Blacksmiths fear for the future as farmers modernize
Print Edition
AT 68, Lu Yuxiang is the only, and likely last, blacksmith in his village in east China’s Shandong Province.
The family forge, which once generated enough income to support his whole household, is under threat. Not only are new systems and equipment taking work away from blacksmiths, but the once respected profession is no longer attractive to the younger generation.
Despite the start of the wheat harvest last week, Lu sold just a dozen sickles, each costing 10 yuan (US$1.52). Two decades ago, he would have easily sold 3,000.
“Times have changed. No matter how good my sickles are, no one wants to use them,” he said.
As the agricultural sector modernizes, farmers have turned their backs on traditional methods, meaning craftsmen like Lu are obsolete.
In Shandong, a major agricultural province, more than 98 percent of wheat is harvested by machines. In Wenshang County, where Lu lives, this translates into 40,000 machines which reap, sow and irrigate, doing tasks once done with less-sophisticated apparatus.
Lu has been forging sickles for more than 50 years since his father passed the blacksmith’s hammer on to him. He can make a quality sickle in just half an hour and also produces spades, hoes and forks.
When machines were rare, blacksmiths were in demand. “It combines labor and skill, and I could make much more money than other ordinary jobs,” Lu said.
Lu started in the business with his father in 1986 and it thrived, until the arrival of the first machinery in 1993. The convenience and efficiency of machines won many farmers over.
Although Lu’s customers prefer his handmade sickles as they last longer, factory-produced products are adding more strain to the blacksmith’s already bleak business prospects. A factory-made sickle is half the price of the handcrafted version.
Lu’s son refused to follow his father into the business, which he saw as offering nothing but hard work for little financial return. Instead, he works at a construction site in Guangdong Province, earning 200 yuan a day, the same amount his father makes in a week.
Now museum exhibits
The situation for blacksmiths in Quezhuang, another village in the county, is no less bleak. There are only two major smithies in the village now, compared with the eight that once lined the high street.
Across Shandong, sickles are now museum exhibits, their rusted, curved edges conjuring up images of a bygone era. Wenshang County named forges and iron forging skills as an example of one of the county’s intangible cultural heritage.
Liu Sixi, 42, said he is lucky if he sells a few dozen sickles a year, a hundredth of what he sold 10 years ago.
Instead of farm tools, he now makes kitchen knives, embossing each with his trademark and phone number.
Ma Guanghai, a professor at Shandong University, said blacksmiths should transform their products through branding and customization, which would prove attractive to urbanites looking for items with cultural and artistic value.
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