Inheritance Patterns under Cultural Ecology Theory for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Handicrafts

Abstract

Culture is the fourth pillar of sustainable development. The protection of intangible cultural heritage is an important way to safeguard the transmission of intangible heritage across generations. With the help of cultural ecology theory, this paper compares cases of inheritance and development in two different handicrafts: Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer. The results show that under the influence of different cultural ecologies, the family inheritance pattern of Bai tie-dyeing, and the master–apprentice inheritance pattern of Beijing carved lacquer have undergone qualitative changes in modern society. This paper puts forward the distinction between representative inheritance and group inheritance and suggests a protection mechanism accordingly. This paper further suggests that a modern mentoring model should be promoted as the inheritance pattern to further aid handicraft development, and a clear division of economic interests is also appointed to apply with the premiumization development and mass development.

1. Introduction

Culture in sustainable development is highly topical [1], with UNESCO and other multilateral institutions having been focused on the role of culture and sustainable development for years [2]. The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) is considered the first standard setting instrument to put culture and development at its core [3]. The UNESCO International Congress “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” (2013) further proposed culture as an additional fourth pillar of the sustainability matrix, alongside society, economy, and the environment [4,5].

The safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is one of the topics that aims to better understand the connection between culture and sustainable development. ICH protection shares the same principle of intergenerational equity as sustainable development in that it takes a long-term view to protect the capacity of future generations to access cultural resources and meet their cultural needs [3]. In 2003, UNESCO promulgated the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which recognized that ICH is an essential factor for the preservation of cultural identity and diversity and that its safeguarding is a matter of urgency [6].

ICH includes traditions or living expressions inherited from the past, such as performing arts, social practices, oral traditions, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature, or the knowledge and skills used to produce traditional crafts [2,7]. Among these categories of ICH, traditional craftsmanship is one of the most important. The current study of craftsmanship is mainly focused either on the anthropological perspective, which discusses the handicrafts themselves [8,9], or the overall ICH protection perspective, which discusses problems and suggestions for handicrafts, such as the establishment of new polices [10,11], the development of tourism, and the construction of heritage sites that improve the sustainable development of a handicraft [12,13]. Little attention has been paid to the incentive mechanism of craftsmanship inheritance [14]. Traditional craftsmanship in China has a long history of not only being a reflection of China’s society, economy, and environment but also demonstrating traditional Chinese thought. Therefore, the discussion of the protection of craftsmanship has extra importance, with particular regard to the following research question: “What are the various mechanisms that maintain the transmission of traditional craftsmanship in China?” This question can help us to further understand the mechanisms that protect craftsmanship in China.

Influenced by cultural ecology, the route of cultural evolution is pluralistic, and the development of culture is pluralistic and complex. The evolution of traditional handicrafts also follows the typical evolution pathways. Yanagi (1989) once gave a theoretical reason for the continuation of handicrafts, which is as follows: “It is too hasty to assume that with the close of the tool age (Here, tool age means the age during which people relied on tools to make handicrafts, hand making was the only way to create handicrafts, and handicrafts had a high status.), handwork has ceased to have importance. That is the equivalent of saying that with the birth of science, religion has ceased to have meaning. No matter how far science advances, religion retains its meaning; more so, in fact. There is no change in the basic importance of the handicrafts or its work. The cry for hand work will arise again and again” [15]. Yanagi’s so-called awareness is an internal constraint that relies on familial and apprenticeship inheritance. The protection mechanism that depends on the contemporary social operation to function is an external constraint which follows the internal constraint. Although this mechanism can provide effective protection for the development of traditional handicrafts [16], it cannot exist in the cultural ecology itself; there is a need to return to the inheritance pattern to find the key problems within the ecology of culture.

This article compares the differences between the inheritance patterns of the craftsmanship of Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer in China using field surveys. Both Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer have been granted a place on the Chinese National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. However, they have different inheritance patterns, with Bai tie-dyeing mainly following the family inheritance pattern and Beijing carved lacquer following the master–apprentice inheritance pattern. By comparing the inheritance patterns of traditional craftsmanship under the cultural ecology framework, a series of theoretical questions can be proposed. What forces such a significant difference in the inheritance patterns of craftsmanship? Will the different modes of inheritance affect the efficiency of handicraft protection? Which mode of inheritance is more conducive to the protection and inheritance of handicrafts in modern society? Additionally, this article classifies two different types of traditional craftsmanship inheritance under cultural ecology and suggests a suitable mechanism for the sustainable development of traditional craftsmanship.

2. Literature Review

This study focuses on the inheritance patterns of traditional handicrafts in ICH under cultural ecology theory. Instead of the overall mechanism for the protection of ICH that is used by public or private actors, the inheritance model and its adaptation to modern society was the major area of focus in this research.

