Tinware is the pride of the ancient metal craft of the Chinese nation, its history can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, so it is called prehistoric metal, but the time when tinware really entered the large-scale production was the Ming Dynasty, and the development in the Qing Dynasty was its peak.
Since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Yishui tin pots have been widely popular in the folk, its history of development has been more than 200 years. It has changed people’s way of life, the diversification of folk life tools, promoted the progress of civilization of the masses. Not only has it played a certain positive role, but also created a profound culture of tinware for the folk.
Yicheng Street, Dongzhujiazhuang Village, Yishui County, is an important origin of Yishui tin pots, where Liu’s tin pot making skills, after more than 100 years of continuous exploration and development, has produced a wide range of influence in Yishui, Yishui is the leader of the tin pot making industry, the legacy of which has been handed down for five generations now.
Liu Shiming, born in 1945, began learning the art of tin pot making from his father in 1961. In the tedious process of making tin pots, he was not afraid of suffering and endured loneliness, from melting tin to pressing, from cutting to modeling, from soldering to polishing, he learned every step meticulously. He was identified as the fifth-generation inheritor of Liu’s tin pots, and in 1964, at the age of 19, Liu Shiming had already mastered the art of making tin pots, and he picked up his stove and bellows, and traveled around the countryside, becoming an independent practitioner of tin pot making. He inherited and inherited the tin pot making skills taught by his father, and at the same time, he integrated all the skills of making tin pots in the north and south, and then boldly innovated and produced tin pots with the characteristics of the regional culture of Yimeng Mountain, whose shapes are simple and beautiful and generous, and decorations are exquisite, practical and durable, and they are widely welcomed by the majority of tin pot enthusiasts.
Nowadays, with the development of the times, a variety of living utensils, can fully meet the different needs of the people, tin pots have slowly withdrawn from the stage of history. But as a kind of folk culture, the significance of its existence, far beyond the living utensils themselves, so Liu Shiming has always loved this profession, actively inheriting the craft of tin pots, attracting more people to understand tin pots, learning tin pots, so as to make positive contributions to the prosperity of Yishui’s folk culture.