Pan’an’s 56-year-old Ge Guiju recently made bamboo shoot shell clip art of the mascots for the Asian Games. Ge Guiju first entered the Pan’an Hualong Crafts Factory in 1996 to learn how to make bamboo shoot shell crafts. In recent years, Guiju has begun creating bamboo shoot shell clippings. Last year, Guiju became the representative heir of the Pan’an intangible cultural heritage bamboo shell clipping technique project.

Bamboo shoot shells mainly use two types of bamboo shells: one type is the moso bamboo shoot shells that can be obtained locally in Pan’an; the other is water bamboo shoot shells produced in Jiangxi, Anhui, and in other places. When cutting and pasting, Guiju chose bamboo shoot shells with darker colors and spots for the head; for the face, she chose bleached water bamboo shoot shells, which are pure white without spots. The two materials were cross pasted for the body parts, which can be used in many ways. With this cutting and pasting technique, the outline is revealed. Guiju said that as an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, she wants to integrate intangible cultural heritage into the Asian Games so that more foreigners can understand it. (Text and photo by Wu Yueyue, translated by Jiang Yifan, edited by Daniel Haws)