2.1. Traditional Craftmanship Heritage in ICH

Traditional craftmanship is “making something well through hand skill” [17], including embroidery, ceramics, printing and dyeing, paper cutting, clay figurines, painted sculptures, wood carving, stone carving, carved lacquerware, jade carvings, kite-making, and shadow puppets. Such crafts have a time-honored history and tremendous cultural value in China. From the perspective of their relationship with society, traditional handicrafts have both practical functions and aesthetic functions, containing traditional craft knowledge, skills, and techniques that are essential in maintaining community cohesion. The study of traditional craftmanship mainly focuses on transferring intangible cultural heritage to promote the creative industry [13,18], protecting ecological and sustainable management in the realm of sustainable design [19], using sustainable materials, and incorporating local cultural values through cultural knowledge and practices [8].

Previous studies have neglected the core elements of the ICH, considering that the most important task of the transmission and sustainable development of ICH is inheritance [20], which refers to the inheritance patterns of traditional craftmanship. Karakul (2015) proposed reconstructing the relationship between masters and apprentices to achieve the sustainable development of traditional crafts [21]. Research on incentive mechanisms with regard to passing on and developing cultural heritage was also conducted by Radzuan, illustrating the importance of the inheritance or transmission of ICH [14].

2.2. Family Inheritance of Traditional Handicrafts

China’s transmission process or inheritance patterns of ICHs contain two models. The first model is family inheritance. Traditional handicraft families rely on their skills to support their families and conduct business, and they regard their unique skills as the basis for their survival [22]. Arts and crafts, commonly known as handicraft businesses, are one of the popular forms of family business [18]. Many studies on family firms have touched upon inheritance effects. For example, Daniel et al. (2004) illustrated that the historical standards and shared values of family enterprises provide time-tested core values that lead to their success [23]. The accumulated business know-how and expertise of family firms, as well as the detailed tacit knowledge transmitted across generations, are important strategic assets for such family firms [24], and due to the strong emotional bonds of the family, business values and norms are created that contribute to a more harmonious, agile, and engaged business style compared with their nonfamily counterparts [25].

The inheritance rules of family firms mentioned above can also be applied to family handicraft firms in China. However, compared with Western family firms, the family inheritance of handicrafts in China has stricter rules. To ensure the continuation of their skills from generation to generation and maintain the existing and long-term interests of the family, the system, scope, and order of intergenerational inheritance of their skills and industries are limited based on blood relations, and a unique intergenerational inheritance mechanism is formed. For example, influenced by traditional Chinese social ethics and morals, traditional handicraft family industries mainly adopt a mode of inheritance focused on the eldest child, which extremely limits the scope of inheritance and has strong exclusivity. For example, Zang (2019) found that the concept of family was born in the clan institutions of primitive society and was passed on based on consanguinity and in-laws [26]. Chen (2016) observed Shen Shao’an bodiless lacquer and found that the family inheritance model was in accordance with the traditional handicraft industry in that it required the prerequisite of core competitiveness, thus ensuring that skills were not leaked to the public [27]. The transmission mechanism for family inheritance requires the leader of the family to train successors at an early stage, providing the successor with early childhood experiences of art through production and living together with their parents with the uninterrupted training of skills. In addition, this can enable the successor to participate in the organization and management of the family industry and other specific matters at an early age to make full preparations for him or her to take over the family industry.

The current study of the family inheritance of handicrafts or ICH has mainly focused on traditional periods in China, especially the Qing Dynasty or later, which were before China’s openness reform. Whether this model can adapt to the opportunities and crises of modern society is an open and understudied question [28]. Additionally, with the development of the heritage model, how to create a mechanism for further development to sustain traditional cultural handicrafts needs to be better illustrated.

2.3. Master–Apprentice Inheritance of Traditional Handicrafts

The other inheritance model is master–apprentice inheritance. This is a common pattern of inheritance that is adopted broadly in both Western and Eastern countries [29,30]. It is based in workplaces that contain mentors within the organization, providing career guidance and psychosocial support to the apprentice [31]. The apprentice usually starts training at an early age, and he or she usually has no blood relationship with the master. When the apprentice decides to learn from the master, the master usually judges the apprentice’s ability to see if he or she could learn the master’s core skills. If the apprentice is judged to be able, the master will take the apprentice as his or her own child to cultivate their skills and become dedicated to educating the apprentice [22]. Scholars have conducted many qualitative and quantitative studies on the influence and utility of mentoring relationships on apprentices, masters, and enterprise organizations. The enterprise mentoring system has important theoretical and practical significance for the development of apprentices, masters, and enterprise organizations, not only improving the salary, promotion, career satisfaction and sense of success of apprentices [32,33,34] but also helping to reduce the turnover rate of employees, form a stable organizational commitment [35], and promote the dissemination of enterprise knowledge and cultural inheritance [36], which plays an important role in improving organizational performance and innovation ability.

