Xia Hao

Fingertips slid over the kang paintings in his hometown, and his thoughts wandered in warm memories.

Grandpa is a good hand at painting kang around the village, and he will paint his latest design on the wall every year. When I was a child, I often used my little finger to wander among them, as if I were there, sometimes shuttling through the peony bushes that symbolize wealth, sometimes wandering among the landscape pavilions and terraces filled with ink, and sometimes riding the crane with wings spread to the sky...... In the era when material culture was relatively scarce, the small Kang paintings enriched the inner world of children.

I used to lean against the wall and chat with my grandfather, who was sitting cross-legged on the clay kang. Speaking of the origin of the Kang Wai painting, the old man's eyes were filled with tears. In the early years, farmers often used crucibles to paint the walls, which were easy to peel off and rub dirty clothes and bedding. People use crucible soil to adjust glue, and paint a two-foot-high "fence" along the kang, which not only protects the wall, but also makes it easy to lean on. Later, in order to pursue beauty on the basis of practicality, people outlined the edge with ink lines, painted three or two freehand flowers in the middle, and painted the blank space with monochrome flat painting, which was the prototype of the Kang Wai painting. After generations of improvement, the Kang Wai painting has developed a color painting technique, after the painting is dry, cover the surface with tung oil three times, the wall is suddenly crystal clear, and when it is dirty, it only needs to be wiped lightly with a wet cloth, and it will take on a new look.

From generation to generation, this skill has been born in the loess, and it has been included in the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 2009 years. Grandpa often said that from babbling to getting married and having children, the kang paintings at home are like silent teachers, witnessing a person's growth. The bright colors of his pen bring a unique vitality to the earthen walls of every house.

(The author is a technician of the R&D Department of Inner Mongolia Sanaifu Marriott Fluorine Chemical Co., Ltd.)

People's Daily (08/0/0 0 Edition)