The Protection and Inheritance of the Traditional Papermaking Process: A Case Study of the Zhang Paper Workshop

The Zhang Paper Workshop preserving the complete traditional papermaking process has been praised by experts as “the living fossil of Chinese papermaking”. Due to the impact of industrial papermaking, however, the traditional papermaking has gradually lost its market advantage, and the Zhang Paper Workshop prevailing for a time is already on the decline. In order to retain this precious cultural heritage, for more than 10 years, the Gleaners has spared no effort to provide various efforts to papermakers and has found a way out for the manual papermaking, and results have been achieved. How to protect and inherit the traditional papermaking process under the premise of conserving the ecological environment and maintaining the integrity of the papermaking process, and establish the Zhang Paper Workshop as a place for spreading the concept of nature conservation and cultural heritage protection is an urgent problem to be solved. This requires the support of policies, the investment of funds and the upgrading of technology, as well as the promotion of understanding and the cultivation of feelings.