Master studios, traditional handicraft factories, private enterprises, and regional art inheritance use the master–apprentice system for handicraft inheritance. This approach is the main inheritance pattern outside of the systems of consanguinity and marriage-based relationships, although it is often interwoven with these systems. The acquisition of a handicraft skill is carried out both in the real work environment and in the practice community, which consists of work observation, speech guidance, action demonstration, learning and imitation, individual guidance, self-reflection, specialist training and evaluation, and feedback [37]. The word “apprenticeship” still carries strong paternalistic characteristics within the modern handicraft inheritance system in China. A master also acts as a parent. It is said that “he who is a teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime”. This saying embodies the authority and status of the master. If the master has a close relationship with the apprentice, then it is good for the inheritance and development of traditional handicrafts [38]. Long-term interactions will forge deep trust between them, and the master will teach the apprentice according to their ability. Traditional handicrafts are passed down in this living way because a certain period of skill learning is required, so the apprentice must be sent to the master’s home at a very young age. Additionally, the young apprentice can benefit from the master [31] by learning from the master in daily life, including the code of conduct, culture, and other aspects, with teaching being continuous during the learning process.

During the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, many state-owned enterprises for traditional handicraft production with local characteristics were established for the quick recovery of the economy and for making money by exporting handicrafts. These state-owned enterprises used lifetime employment and stable salaries to provide labor security for apprentices as “national workers”. This has effectively expanded the scale and scope of apprenticeship and helped handicraft inheritance. However, this master–apprentice inheritance model also creates problems, such as the higher input (long time expenses for training) and lower output (salaries), and innovations produced by handicraft apprentices are rare [38,39], with most of them only focusing on the skills to achieve mass production [40]. Under the influence of the market economy, the production of handicraft products is accelerated to maximize profits, which causes the traditional apprenticeship system to no longer exist [41]. Therefore, under the current cultural ecology, it is difficult for the training mode of “the master teaching apprentices” to produce the desired results [40]. How to create a mechanism that better upgrades the traditional master–apprentice model to protect the handicraft needs to be better understood.

2.4. Cultural Ecology in Sustainable ICH

A cultural ecosystem is a complete system intertwined with many microscopic, small, medium, and large systems which involves interactions among living things and interactions between living things and the environment. Using cultural ecology to demonstrate the inner cultural environment, Holden (2004) believes that cultural ecology uses ecological concepts such as sustainability, the precautionary principle, and intergenerational equity to create a fresh way of looking at culture [42]. He further demonstrated that cultural ecology can be divided into three cultural spheres—publicly funded cultural, commercial culture, and homemade cultural—and uses “Guardians”, ”Connectors”, ” Nomads” and ”Platforms” to demonstrate the four types of roles apparent in cultural ecology [43]. Other researchers used cultural ecology to demonstrate the outside cultural environment. Shyh-Huei Hwang et al. (2019) used the cultural ecosystem to demonstrate the learning differences in Seediq’s traditional weaving techniques between urban and indigenous communities [44], and Titon (2009) used the ecological principles of adaptation to diversity, limits to growth, interconnectivity, and stewardship to demonstrate the role of music and sustainability in individual, group, and community ecology [45]. Additionally, many studies have used the cultural ecology framework to demonstrate the importance of “cultural ecology reserve”, which in areas of ICH tourism helps to protect unique and long-lasting regional cultural systems [46,47]. However, the existing literature mainly focuses on the descriptive analysis of the cultural ecological conditions of specific intangible cultural heritage projects in particular region, and there is little discussion on the general rules of the occurrence and evolution of intangible cultural heritage in China [48].

3. Research Materials and Method

This study focused on inheritance patterns in Chinese traditional craftsmanship and its inheritance in today’s cultural ecology. The methodology of the comparative case study followed the theoretical replication criteria used in this study [49]. A comparative case study of ICH handicrafts in Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer was applied to illustrate the diverse mechanisms of inheritance patterns under cultural ecology. There are important similarities between these two cases. Both Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer are important handicrafts of ICH in China, being included on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Both handicrafts existed during China’s early reform and opening and were used by craftsmen to earn foreign money from exports. By the late 20th century, affected by modern industrial mass production, the industry shrank, and young people did not want to continue to engage in related professions. Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer both existed between the traditional and modern periods, surviving by their own inheritance methods. However, regional variations across China are common, and there are also substantial differences that could cause inheritance to be affected. Here, this research’s design is an exploration of two different cases rather than a rigorous case comparison.

The present study, focused on the inheritance patterns of traditional handicrafts in the contemporary cultural ecology, belongs to a research project named “A Study on Traditional Handicraft and its Cultural Patterns in China”. Field research was conducted in both Yunnan and Beijing, as shown in Figure 1, and all of the writers of this paper took part in the field research. The method used to collect the primary data for this research included interviews, field trip observations, and documentary evidence.

