Farmer's knack for thatch gives new life to famed poet's rebuilt cottage

Farmer Liu Mingfu is illiterate and knows nothing of Du Fu, one of China's most celebrated poets and the voice of a generation torn between the government and two rebelling generals during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

But the 72-year-old knows thatch. So when the ancient poet's replica cottage at the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan province, needed a new roof, the curators knew just whom to call.

The poet (AD 712-770), whose position in Chinese literature is likened to that of William Shakespeare in English literature, came to Chengdu as a war refugee in 759.