Oil paper umbrellas have a history of over 1,000 years in China. The umbrellas were everywhere before. However, as umbrellas with metal ribs (金属伞骨) (become)more popular in the 1800s, people used the hand-made umbrellas less in daily life.
Yuhang in Hangzhou is famous for making oil paper umbrellas over 230 years. Umbrellas here take more than 70 steps to make, such as making bamboo ribs and pasting (糊)papers. It takes at least a week to make umbrella. each umbrella has 36 ribs, they are strong. In 2007, this kind of umbrella was added to Zhejiang province's intangible cultural heritage list.
In 2015, Liu Weixue left a well-paid job to learn from his grandfather the art of making Yuhang oil paper umbrellas. "I want to bring the art to life." Liu said. "When it (rain),someone uses the umbrella -- that's what I want to see."
After learning the skills well, Liu opened a studio (工作坊) and improved the umbrellas to win the hearts of young (person). Because the traditional paper was easy to break, he used thicker paper. His umbrellas could open and close 1,000 times without (break). He also used a lighter kind of bamboo to make ribs, so the umbrella weighed (little)than before.
In 2017, Liu opened an online shop to sell umbrellas by (he). It has more than 80,000 followers (粉丝) now. But to keep the quality (质量), his studio makes only 1,000 umbrellas each year. He (real) hopes the art can be passed on.