The study was divided into two stages. The first was understanding the basic situation in terms of Yunnan tie-dyeing and Beijing lacquer art from December 2019 to January 2020. The research group visited Yunnan and Beijing six times, visiting several characteristic areas such as Yunnan Dali Zhoucheng Village, Beijing Hundreds of Craftsmen Workshop, and Beijing Huafang Beijing Curved Lacquer Company for participatory observation, which provided the research group with an overall picture of the current traditional handicraft situation. Second, in-depth interviews were conducted (from August 2020 to December 2020), which consisted of an oral history interview with Duan Shuyin, the transmission master of ICH for Yunnan tie-dyeing, and Yin Xiuqin, the transmission master of ICH for Beijing carved lacquer. Semi-structured interviews and questions were conducted with three of Duan’s family members and four of Yin’s apprentices. The interview questions included the process of ICH transmission, the results of transmission, and the dilemmas and influencing factors in relation to transmission. The interviews were recorded and later back-to-back coded by two applied arts students, ensuring the consistency of understanding for each case study.

3.1. Yunnan Bai Tie-Dyeing and Family Inheritance in Duan’s Family

Tie-dyeing is one of the ancient textile dyeing techniques in China. Currently, this technique is still preserved in Zhoucheng Village in Dali, Zigong in Sichuan Province, and Fenghuang in Hunan Province. Among them, Yunnan Dali Zhoucheng Village is the most famous, being referred to as the “hometown of tie-dyeing”. According to historical records, dyeing and weaving methods existed in the Dali area during the Eastern Han Dynasty [50]. Bai tie-dyeing has a history of more than 300 years. Zhoucheng Village is a poor village in the middle of Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake. The Zhoucheng people could not afford basic commodities, so the women in the family would weave their own cloth, and because it was not considered aesthetically beautiful, they came up with the idea of using the natural isatis root growing on the Cangshan Mountain as a dye, first tying the flowers and then dyeing the cloth. Across the long period of development, the Zhoucheng people have continually improved the tie-dyeing pattern and dyeing technology in the pursuit of beauty.

3.1.1. Cultural Ecology of Bai Tie-Dyeing

Over the past half a century, Bai tie-dyeing production in Zhoucheng Village has also experienced the “family production–collective factory production–family production” change. The four stages of cultural ecology development are shown in Table 1. In the first stage (1960s–1980s), the development of Bai tie-dyeing maintained the traditional mode of inheritance. A relatively closed social environment kept Bai tie-dyeing inside the family, and the products of tie-dying supported the needs of Zhoucheng Village and its surrounding villages. The second stage was that of reform and opening, in the early 1980s. Due to the traditional needs of ethnic groups for tie-dyeing products, Zhoucheng Village established a large collective village-run enterprise based on its tie-dye production group. Yunnan Textile Import and Export Company helped Zhoucheng Village enter its tie-dyeing products into the international market. At this time, the whole village worked for the tie-dye factory. Women tied flowers, men made plate and performed the dyeing, and there were full-time designers in the factory to develop tie-dye patterns. From 1987 to 2003, the tie-dyeing factory earned CNY 8.83 million for the country, turned over CNY 7.64 million to the village’s collective profit, distributed CNY 13.7 million to the villagers for tie-dyeing, and employed more than 10,000 villagers in over 4800 households. This stage represents the first transformation of the Zhoucheng Bai tie-dyeing industry from “individual” to “collective”. Later, around the year 2000, due to the economic transition and social transformation from traditional to modern society, Bai tie-dying faced a lack of social respect for traditional ethnic craft products at home and a sharp decline in export orders abroad [51]. The collective tie-dying factory that once led villagers to prosperity finally went bankrupt in 2004. After the bankruptcy of the Zhoucheng tie-dying factory, workers in the factory had to go elsewhere, with most of the villagers going back home and becoming self-employed, representing a return to family production. Currently, there are a total of 17 individual dyeing houses in Zhoucheng Village.

3.1.2. Family Inheritance in Duan’s Family

Duan Shukun and Duan Yinkai are a couple and are now the most well-known inheritors of Bai tie-dyeing. Duan Shukun is a Dali City inheritor of Bai tie-dyeing, and his wife Duan Yinkai was granted the position of a national representative inheritor of Bai tie-dyeing in 2018. They both inherited Bai tie-dyeing skills from their families. As shown in Figure 2, Duan Shukun is the 18th generation of Duan’s family to be engaged in tie-dyeing. He starting learning general tie-dyeing techniques at the age of 5 and mastered the basic process of tie-dyeing at the age of 12, and he has finished and created more than 20 kinds of tie-dyeing patterns by himself.

