Turning the page

"We lived on the craftsmanship during the Mao (Zedong) era," says the 60-year-old.

The faint-yellow bamboo paper, which is rough in quality by today's standard, was considered a luxury item in the 1950s and 1960s, Pan recalls. A local State-owned sundry goods company bought all the paper and supplied it exclusively to big cities, such as Shanghai, as toilet paper.

But over time, machines have taken over the production process. And Zeya paper was only used as paper money to be burned for the deceased.

Pan and his family - like most other villagers - gave up the craft and moved out of the mountainous area during the 1980s, to seek a better life.

In 2005, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage launched the "Compass Project" to preserve ancient China's significant inventions in fields, such as agriculture, water conservation and architecture. Papermaking was one of them.

In 2009, Zeya mountain area was chosen as a pilot to demonstrate the tradition of Chinese papermaking.

"By preserving the tradition of papermaking, future generations will know how their ancestors worked," says Shi, the cultural heritage bureau director.

Besides a papermaking-themed museum built in Zeya, the local government invited villagers like Pan to return home to restore their old profession.

Pan's 100-year-old residence, which was abandoned when Pan and his family moved to the cities, was renovated and designated as the demonstration base. All the facilities and tools that stopped working for decades came alive again.

"If not for the restoration, our papermaking tradition would have been gone forever," Pan says, adding that he feels great to be making paper again in his hometown.

Pan and his family make about 20,000 yuan ($3,140) every year, which he describes as "not much but enough for a living".

In addition to bamboo paper, the local government hopes to recover other kinds of traditional papermaking methods. Four have been successfully retrieved so far.

One of them is bast paper, which is made from the bark of Broussonetia papyrifera trees, which can be easily found all over the Zeya mountain area.

"Bast paper is whiter and tougher than bamboo paper, and is excellent for Chinese ink painting and calligraphy," Shi says.

As more tourists visit the area to find out more about ancient papermaking procedures, Shi says, the bureau plans to organize its first Paper Mountain Cultural Festival soon.

Contact the writer at zhangzixuan@chinadaily.com.cn.