A cultural paper trail

The skill can be mastered only through long hours and painstaking practice. Zhou admits soon after he started learning the craft as an apprentice in 1985, he wanted to give it up, since his hands would be covered in chilblains during winter as they constantly came into contact with cold water.

He could only apply ointment to relieve his pain at night, but the next day he had to continue his work. After a time, the skin on his hands would peel away.

After eight months, in 1986, he became an employee of the China Xuan Paper Group. Although he worked hard for a whole month, he did not receive any salary, because the paper he produced was categorized as not being up to the required standard.

Luckily, after finding a good teacher, and years of practice, he has honed his skills to the extent that 99 percent of the paper he makes meets the standard.

In 1993, Zhou was given the task to restore zhahua, an ancient type of Xuan paper renowned for being incredibly lightweight and "just as thin as cicada wings". One hundred sheets of zhahua weigh just 1.4 kilograms, less than half of the weight of ordinary Xuan paper. Zhou did a lot of reading and experiments, adjusting the concentration of paper pulp and the intensity of his movements continuously, and finally managed to re-create the paper.