafts industry in Beijing, which had just made a splash, has lost sales and has fallen back into a situation of struggling to support itself and stagnating in development.

So on the one hand, the entire industry began to abandon the bourgeois sentiment of noble products and try the practical and popular route.

On the other hand, we have to find other ways of exporting with the help of the government.

Later, with the help of the big brother of the Soviet Union, exports began to shift to Eastern European countries, and the situation gradually began to improve.

It should be said that most of the fraternal countries in the socialist camp are relatively welcoming of ordinary products that follow the popular line in the arts and crafts industry because their economic development is generally not high.

This low-end approach of making small profits but quick turnover is considered relatively successful.

But I never expected that the political situation would change again and the good days would end so suddenly.

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In 1960, this export route also failed.

The export volume of Beijing's arts and crafts products has been severely reduced again, causing factories to reduce production and workers to switch jobs.

After finally relying on our own strength, we finally turned our export targets to Jordan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and other countries. The time came again in 1966.

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Since then, the industry has begun to undergo compression and consolidation, resulting in a large number of workers changing production and switching production.

The most common place for workers to abandon their original jobs is to go to electronic device factories.

This bad situation lasted until the early 1970s.

Only then did the arts and crafts industry in Beijing recover from a long drought and receive attention again, and began to shoulder the task of earning foreign exchange and resume export production.

However, many industries and manufacturers have caused serious brain drain, and even the phenomenon of "people die and their skills are lost" has occurred, and it is really difficult to recover as before.

For example, the jade dragonfly of "Dragonfly Jia" has been lost.

For example, almost no one can make the ivory carving "brush wash" and cloisonné industry's "begonia bottle".

But that's nothing.

The most important thing is that in the arts and crafts industry, each relies on its manual skills and bears the same tax burden as modern industrial factories.

Due to the monopoly nature of the export system of handicrafts, manufacturers are not allowed to sell their products on their own, which has also led to serious conflicts between industry and trade.

The foreign trade unit responsible for purchasing and selling, in order to hand over profits to Duochuang, actually tried to strangle the supply unit's neck, and the price offered was too low.

For example, in 1972, the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory produced the "Shenlu Treasure Chest Bottle", a product that combines multiple raw materials and multiple processes. The factory priced it at 11,000 yuan, but the foreign trade purchase price was only 6,000 yuan.

After many negotiations, the factory demanded at least 8,000 yuan.

Before the price was agreed upon, it was sent to the Huacheng Export Products Fair, referred to as the "Canton Fair".

In the end, the actual sales amount was 27,000 yuan, and only then did Foreign Trade place a purchase order.

This is still true!

Therefore, because this kind of bargaining is so serious, manufacturers have to set two price standards for the same high-end product.

But even so, companies often cannot even reach the lowest price.

For example, Cloisonné's "Plum Blossom Jar" and "Plum Blossom Jar" were exhibited at the 1973 Spring Canton Fair.

The manufacturer charges 300 yuan per pair based on cost plus appropriate profit, but foreign trade is only willing to give 200 yuan.

This immediately caused the newly developed product to be "discounted immediately".

However, the foreign trade price was 600 yuan per pair at the trade fair, and they were successfully sold to foreign businessmen and received large orders.

Think about it, under this purchase and sale model, how can the arts and crafts industry obtain the funds needed for development?

In order to save trouble in foreign trade, they even refuse to accept works with traditional themes.

This has caused many factories to panic.

As a result, at the Canton Fair in the spring of 1978, a traditional work produced by the Beijing Jade Factory in the past - the jadeite "Hua Xun" was sold.

It actually sold for a high price of 700,000 yuan, which is equivalent to exporting 25,000 domestic bicycles or 190,000 Beijing white ducks.

Therefore, the most difficult problem to solve is foreign trade, which takes money when it gets rich, and manufacturers who work hard to show their craftsmanship.

How stringent is it?

You can almost understand it by saying one thing.

For example, when Churchill Jr., the grandson of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, visited the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory in 1973, he was extremely fond of a new cloisonné product, a large bottle.

He immediately asked the people accompanying him to buy this large bottle.

But the factory said it couldn't sell it. Little Churchill didn't understand it and said, "Why can't you sell the things your factory produces?"
To be continued...