面人说 of Dough Figurines

                             Of  Dough Figurines
                                                   
                                                   Written by  Scarlett Wong
                                                   Translated by   Ruth fang
                                                   Revised by Kevin F

如果你有关注最近的脑力比赛？如果你同样关注中华传统文化？当然你也关注帅哥的话，那么你一定知道他，北京著名手工艺家族“面人郎”——郎佳子彧。
Did you watch the Tv program , the Most Powerful Brain? Have you ever paid close attention to Chinese traditional culture as well? Then you must have noticed LangJia Ziyu, the graduate of Beijing University and a dough figurine man, who comes from a famous folk culture family that has been making dough figurines for three generations in Beijing.

面人郎.jpg

面人郎？听至至此，你们一定有所疑问。但，或许你们都和我一样，记忆里街边出现的老爷爷们，用灵活的手指捏出一个个小面人吗？那并不是单纯的玩具，他是真正意义上的中国传统手工作品。
A dough figurine man? You may wonder is it not the old man making various vivid dough figures in the street during holidays?Listening here ,maybe this image of your childhood occurs to your mind immediately. Not at all! Being the third successor of dough figurine culture of Beijing, the 24- year-old LangJia Ziyu has creatively made popular elements, such as Emoji and cartoon figures into his work and devoted to propagating this culture with the help of New media.

面人于2008年加入国家非遗，正所谓指尖上的中国文化。面人它用面粉，糯米粉为主料，再加上色料，石蜡，蜂蜜等，经过防裂防霉的处理制成各色面团，通过各种各样的造型，切、刻、划，最后将以风干。一个栩栩如生的面人便做好了。
The Culture of Dough Figurine was chosen as the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.It’s genuine Chinese handiwork and can really be called” Chinese traditional culture at the fingertips!” The traditional dough figurines use flours and glutinous rice flour as the main material,adding pigments,paraffins,honey etc. to make assorted pastes after the treatment of anti-crack and mildew proof. On the basis of different sculpting ,cutting,carving ,drawing and air drying,a lifelike dough figurine is done!

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在我孩童时代，那个智能手机还不普及的时代。小孩子们游走于市井街头，寻找各种有意思的小玩意。我的回忆里，就有这么一个老爷爷，然而现在已经不在了，他总捏着我喜欢的孙悟空，麦兜坐落在我放学路上。华灯初上，万家灯火通明，老爷爷的面人摊前总有一群孩子围着。是他告诉我，这叫“面人”。十岁学艺，十五打拼，兢兢业业50年，一生只做一件事，“只为谋生故，含泪走四方”!
In my childhood, when the age of the smartphone was not yet come , children were roaming the streets to look for all kinds of funny gadgets. There was always an old dough figurine man,in my memory, sitting and making my favorite Monkey King and McDull in the street to my home, where the evening lights were just litting up, and many children were crowding around his booth. It was he who told me these were dough figurines. He learned the skill of making dough figurines at the age of ten and started fighting for life at fifteen. He has been working hard on this skill for fifty years and this is the only thing that he has accomplished all his life . As the saying goes, In order to make a living, walking around in tears ,which is the right portrait for him.

科技快速发展，人们生活越过越好，记忆里那些便宜精致的面人就随着那个不知所去的老爷爷一样，不知所去。面人文化就好像我儿时喜欢的“麦兜”，消失在了现在孩子的童年里，被遗忘，被丢弃。
Sadly,with the fast development of science and technology as well as the great improvement of people’s life ,the old dough figurine man is no longer there now ,just disappearing with those cheap yet delicate dough figurines of my memory. The culture of dough figurine, like my childhood favorite McDull,is vanishing in the childhood of this generation, being forgotten and discarded!

这是我在假期走访于武汉大街小巷找到的一个面人爷爷，我作为有这么一代记忆的青年，我应该去学习，去改变，去传承。让这项中国传统手工文化蒙上历史的轻纱，却永不消失，亘古不变，飘然而独立屹立在世界东方。希望通过今天这次演讲，我们能重新认识面人，认识中国传统文化，认识到逐渐被我们丢失掉的中国传统手工艺术！
This picture was taken when I finally found a dough figurine grandpa during weekends by visiting streets and alleys of Wuhan. Being a youth with such precious memories, I should learn to unveil this traditional handiwork culture, to study , innovate and pass on this cultural heritage so it may never disappear and standing independently in the cultures of the orient and of the world. I hope that, through my speech ,all of us can get to know the dough figurines and from which to understand the traditional Chinese culture and to know the traditional Chinese handicraft arts that has been gradually losing by us.