Bridge-building skills span generations

A family inheritance

The Huang family's dedication to building and restoring wooden arch bridges began with Huang Minhui's great-grandfather Huang Jinshu, who learned the craft from Zhuo Maolong, a well-known bridge builder during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

In Pingnan, people often built wooden bridges as the area is mountainous and has an abundance of trees. Bridge-making was a way of making a living, and covered bridges also provided shelter from frequent rain, permitting people to meet outdoors in a public space and protecting the wooden bridge body.

According to Huang Minhui, Zhuo had many apprentices but most left after he fell ill. His great-grandfather, Huang Jinshu, took care of Zhuo and continued to learn bridge-building skills from him. When Zhuo was too sick to get out of bed, he continued to teach by constructing model bridges using chopsticks. When Zhuo passed away, the Huang family buried him as he had no children of his own.

"The intricate techniques for making wooden arch bridges were already well-tested when master Zhuo imparted the skills to my great-grandfather," says Huang Minhui.

On one side of the Wan'an Bridge lies Dasheng Temple, which survived the 2022 fire. The stage in it is said to have been built by Zhuo. The temple is dedicated to the Monkey King, an iconic figure in Chinese classics, who is famous for his heroic efforts to dispel evildoers, and who residents believe protects them.

The way Huang Minhui remembers it, his father Huang Chuncai was an ordinary carpenter, and the Wan'an Bridge was like an old friend. He was amazed by its structure, but had no idea of its relationship with his family, nor of his father's ability to build bridges, as wooden bridges were gradually replaced by concrete and steel in the 1960s and his father Huang Chuncai left home in search of work.

Huang Chuncai had only started learning to make wooden bridges from his father when he was 15 but by the time he was 20, he was the main designer and builder behind one local bridge, which made him a name in the trade. But after building another bridge in Ningde's Gutian county in 1969, he had no further requests, so he had to find other work.

This suspension continued until 2004, when there was a project involving the historical Jinzao Bridge. People found the name of Huang Minhui's grandfather on the bridge and set out to find his descendants. Huang Chuncai was nearly 70 at the time but he once again came to attention for his proficiency, and was made an inheritor of the craft, which was listed as a form of national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

In 2005, and then working in a factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Huang Minhui was persuaded to return home to pick up his father's skills. "He said the craft should not be lost and needed to be passed on. I returned home and learned it from him with my brother," Huang Minhui says.

In recent years, local government has placed greater importance on wooden bridges and has asked the Huang family to build and restore a series of them. Huang Minhui and his brother built almost one bridge a year between 2005 and 2015 and honed their skills.

"Now, we most often make wooden bridges in tourist attractions, features in the landscape that are not necessarily useful. But Wan'an Bridge is still one of the most functional bridges in the area," he says.