Flights of kites
Time|May 27, 2024
An ancient folk craft tradition floats across time and still soars to new heights in modern times
CHENG YUEZHU
Flights of kites

Many people hold at least one memory of a kite from their childhoods, be it a simple yet classic diamond or a colorful bird-shaped kind with vividly flapping wings. It could be a sunny spring day in a pastoral landscape with family members. As the wind picks up, the user runs as fast as he or she can, until the kite ascends high into the sky and dances in the air.

However, the kite that Yang Hongwei of Yangjiabu village in Weifang, Shandong province, remembers is slightly different. It was a gigantic dragon-headed centipede that stretched for 1,180 feet and took dozens of people to fly.

That was at the third Weifang International Kite Festival in 1986. To celebrate their village’s legacy of crafting kites, her grandfather, Yang Tongke, and uncle, Yang Qimin, both master kite makers, envisioned and created a model 10 times bigger than any they had ever made.

Weifang is renowned as the “world capital of kites”, and Yangjiabu village has long remained at the heart of local production.

Yang Hongwei, who was born to a family of artisan kite makers in the village in 1966, became a national-level representative inheritor of Weifang kite-making techniques this year.

Yangjiabu is home to two national-level intangible cultural heritage items, kites and Yangjiabu new year pictures, a type of traditional woodblock printing used to decorate people’s homes during Spring Festival.

Top: A girl flies a kite in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province on April 6. XINHUA Above: A dragonheaded centipede kite made by Yang Hongwei, a national-level representative inheritor of kite-making techniques in Weifang, Shandong province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 27, 2024-Ausgabe von Time.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 27, 2024-Ausgabe von Time.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS TIMEAlle anzeigen
NIH budget cuts are causing chaos
Time

NIH budget cuts are causing chaos

THE U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) IS THE largest funder of biomedical research in the world, and its grants create the foundation of basic science knowledge on which major health advances are built.

time-read
4 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
Zero Day's uncannily apolitical Washington
Time

Zero Day's uncannily apolitical Washington

IN AN EARLY SCENE OF THE NETFLIX THRILLER ZERO DAY, a former U.S. President is visiting the site of a deadly Manhattan subway crash when an onlooker starts shouting about crisis actors.

time-read
6 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
For the love of voice notes
Time

For the love of voice notes

SOMEWHERE IN THE BLUR OF 2020, AS I SLIPPED OUTside with a mask and running shoes in the early morning to walk around the block, the lilting drawl of a friend's \"Hiiiiii\" nearly stopped me in my tracks.

time-read
5 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.As the U.S. Health Secretary
Time

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.As the U.S. Health Secretary

THE SENATE CONFIRMED ROBERT F. Kennedy Jr., one of country's most notorious vaccine skeptics, to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 13, sparking outrage among public-health experts who worry that Kennedy will harm public health and further erode trust in science and medicine.

time-read
1 min  |
March 10, 2025
THE RISE OF GERMANY'S FAR RIGHT
Time

THE RISE OF GERMANY'S FAR RIGHT

Alice Weidel's AfD party is making gainswith a boost from the Trump Administration

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
Net Zero Is Not Enough
Time

Net Zero Is Not Enough

AUSTRALIAN MINING BILLIONAIRE ANDREW FORREST'S GREEN CRUSADE

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
How will your new company, Respin, help women in menopause?
Time

How will your new company, Respin, help women in menopause?

Halle Berry The Oscar-winning actor says there’sa desperate need to inform women about menopause. Her new company aims to fill that education and empathy gap

time-read
2 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
How we talk about the Holocaust now
Time

How we talk about the Holocaust now

VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE ARRIVED AT THE DACHAU concentration camp under low, gray clouds.

time-read
6 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
South Korea's political drama will produce waves overseas
Time

South Korea's political drama will produce waves overseas

SOUTH KOREA'S political crisis continues. After President Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached and arrested following his aborted imposition of martial law last December, the country's Constitutional Court will now decide his future. Legal experts say Yoon will soon be removed from office and sent to prison.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025
WOMEN of the YEAR
Time

WOMEN of the YEAR

13 extraordinary leaders fighting for a more equal future

time-read
6 Minuten  |
March 10, 2025