Chen Danghua: China's 80-year-old "knife king" has thousands of dollars for a kitchen knife, but his customers are all over the world. Why?

China has many traditional folk skills, such as sugar figurine, paper-cutting, shadow play and New Year pictures. These folk skills are varied and varied, and they are the traditional cultural treasures handed down from China for thousands of years. But now many folk skills have been lost. Although some folk skills still exist in society, they are also on the verge of extinction.

Today's society supports children to receive formal compulsory education, and only by studying hard can they earn money well. Therefore, it is difficult for someone to inherit these folk skills.

Chen Danghua is one of the few inheritors of folk traditional sharpening skills. "Grinding scissors! Chopper! " I believe many people have heard this sentence when they were young, but now they hardly hear it. Chen Danghua is one of these rare sharpeners. The price of his kitchen knife can reach thousands, and customers are all over the world. He is known as "China Knife King".

Born in a poor family, he inherited the mantle of his ancestors and embarked on the road of tempering.

Chen Danghua was born in Hongkong, China more than 80 years ago. At that time, the gap between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong was relatively large. But Chen Danghua's family is very poor, and his parents have no extra money for him to study. In order to learn a skill that can support the family, Chen Danghua decided to go out as an apprentice when he was 13 years old.

Chen Danghua's idea at that time was very simple. If he can't study, he will try to support himself. So, Chen Danghua learned to sharpen the knife with an old master. How much can you earn by sharpening a knife? Maybe it's just hard work to make money and barely make ends meet.

But Chen Danghua is interested in sharpening the knife. At that time, unlike now, everything could be replaced by machines. There is still some demand for grinders in the market. So Chen Danghua learned to sharpen the knife with the master.

At first, Chen Danghua just peddled in the street: "Grind scissors! Chopper! " After having regular customers, Chen Danghua set up a stall on the roadside. Sharpening the knife, he got not only money, but also the improvement of sharpening technology.

But the profit of sharpening business is meager. If it is worn out, Chen Danghua will have to pay for it. Every morning, Chen Danghua can only earn a little hard money. But he didn't give up the job, because Chen Danghua felt that the sharpening skills were profound and could not be done casually. Now that you have made up your mind to learn this skill, you must stick to it.

So at the insistence of Chen Danghua, he finally saved enough money to open his own knife shop-Chen Ruiqi Store.

With meditation, Chen Danghua became a generation of swordsman.

This shop is located in a narrow alley in Hong Kong and sells knives made by Chen Danghua. At first, business was not very good. In order to sell knives, Chen Danghua priced them below the market price. With this meager profit, Chen Danghua began to learn sharpening techniques in his own knife shop.

Chen Danghua's pragmatic attitude makes his sharpening skills better and better, so the reputation of Chen Sharp Tool Store in the neighborhood is getting better and better. Instead of lowering the knife price as before, Chen Danghua raised the knife price to a height corresponding to his sharpening level.

Even if Chen Danghua's knife is higher than the market price, many guests still choose to buy knives in Chen's sharp weapon shop because of his craftsmanship.

Chen Danghua needs nine grindstones to sharpen a knife, and each grindstone has different uses. Moreover, these grindstones are not ordinary stones, but the most suitable stones for sharpening knives that Chen Danghua has found everywhere.

Many chefs hope to get the knife sharpened by Chen Danghua, because his knife is not only as sharp as mud, but also can be used for 30 years.

Now, Chen Danghua is 80 years old, and he has sold thousands of knives. This price can be said to be very expensive in the current market, but Chen Danghua's Dao will never be sold. Even in the machine age, everything can be done by machines. But Chen Danghua's unique sharpening skills can't be learned by machines.

Chen Danghua's sharpening technology has reached this level after decades of research and tempering. How can an ordinary machine make a knife as good as him? Because of his superb sharpening skills, Chen Danghua is also known as the king of knives in Hong Kong. Everyone agrees that Chen Danghua's knives are the best.

But Chen Danghua has reached the age of 80, and can't do it for long. Up to now, Chen Danghua has not found a suitable apprentice. If Chen Danghua can't find an apprentice before his death, his decades of honing skills will be wasted. This is his biggest worry now.

In Chen Danghua's mind, all traditional skills should be passed down. If no one learns, these skills will be lost in the long river of history.

Chinese traditional folk skills should be protected.

Now, not only Chen Danghua's sharpening skills are lost, but also many traditional skills of China have not been passed down. Learning a skill for a long time, even if you learn it, your income may be low. Mastering a skill requires a lot of energy. Once you choose it, you should stick to it. Therefore, few people will choose to learn a traditional skill unless they have to.

In this mechanized era, most things can be done by machines. Some people may have studied for a long time, but they are not as good as machines. Therefore, learning traditional skills requires courage and love, and you can't back down when you encounter difficulties.

The same is true of embroidery, a traditional skill, which is being studied and passed down by fewer and fewer people. Embroidery, which every woman once had to learn, is now almost replaced by machines. Only those who study and exercise hard can stand out in this market.

There are also Hui ink, shovel bowls and so on. These handmade products are often difficult to sell, and these industries lack a large number of talents. Master Zhu Gang is a Huimo worker. He inherited his father's craft and continued to engage in Huimo industry. But his son is unwilling to inherit his mantle and learn this ancient skill. Because in this business, the return is often not proportional to the effort.

But if everyone thinks so, how can traditional skills be carried forward? It is precisely because there are many people who love traditional skills in China that these skills have not been lost in the long history.

These craftsmen often don't care about money and income at first, because it is easy to learn a craft, but it is difficult to master a craft. Therefore, when they learn a traditional skill, they are often poor. But after a long period of exercise and polishing, they will get income proportional to their efforts.

This is the case with Danghua Chen, who changed from a poor boy to a generation of knife kings by insisting on sharpening knives. This process is often long and arduous, and only those who really love this skill or are willing to protect these traditional skills have the motivation to persist.

We should vigorously support the development of traditional skills. These great and ordinary craftsmen are working hard with their love. Is there any reason why we can't give these craftsmen some leniency?