Hao’s Windmill Brings a 300-Year Memory to Life in Pingyi

Whirring and squeaking, the big windmill is singing. Together with the sky and the soil, oh, how beautiful! Together with the little buddies, oh, the happy buddies!

Hao’s windmill in Pingyi County, Linyi City of Shandong Province, embodies the ancient skills passed down generation after generation. Each windmill requires more than 30 steps to finish, including cutting, coloring, drying, bundling, bonding, polishing, drilling, assembling, and packaging before completion. It is a municipal intangible cultural heritage.

Family Hao’s business could be traced back to the Daoguang period (1782-1850) of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Hao’s ancestor Dongye Gaosheng learned the craftsmanship from the folk artists. It was later passed down to Dongye Qinghua and Hao’s grandfather Dongye Chuanxiao and his mother Dongye Changying. The windmill was traditionally made using raw materials like wood pulp paper, bamboo, mud, sorghum stalks, etc. Wood pulp paper was used as the windmill blades, bamboo as the outer ring, and sorghum stalk as the hand-held pole. The materials were common and simple to get. But the windmill thus made was rough and damageable.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Hao Shiqi, the fifth-generation descendant of the family for the windmills, changed the situation, He was a quick and renovative thinker, and was good at research. Through his continuous efforts, Hao’s windmills began to use new materials and production processes. Gradually launched on the market, the new products became more and more popular. The novel styles and the correspondent high quality are bringing big joy and hearty laughter amidst the unforgettable childhood memories.

With his continuous research, Mr. Hao Shiqi has made a variety of the single-wheeled windmills such as two-wheeled windmills, multi-wheeled windmills, gong-music windmills, etc. The diameter of the windmill is 36.5 centimeters, representing the 365 days in a year. The four colors of green, red, yellow and blue symbolize the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively. The 12 color bars tell the 12 months of the year, while the 24 heads of the 12 color bars representing the 24 solar terms. Rich Chinese cultures are involved in the toy-like items!

To better inherit this craft, Mr. Hao established a windmill workshop integrating R&D, production and sales. The workshop covers an area of more than 500 square meters. There are windmill R&D, e-commerce, production and sales, and other related departments within the premise. Currently, the workshop has more than 100 employees, with a daily output of 10,000 windwheels as well as a daily shipment volume of more than 100 boxes. Relying on the e-commerce platforms, the products are sold countrywide. During the winter and summer vacations, research activities are carried out for young people to better inherit this intangible cultural heritage and to better understand the charm of this tradition through hand-on experience. The workshop has also enabled over 600 windmill enthusiasts to master the craftsmanship in order to realize the self-employment.