An inheritor of ancient boat making techniques

Villagers watch the trial paddling of Zheng's 29.48-meter-long dragon boat. [Photo/China Daily]

Located at Haicheng town, Longhai city, the port of Yuegang looks much similar to any quiet small village along the coastline. But some cargo ships in the river serve as a reminder of its glorious history as a major commercial port of Fujian during the mid-and late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

At that time, Yuegang had direct trade contacts with 47 countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea. There is no doubt that the traditional wooden boat making industry was booming in the area.

Zheng Shuitu, 58, the inheritor of the old boat building techniques, is in charge of Zongxing Shipyard near the port, which has a history of more than 100 years. His family started to make wooden sailing vessels as early as the Ming Dynasty. Until the 1910s, these sailing ships would travel to domestic and overseas ports including Singapore and the Philippines.

Since about 30 years ago, he has been mainly building dragon boats to maintain the shipyard because wooden ships do not have governmental permit to sail in the sea. The number of orders is about 30 to 40 a year on average, and will increase if the government organizes dragon boat races. He also makes beautiful sailing vessel models.

"I have to carry on the ancestral techniques. Buyers love my dragon boats because they are fast," he says. He started to make boats at the age of 14.

"I don't need a drawing sheet. All the things are in my head."

The traditional dragon boats are about 18-meter-long, but he is making even longer ones. He often uses tens of thousands of nails cast from pig irons with the length of 8 to 12 centimeters to connect the boat body. He then smears a mixture of tung oil and pounded oyster shells for grouting, to prevent water from seeping in.

In early June, he just finished a dragon boat with a length of 29.48 meters and width of 1.5 meters, probably the biggest in southern Fujian. After a grand sacrificial ceremony, Zheng and the villagers happily watched the paddlers row the boat swiftly in the river, accompanied by gongs and drums.

Unlike the dragon boats in Fuzhou, Zheng's boats have no dragon head, just a triangle red cloth to represent the dragon's tongue. The dragon's eyes are painted on both sides of the boat body.

"Paddlers squat inside the boat in two lines to row with from their waists. The helmsman is very important as he sits at the stern to control the direction and speed," Zheng says.

He used a boat model and small paddlers to show how it works. If the speeds of both lines are much the same, the rudder will be up to speed. If not, the helmsman will put the rudder in the water to balance the speed.

The gong striker is in the middle to pace the speed of the boat, while the one who beats the drum is in the fore. The more up in the front a paddler is, the more strength he has to use.

"In southern Fujian, all villages along the rivers have dragon boats, about four or five on average. The boats symbolizes the identity of a village and showcases its collective honor, " he says.

Although he is an elder master, he is not looking to retire just yet. Building dragon boats is more than a way to make a living, it is his spiritual sustenance. His 30-year-old son Zheng Hailong and 46-year-old nephew Zheng Haiming are his only apprentices.

"Boat making is very profound. My father loves it very much, but it is so hard for him to visit all the places for the trade, such as to buy wood," the son says. He is a crane driver and sometimes helps his father. When he was a kid, his grandpa often brought him to the shipyard to play.

In the past, vessel makers were often illiterate and started to learn the craft when they were in their early teens. Zheng Shuitu is no exception. But he is the only one who can read his ancestors' hand-drawn blueprints of 16 kinds of cargo ships, fishing vessels and passenger boats made from 1919 to 1937.

The drawings have design photos, measurements and a special language created by ship makers in line with the southern Fujian dialect. It's very precious and helps experts to know more about the boat making industry.

However, the future of the dockyard is uncertain. It's said that as the local government will reconstruct Yuegang to restore its heyday as a port of the Marine Silk Road, the shipyard may face demolition.

"The shipyard represents Yuegang's brilliant port history. I hope I can keep it and cooperate with the government to showcase the boat making techniques and Yuegang's port culture," Zheng Shuitu says.

Sun Li contributed to the story.