Brushing up a legacy

Right posture

Sitting in front of a plastic water basin in the Shanlian Huzhou Ink Brush Factory, 60-year-old Wang Xiaohua, wearing a pair of golden-rimmed presbyopic glasses, is deftly combing the small pile of wet goat wool with a bone comb in her right hand and aligning the tips, as she has done for the past 43 years. Wang Xiaohua is a provincial inheritor of Huzhou writing brush craftsmanship.

It is hard work.

"You have to sit sideways, leaning to the right as you need to transfer the strength from your whole body to your hands so that you can apply the strength deftly to avoid damaging the tips. Our hands need to be steady and strong. Besides, sitting like this won't block the natural light so that you can see the wool clearly. But sitting sideways for hours every day hurts our backs," she says.

In winter, artisans have to dip their hands into cold water frequently, so that many of them suffer from chilblains and arthritis.

"Bone combs are very sharp. If not careful, you will puncture your other hand," she says.

Wang Xiaohua grew up in the factory, since her parents worked there.

As a child, she found the woman artisans seemed happy as they talked to each other while finishing the work at hand easily. After graduating from senior middle school, she went to the factory, doing the same job as her mother did.

"Once I started, I found the work was not as easy as it looked," she says.

However, peer pressure pushed Wang Xiaohua to work harder, and as she made progress, she gradually fell in love with it.

"It's just an ordinary job, a repetitive one, but after doing it for so many years, I found this seat here is the most reassuring place for me. I've spent more time here than at home. It has become an important part of my life," she says.