Influenced by their families, this couple has always engaged in Bai tie-dyeing production. After the village factory closed, they returned to their grandparents’ family workshop in the Puzhen tie-dyeing house. Around 2004, inspired by foreign tourists, the couple began to let tourists experience making T-shirts, scarves, handkerchiefs, and other creative tie-dye products in the family dyeing house. They also brought Southeast Asian artistic elements into the traditional Bai tie-dyeing process. Aside from blue and white, which have been passed down for hundreds of years, they experimented with color dyeing and became trendsetters in terms of local tie-dyeing products, thus earning a great deal of money. In 2008, this couple purchased the old Zhoucheng Village tie-dyeing factory, built a new house in the factory in accordance with the traditional style of Bai folk houses, and refurbished the original dyeing house. This site became the future Bai Tie-Dye Museum in Puzhen. In 2015, Duan Shukun registered Dali Puzhen Bai Tie Dyeing Co., Ltd. They started the Puzhen Tie-Dyeing Shop, which upgraded the family-style tie-dyeing workshop into a tie-dyeing museum, as shown in Figure 3, integrating production, displays, visits, and experiences, offering free tours to tourists. The museum is associated with the community mode of production, with tie-dye workers being hired to work in the public art space. Hence, to some extent, the existing system of Bai tie-dyeing in Zhoucheng Village once again has the characteristics of small-scale “collective production”.

From the family inheritance perspective, as the family business grew, Duan Yuan, the couple’s son, also inherited the Duan family’s tie-dyeing business and worked hard with his wife Yang Zhirui to continue the inheritance of tie-dyeing. However, due to the long-term nature of the collective production of tie-dyeing, the technology of “tying” and “dyeing” is completely open, and the design plate of the tie-dyeing factory has been widely spread and copied. Hence, the family inheritance pattern of tie-dyeing does not completely follow the traditional pattern in that the “unique secrets” of traditional handicrafts are not important anymore, and they are no longer the basis of production. The coordination and division of labor within the family in the handicraft process also no longer exist, as explained by Duan:

“Tie-dyeing is a skill left by our ancestors. As inheritors, we should have the responsibility of passing on this skill. I don’t have any secrets here, and I’ll give everything to anyone who wants to learn. Compared with others, the reason why we can settle down and earn profit is that I take Tie-dyeing as a business. We still plant isatis root without using chemical dyes and overcome difficulties. Only through continuous innovation and persistence can we retain the pure blue in our hearts.”

(personal interview, YN202007)

3.2. Beijing Carved Lacquer and Master–Apprentice Inheritance of Yin Xiuyun

China was the first country in the world to discover and use natural lacquer, with this technique being over 7000 years old. Carved lacquer is an important representative of Chinese traditional lacquer art [52]. During the Ming Dynasty, artists from all over the country gathered in Beijing, which laid a foundation for the development of lacquer carving technology in this area [53]. At first, Beijing carved lacquer was predominantly used for the imperial palace, and most craftsmen were recruited from the south. In the late Qing Dynasty, court craftsmen were exiled, which promoted the development of carved lacquer in wider society and the rise of private carved lacquer workshops in Beijing.

3.2.1. Cultural Ecology of Beijing Carved Lacquer

The three stages of cultural ecology development of Beijing Carved Lacquer are shown in Table 2. After the founding of a new China, to encourage foreign exchange, the Beijing municipal government established the state-owned Beijing carving paint factory with more than 300 employees. The establishment of a carving paint factory resulted in assembly line production, in accordance with the process. The processes involved in the creation of Beijing carved lacquer include design, modeling, coating with lacquer, painting, carving, drying, and polishing, totaling more than seven processes that each require a high level of skill. In the factory, these processes were divided into different workshops [52]. The apprentices only studied specific lacquerware processes and made small parts of the lacquerware by hand as line workers. In the first few decades after the reform and opening of China, Beijing carved lacquer flourished, with a relatively loose social environment, rich creative inspiration, and good economic benefits, which provided opportunities for lacquer artists. After the 1990s, with the rapid development of modern industry, the status of traditional arts and crafts has weakened, and the importance of traditional arts has been greatly reduced, affecting the whole arts and crafts industry. When the country stopped unifying purchases, carved lacquer factories encountered difficulties such as the outflow of craftsmen and finally went bankrupt. At present, Beijing carved lacquer relies mainly on the master studio for inheritance, with four current Chinese arts and crafts masters. The number of Beijing carved lacquer practitioners does not exceed 100, more than half of whom exceed 50 years old.

