Riding the wind of rebirth

Not long after, an old acquaintance appeared in the exhibition hall. He was the general manager of Suzhou Jade Carving Factory, no, now it should be called Suzhou Jade Carving Company, Yao Chong.

"Manager Yao, here!" Zhou Zhi waved and greeted Yao Chong.

"Hey, most visitors go through the main entrance. We all go through the northwest gate on the office and administration side when we come to Gome. It's a fixed mindset, so I forgot to tell you. This person is..."

"This is my... uh, classmate who studies computer science. Mai Xiaomiao." Zhou Zhi quickly introduced, "Xiao Miao, this is General Manager Yao of Suzhou Jade Carving Company. The studios of the masters who carved the 'One Hundred and Eight Dragon Sons' are all under the name of General Manager Yao's company."

"Hello, General Manager Yao." Mai Xiaomiao nodded politely to Yao Chong.

"Hello, hello. Let's go together. Master Xu is here too. This year, Suzhou Jade Carving Factory has surpassed all the jade carving factories in the capital." Yao Chong said with a smile, "It's mainly because Nanhong is so well made. It's a perfect match for our Suzhou craftsmanship. The color is also pleasing. How many years has it been since China has produced a new gem-grade material that is both red and uniform?"

"Congratulations. Another gold medal is yours." Zhou Zhi said with a smile.

"But this gold medal is also quite mysterious." Yao Chong led the way and pointed to a large jade sculpture passing by: "The jade work from Taiwan Island was carved into a combination of flower baskets, orchids, and butterflies. No expense was spared."

Zhou Zhi looked at the sculpture. It was indeed a bit exaggerated. It was carved in a realistic way. A large piece of material was carved into only a bunch of thin and long orchid leaves. The petals were also hollowed out one by one. If Zhou Zhi used common jade such as Xiuyan jade and hibiscus jade to carve it, it would be understandable. But why use jadeite like this? !

Zhou Zhi thought about the soaring price of jadeite in the next few years, and seemed to realize that he was actually taking the same path as the merchants from Taiwan, using national awards for hype, but he was not as extravagant as the merchants from Taiwan.

"It's too extravagant to give them Chundaicai to play with like this." Zhou Zhi shook his head as he looked at it. The green and light blue orchid leaves, yellow petals, and purple butterflies were indeed ingeniously conceived, but it was a pity for the material.

I guess after a few more years no one will be willing to do this.

Arriving at an elevator in the corner of the exhibition hall, Yao Chong took the two of them up to the second floor. After coming out, they found that this was a place like a conference hall. However, except for some fixed exhibits in some lonely windows, the red-carpeted exhibition hall was empty.

The two walls of the exhibition hall are rooms, with the name of the province written above each room. There are also two display windows on both sides of the room door, which contain exquisite handicrafts.

On both sides of the Jiangsu Hall are Suzhou embroidered round fans, folding fans and purple clay teapots on one side, and jade carvings and clay figurines on the other.

These are Jiangsu's handicraft specialties, including Suzhou embroidery, Suzhou fans, Yixing purple clay, Suzhou jade carvings, and Changzhou clay figurines.

When Mai Xiaomiao saw the fans in the window, she suddenly felt that the double-sided fan embroidered with kittens that she had bought in the morning was not as good as it could be.

"This is Su embroidery, which first appeared in the Three Kingdoms period. Jin Wangjia's "Records of the Lost: Wu" records: Wu Wang Sun Quan often lamented that Wei and Shu were not yet pacified, and wanted to find a good painter to draw the images of mountains, rivers, terrain, and military formations. Prime Minister Zhao Da presented his sister to him. Quan asked him to draw the terrain of the nine states. The lady said: "The color of the red and blue is very easy to fade, and it cannot be treasured for a long time. I can embroider, so I will draw the shapes of the five mountains, rivers, seas, cities, and military formations on the square silk." So she embroidered the five mountains, rivers, seas, cities, and military formations on the square silk. After it was completed, she presented it to the King of Wu. People at that time called it "needlework". That embroidered picture was called "Map of the States."

