What are the main features of each of the traditional kite genres?

Chinese kites have a history of more than two thousand years. As a kind of culture and folk art, it naturally has its own genres. With the vast area of China, there are many kinds and styles of kites, and the characteristics of kites are closely related to the regional culture.

1, Weifang kites

Weifang is located in the state of Qilu, the ancient name of Weixian, is a cultural city, and is historically famous for handicrafts, where the production of clay sculpture, jewelry, embroidery, Yangjiabu woodblock prints and kites are very famous, as long as you go to Weifang to a trip, you can feel the title of the international kite as a well-deserved. The long cultural history has formed the unique local color of Weifang kites. Weifang kites have been popular among the people since the Song Dynasty and became more popular in the Ming Dynasty. It became more popular in the Ming Dynasty, and flourished in the countryside during the Qianjia period of the Qing Dynasty. Zheng Banqiao, one of the Eight Monsters of Yangzhou, who had been the magistrate of Weifang County for seven years, pictorially depicted the kite-flying scene around Weifang during the Ching Ming Festival in his poem "Wyoming Weifang County": "Paper flowers like snow fly all over the sky, the delicate girl swings to hit the four sides, and the flying colorful dresses swing in the wind, and it's good to bring the butterflies back to the city in the spring". Guo Lin, a native of Weixian County in the same period, also wrote this kind of poem: "The paper kite son of the swing woman, chaotic grass, new rice, spring swallows". It describes the local people in the wind and sunshine, grass and trees competing for the Qingming Festival, scrambling to the two sides of the Bailang River to swim in the spring kite-flying lively scene. After several generations of painstaking research and exploration, Weifang kite artists have skillfully combined the techniques of Chinese painting, Yangjiabu woodblock prints and kite-making crafts, and formed three branches of Yangjiabu kites, Chinese painting kites and hieroglyphic kites. The most representative kites in Weifang kites are the dragon head centipede kites, hard-winged figure kites and so on.

2. Beijing Kites

Beijing kites have a history of more than 300 years. It is a folk custom to fly kites during the Qingming Festival in Beijing. The Journal of Seeing and Hearing says, "In February and March, the High-Leung Bridge is used for trekking, and Wanliu Hall is used for Mingying, and Konghou is used for getting kites." The Qing man Pan RongHang wrote "Imperial Beijing Years and Seasons" also wrote kite flying vividly: "Qingming tomb sweeping, men and women of the city, out of the four suburbs, take pots and pans, the wheel hubs look at each other. Each with a paper kite spool, after cleaning, that is, in front of the grave to put more wins", "the capital paper kite, very full of craftsmanship, there is the value of several gold." The Qing Dynasty Beijing Years and Seasons Records of Victory recorded that at that time, men and women in the city "carried paper kites with them", and after sweeping the graves at Ching Ming Festival, they put them in the more victorious situation. Recent Shen Tai comparable "spring bright picking wind Zhi" contains: "often line sand swallows, one foot to ten feet two, folding bamboo frame, as swallow fly style, paper mache, painted blue, in the press line three, the big back with organ or peace gongs and drums, to rope around, put up with the wind, the day line system, the night system of red lamps, the children tilted their heads to chase, in order to drain the internal accumulation of heat, cover the intention is also taken. More than three feet, different patterns, Na Tcha, Liu Hai, Haha three saints, two people play, centipedes, catfish, butterflies, dragonflies, three suns, seven magpies and so on. The most curious ones are the eagle and the hawk, a line flying in the air, which is seen from a distance and is also realistic." The basic forms of Beijing kites are hard-winged, soft-winged, rows, long strings and barrels.

3. Tianjin Kites

Tianjin kites are also one of the very characteristic kite genres. The production technology of Tianjin kites has a long history and exquisite craftsmanship, which can be confirmed by the Yangliuqing New Year's Painting of the Qing Dynasty, "Ten Beautiful Kites Flying", which shows ten kinds of kites such as stringed lanterns, disk eagles, monks fetching scriptures, butterflies and so on.

The late kite artist Wei Yuantai made a great contribution to the kite-making technology of Tianjin. He has been engaged in kite making for more than 70 years, and has developed flat beat type, round three-dimensional type and soft winged kites, and also created folded winged kites, and his work won a gold medal at the Panama World Expo in 1914, which won honors for Tianjin kites.

Tianjin kites represented by "Kite Wei" have realistic shapes, elegant colors and fine workmanship. Most of the kites are made of silk, which is light but strong, and the skeleton is made of bamboo with fine texture, long joints and high elasticity, which is a very delicate material.

Tianjin kites, on the basis of inheriting the traditional production technology, continue to innovate and develop, the shape is more beautiful, the color painting is more exquisite, flying in the clear sky is pleasing to the eye, and can be put indoors for ornamental purposes, it is the treasures of folk crafts.

4, Sichuan kites

Mainly circulated in Chengdu, Mianzhu and other places, half printing and half painting, the first ink line gallery of characters or animal images printed on paper, glued to the skeleton, and then red, yellow, blue, green and other water paintings rough brush a few brush strokes, appearing dashing and smooth. Kites are expensive because they are big. There is a kind of "sheep's tail" kite, small and undecorated, three or five of them are strung together, and when they are flying, they are swinging, like a flock of sheep swinging their tails; there is also a kind of T-shaped kite, which is not found elsewhere. Chengdu Park Forest is a famous kite city in the past.