3.2.2. Yin Xiuyun’s Master–Apprentice Approach to Beijing Carved Lacquer

Yin Xiuyun is the Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts and the representative inheritor of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage (Beijing carved lacquer). She first studied ivory carving at the Beijing Arts and Crafts School. After graduating, she worked in the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory and studied Beijing carved lacquer from her master Sun Maotong. Her classmates in the workshop are shown in Figure 4. In the past, the traditional mentoring relationship consisted of a master teaching several apprentices, who stayed with the same master for the rest of their lives. When she entered the factory, although she had an assigned master, she did not only study from one master because the processes of Beijing carved lacquer were completed by several masters. By systematically learning the craft of carving lacquer with the masters, Yin started to create her own style of Beijing carved lacquer that mainly focused on the hand carving of characters.

When the factory closed, Yin started her own master studio. To date, she has taught more than 20 apprentices, as shown in Figure 5 of whom she taught personally. Yin always has high requirements for her apprentices. Her apprentices must start with the basics and master every skill from design to production. Although her apprentices are now able to create their own business, and some have opened their own lacquer carving studios, Yin is still strict with them and takes care of their lives as in the traditional master–apprentice duos. Yin said the following:

“The more apprentices, the greater the responsibility of the master, I still believed that the master is like the father of the apprentice. The first lesson of my apprentice is to learn making tools that may needs one or two months. My idea is that if my students really want to learn, they need to relay on Beijing Carved Lacquer for the rest of their lives”.

(Personal interview, BJ202010)

Yin’s child does not work in the field of Beijing carved lacquer. Initially, her child intended to study Beijing carved lacquer, but Yin did not agree with this:

“I said if you want to study Beijing Carved Lacquer, you have to learn the art from scratch. It takes many years. When we raised our children, we all want them to college and not study the handicrafts, because of our own experience of hard study and difficulty in arts practice. Although later a few of children work with their parents for their family business, they did not master the skills of the real handicrafts”.

(personal interview, BJ202010)

Different from the traditional master–apprentice inheritance model, in which the master teaches the apprentice in person and the apprentice learns carved lacquer skills step by step, the modern master–apprentice approach is different. The apprentices mainly learn as an interest instead of making a living with it, which causes instability in the inheritance relationship. Because Beijing carved lacquer requires a complex carving process, production has a long time span, and it is difficult for a person to complete a piece quickly. At the same time, during the production process, allergy symptoms are often caused, which deters many young people. Therefore, a new master–apprentice inheritance model has been formed. However, Yin said the following:

“The inheritance of Beijing Carved Lacquer is not optimistic, especially the training gap of subsequent talents is serious”.

(personal interview, BJ202010)

3.3. Summary of the Comparative Case Studies

The comparative case study of the inheritance patterns in Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer enabled us to investigate and verify the two different development models. There are similarities and differences between both cases. Both are affected by the cultural ecology that forced a change in traditional inheritance models. Family inheritance no longer restricts craftsmanship to being between family members. In the case of Bai tie-dyeing, a “handicraft” is no longer a subsistence tool, and individual representative inheritance has ceased to exist based on more open transmission. From the perspective of the master and apprentice inheritance model, due to the change in factory production, in the master studios, the young people who come to learn carving do not experience systematic learning. The traditional “A teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime” model has changed into a new school-type teacher and student inheritance model.

A different cultural ecology has also created differences in the development patterns of these two cases. What makes these two cases different in terms of cultural ecology is that Bai tie-dyeing was grounded in the rural village, in which the transformation of art production from family inheritance to a more public model has brought about the continuous development of traditional national handicraft skills, the self-reflection of ethnic groups on their own culture, and the enhancement of their ethnic cultural identity and national identity. Beijing carved lacquer, on the other hand, was developed in the city and requires more complicated processes, with its uniqueness meaning that it was destined to not be able to spread as widely as Bai tie-dyeing. The newly school-type master–apprentice model fits the complex inheritance of handicrafts in the city.

4. Conclusions

Based on the theory of cultural ecology, this paper discussed two patterns of inheritance of ICH handicrafts: family inheritance and master–apprentice inheritance. Through the investigation of Bai tie-dyeing and Beijing carved lacquer, it was found that the inheritance pattern has an important influence on the continuation and development of traditional handicrafts. To adapt to the new cultural ecology, the above two kinds of inheritance patterns also gradually appear the new changes. For example, due to the existence of the Internet and other new media, the original secret of family inheritance is difficult to maintain, and family inheritance shows a tendency toward a more collective inheritance. In addition, due to the change in teaching location and the improvement in the mentoring relationship, as well as the government’s emphasis on intangible heritage education, a new school mode of teaching in schools has gradually emerged. Therefore, to adapt to the new social development, the protection mechanism of intangible cultural heritage should adapt to family inheritance and mentoring inheritance in the new era.

4.1. Representative Inheritance and Collective Inheritance

There are large differences in the production customs between the creative handicrafts of an individual or a small group and the production of collective traditional handicrafts on a larger scale. Those that no longer rely solely on aesthetic standards of artistic creation and that conform to the characteristics of traditional regional handicraft transmission can be classified as group inheritance. Bai tie-dyeing is obviously a result of group inheritance, while Beijing carved lacquer is more closely aligned with the characteristics of individual inheritance. Therefore, it is needed to confirm the inheritance category in a systematic way. Clarifying representative inheritance and group inheritance is not only conducive to the development of traditional handicrafts but can also help subdivide the traditional handicraft protection mechanisms.