"In the Song Dynasty, there are records saying that the embroidery of the Song people was fine and dense, using one or two threads and needles as thin as hair. The colors were exquisite and the brilliance was dazzling. The landscapes were divided into distant and near, the pavilions had a profound body, the figures had a vivid feeling of looking out, and the flowers and birds were extremely graceful and charming. The best ones were better than paintings."

"In the 1930s, Suzhou embroidery masters created the technique of random stitch embroidery, which is similar to the method of colored pen sketching, using the method of overlapping to express the picture, making it richer and more three-dimensional. Although this painting "Zhaojun Going to the Frontier" is a traditional subject, it is obvious that the random stitch technique is used on the cloak, rocks, plum blossoms, and castrated sheep, turning it into a modern Chinese painting style, with a taste of combining Chinese and Western styles." "Mr. Yao, which master is this?"

Yao Chong scratched his chin and said, "I really don't know about this, but the Jiangsu Provincial Arts and Crafts Museum is one, so it's easy to find out. What's the matter? Elbow wants to collect a few paintings?"

"If there's a chance, please keep an eye out for this quality, Mr. Yao." Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "Xiao Miao likes it very much. I'll get her two."

Yao Chong was calculating in his heart, it seemed that Elbow had a special relationship with this girl, so he agreed, "Leave it to me. I remember that the provincial arts and crafts award went to four beauties that year, and the other three should still be in the province. I'll go back and ask around."

"Although figures are the best way to express one's level of calligraphy, painting, and embroidery, we don't necessarily want figures." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Xiao Miao prefers cute little animals, right?"

"Yeah." Mai Xiaomiao nodded.

"That's even easier." Yao Chong immediately patted his chest and said, "Leave it to me!"

When we arrived at the hall, there was another small exhibition room. Several old acquaintances were there, as well as a few people who looked like officials.

“Hahaha!” Zhu Qinghong was extremely happy to see Zhou Zhi: “Everyone said it was a pity that you didn’t come to the award ceremony, but I didn’t expect you to come after all!”

"How did you get another Ming Dynasty painting?" Xu Zhiman stroked his beard. "There have been many reports in the news these days. At first, when I said it was you, no one believed me. But then when I mentioned the restorer's name, it really was you!"

"It was also a coincidence." Zhou Zhi began to greet everyone and introduced Mai Xiaomiao.

"Come on, let me introduce them to you." Yao Chong introduced Zhou Zhi: "This is Deputy Director Duan who led the team to Beijing to participate in the award ceremony. This is Director Liu from our Jiangsu Provincial Office in Beijing."

"Deputy Director Duan, Director Liu, this is Zhou Zhi. Our company's successful transformation can be attributed to his advice and strong support."

"Mr. Zhou, I've heard a lot about you." Director Liu of the Beijing Office was shocked by Deputy Director Duan's attitude. The young man in front of him looked like a college student, and the girl next to him could be said to be a senior high school student. He didn't expect Deputy Director Duan to be so respectful.

"No, no." Zhou Zhi was very modest. "In fact, it was also a matter of fate. The right time, right place and right people all came together. Of course, the craftsmanship of several masters also made the wealthy businessmen in Hong Kong Island favor them. This is also called opportunities always come to those who are prepared. It shows that God is still fair."

"Mr. Xiao Zhou is too polite." Deputy Director Duan smiled and said, "I did some research on the situation of Suzhou Jade Carving Factory before the restructuring. There was a problem of big pot meals, a problem of waste of resources, and a problem that the level of senior craftsmen did not match their income."

"All three problems are long-standing problems. The once world-famous Sugong jade carvings can no longer reflect the value of their craftsmanship in terms of market response. The phenomenon of 'bad money driving out good money' has emerged. It is almost reduced to a factory that processes beads and low-quality small pendants in two cities in Guangdong!" (End of this chapter)