What is the main production of traditional silver-making skills in Xinhua Village?

Xinhua Village's traditional silver-making skills mainly focus on making silverware.

According to Heqing County Records, as early as the middle of Ming Dynasty, there were craftsmen in Heqing who made silverware, bronzes and ornaments. Xinhua Village is a Bai village with a long history, with a history of 1000 years. The skill of making silverware is the most prominent feature of Xinhua Village.

Local artists use sterling silver as the main material, combine carving with sterling silver textile technology, and process according to the shape and specifications of the required products, retaining the more traditional folk handicraft characteristics. Silver processing generally goes through thirteen processes, from material selection, smelting to final polishing, each of which embodies the ingenuity of craftsmen. Heqing silverware has rich shapes, various types, exquisite craftsmanship and high quality, and is exported to both home and abroad.

The origin and development history of silverware in Xinhua Village

With the change of Bai people's lifestyle, many ethnic handicrafts have gradually disappeared in the inheritance, but some Bai handicrafts have sprung up suddenly and become one of the important means for local economic development and people to get rid of poverty and become rich. The national handicrafts of Xinhua Village in Heqing, Dali is one of the successful examples. The industrious Bai people have been processing silverware since Nanzhao period in Dali, which has lasted for thousands of years.

Since Nanzhao period, the technology of silver mining and silver making in Yunnan has been very developed, while Xinhua Village has been producing folk handicrafts since Nanzhao period, which has been passed down from generation to generation and has been passed down to this day. According to legend, when Dali was destroyed, many silversmiths of the imperial court went to Xinhua Village in Heqing County, where the kind and wise Bai people passed on this stunt.

In the late 1980s, a large number of craftsmen in Xinhua Village went out to make a living. After the 1990s, Xinhua craftsmen processed and sold handicrafts in many ethnic areas, becoming the main force in the processing and manufacturing of ethnic handicrafts.