On the one hand, special funds should be used to encourage and support representative inheritors to continue their development and expand the scope of the influence of inheritance. At the same time, the development of representative inheritance production, such as carved lacquer, should be encouraged in line with premiumization development; the family, mentors, and apprentices will become more niche, refined, and professional. On the basis of protecting the rights and interests of the inheritors, the development mode should respect cultural beauty and delicacy. On the other hand, the mechanism of group inheritance should be determined, group inheritance products should be included in the category of productive protection, and traditional handicraft products (in terms of appearance, material, etc.) should be submitted for patent application so that the development of group inheritance is protected. Efforts should be made to popularize the development mode of collective inheritance. Since collective inheritance represents most of the local handicraft industry with a traceable inheritance process, the combination of these traditional handicraft skills and regional cultural resources can promote wide popularization by developing the market advantages in terms of tourism and other live transmission methods to realize broader protection.

4.2. Developing the Modern Master–Apprentice Pattern to Ensure Cultural Inheritance

The involvement of professional university education and government support in traditional handicraft culture can prevent the excessive concentration of handicraft authoritativeness and resource allocation. The presence of masters on campuses and in the teacher studio system also shows that the contemporary apprenticeship system is gradually finding new and appropriate patterns between schools and society. Based on the master–apprentice inheritance model, schools and society can take on the role of the masters together, as allocated by the school and society platform. On the one hand, the management platforms of society and universities can be used to help, and on the other hand, the structure of teaching for those who teach traditional handicraft courses at universities can be improved to cultivate interdisciplinary talents. The teachers should be trained in new technical means such as 3D printing and computer-aided design. The professionalism involved in cultivating an educational background, the openness of artistic inheritance, and the sharing of complementary resources should be strengthened to attract the common development of expert and technical inheritors to inspire aesthetic demand with more artistic works under a contemporary ideology in order to create benefits and increase employment. The dual identity of “students”, who will not only master the traditional handicraft skills and contemporary artistic creation methods but also have a highly comprehensive cultural and global perspective, will thus become a major driving force for the inheritance and development of handicrafts in the future.

4.3. Proper Arrangement of the Distribution of Economic Benefits

From the perspective of the development context of different inheritance modes, whether between mentors and apprentices or family members, improving the training mechanism can enable traditional handicrafts to adapt to the changed cultural ecology. However, it is particularly important to promote the normal development of handicraft inheritance, cultivate an industrial structure with the relevant skills, and ensure the proper authority and benefit distribution. The problems that currently exist in living inheritance between family members, mentors, and apprentices highlight the imperfect boundaries and scales in the process of security and development.

If factors such as the cost of cultivating apprentices and the economic benefits created by these apprentices are not considered, the inheritance of handicrafts will be seriously affected. As a kind of individual to group transformation of living state knowledge transformation behavior, it is necessary to clearly cultivate the distribution and guarantee of the rights and economic interests of both sides, whether between mentors and apprentices or between families. Specifically, this includes the signing of confidentiality agreements, paid (or free) teaching terms, the moral commitment of artists, the right of authorship of creative works, patent rights and other agreements between masters and apprentices to promote the inheritance and development of the craft, and equal rights and obligations between masters and apprentices. Artists must be respected and protected in the process of learning and provided with original work copyrights, patent rights, and the reasonable distribution of the economic benefits of their creations, among other things.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, N.Y. and X.Z.; Data curation, C.C.; Funding acquisition, X.Z.; Investigation, N.Y., X.Z. and C.C.; Methodology, N.Y.; Resources, X.Z. and C.C.; Writing–original draft, N.Y.; Writing–review & editing, N.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures and Tables

Figure 1. Map of research field sites.

Figure 2. Duan’s family pedigree in terms of Bai tie-dyeing inheritance (figure made by author).

Figure 3. Duan’s tie-dyeing museum (photo taken by author).

Figure 4. Yin’s coworkers and masters in the factory (photo provided by Yin).

Figure 5. Yin with her apprentice (photo taken by author).

Table 1

The cultural ecology of Bai tie-dyeing development.

Stage 1 (1960s–1980s)	- SocietyThe population is almost all Bai, and due to the limitations of the activity space and culture, there is less mobility of people. The proportion of the agricultural population is large, the features of agricultural society are obvious, and the people’s ideology and way of life are traditional.- EconomyBecause of the poor economy, local residents rely on tie-dyeing to make their own clothes, using natural raw materials for tie-dyeing.- EnvironmentZhoucheng Village is located 23 km north of the ancient city of Dali. Residents mainly rely on the mountains, searching for wild isatis root and other plants to fuel tie-dyeing production.
Stage 2 (1980s–2003)	- SocietyAfter the reform and opening up, being impacted by industrial society, social mobility increased, causing the workforce to immigrate to the city. The modern city culture caused national culture to ablate. People’s values changed, where the higher the degree of modernization, the more developed the culture.- EconomyThe village economy gradually shifted to the construction, processing, and service industries. An export-oriented economy was developed, relying on tie-dyeing to earn foreign currency, set up a tie-dyeing factory, and export tie-dye products.- EnvironmentThere was a lack of awareness of environmental protection and exploitation of the wild isatis root. Due to huge demand, chemical dyeing started to be used.
Stage 3 (2004–2010)	- SocietyWith the continuous outflow of the population, the agricultural population continued to decrease, and the trend of urbanization brought about a change in profit-oriented thinking.- EconomyThe economic growth rate of Dali was fast, and the tourism economy grew exponentially. In 2006, Bai tie-dyeing was granted a position on the ICH list. In 2007, Zhoucheng Village in Xizhou Town was awarded the title of Provincial Historical and Cultural Village. During this period, family workshops mainly sold tie-dye products to visitors.- EnvironmentThe demand for the quantity of product led to the heavy use of chemical dyes.
Stage 4 (2010s–now)	- SocietyAccording to the Seventh National Census in 2020, the education level of the population in Dali has significantly improved, and the quality of the population has also continuously improved. The United Nations Human Development Index shows that Dali has progressed from a low development level to a medium-to-high development level.- EconomyThe concept of all-region tourism has been formed, and a new economic development model based on tourism experience has been established, resulting in a rapid increase in tourists.- EnvironmentThe awareness of environmental protection is gradually increasing. Although chemical dyeing is still used, some Bai tie-dyeing households are intentionally using natural dyeing, planting isatis root, and exploiting it rationally.

Table 2

Beijing carved lacquer development cultural ecology.

Stage 1 (1950s–1990s)	- SocietyWith the development of collective ownership, the factory mentoring model took shape, influenced by the traditional master–apprentice concept.- EconomyDue to the national economic development and export demand for foreign exchange, Beijing lacquerware was mainly concentrated in the paint injection products made by factories, and the production of lacquerware lacked innovation.- EnvironmentTo improve the production efficiency, the carving paint production technology was innovated, and paint injection products were developed. The main materials were branches, talc, and red powder. The paint used in the paint injection products consisted of chemical composite products, and the color lacked the luster of natural paint.
Stage 2 (1990s–2003)	- SocietyAfter the reform and opening up, the collective economy transformed into individual management, and the tendency toward individual atomization was obvious. The traditional master–apprentice model was influenced by the social profit-seeking ideology, so the mentoring relationship gradually faded, and the teachers deliberately refused to teach their apprentices core skills.- EconomyThe economic and industrial structure of Beijing was gradually adjusted. The proportion of manufacturing decreased from 44.9 percent in 1990 to 32.1 percent in 2003. Since 1995, the proportion of the service industry has surpassed that of manufacturing and become the pillar industry of Beijing’s urban development. With the adjustment to the industrial structure, the market economy has developed vigorously and has encouraged the self-employed. In 2003, Beijing Carved Lacquer Factory stopped production, with the production of Beijing carved lacquer being focused in the master individual manual workshop.- EnvironmentDue to the gradually increasing rent of the city factory, environmental protection, and other issues, production gradually moved out of the downtown area. Due to the limitation of environmental protection, the cost of the raw materials for lacquer gradually increased.
Stage 3 (2004–now)	- SocietyThe growing love for traditional culture, coupled with the gradual strengthening of the state’s protection of ICH, has transformed society from focusing only on economic development to a new stage with a focus on cultural development. This new stage pays more attention to the development of people and the formation of the concept of civilization. A new school-style model of the teacher–student inheritance relationship has been formed.- EconomyThe urban economy is developing rapidly. The added value of the service industry reached 83.8% in 2020, and the development of cultural industries has become a new driving force behind urban characteristics and economic development. Personal cultural consumption has been improving, and per capita spending on education, culture, and entertainment has been increasing. People are paying more attention to the handicraft industry, with the use of natural raw materials and the inheritance of the artisan spirit attracting new generations.- EnvironmentBeijing has implemented the capital city evacuation policy and environmental protection policy, which has prevented some Beijing carved lacquer production. Most carving studios have moved to outside the sixth ring road of Beijing or even to Hebei Province. The cultural facilities and production in Beijing are mainly aggregated inside the fourth ring road of Beijing. Artists produce and sell lacquerware together. When moved outside, the original cultural creation atmosphere changed, thus destroying the original fuel for development.

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