Fireworks have been blooming in Liuyang Dayao for thousands of years.
Located at the junction of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, it is deeply hidden in the mountains. Since Li Fang, the ancestor of fireworks, was born here 1400 years ago, Dayao Town has been attached to fireworks.
Starting from Changsha, after getting off the expressway at Dayao Interchange, the first thing you see is Liuyang International Fireworks Trade City, which covers an area of 200 mu. Entering the town center, the "brand" of fireworks can be seen everywhere.
At present, there are 58 fireworks manufacturers and 413 fireworks-related enterprises in Dayao, and their products are exported to more than 100 countries and regions. A complete fireworks industrial chain with fireworks production and management, raw and auxiliary materials supply, packaging and printing, commercial transportation and so on as the core is formed here.
Fireworks have been blooming in Dayao, Liuyang for thousands of years. Photo courtesy of Dayao Town
Innovating traditional industries in development and increasing motivation
"Fireworks are traditional industries, and there is no’ sophisticated’ technology to rely on. Affected by environmental protection, safety, epidemic situation and other factors, sales in recent years have been cold and the market is weak. To develop, we must constantly seek breakthroughs. " As soon as they met, Qiu Chunliang, the head of Tanghua Fireworks Co., Ltd., came straight to the point and threw out his thoughts on the fireworks industry.
Qiu Chunliang, a post-80s student, studied abroad and joined the fireworks industry in 2013. In 1990, after his father Qiu Shunming retired from the army, he returned to Dayao and founded Tanghua Fireworks Co., Ltd. As a new generation of fireworks, Qiu Chunliang has a stronger sense of market crisis than his parents.
Last year, affected by the epidemic, the export of Tanghua fireworks dropped sharply, from 50 million yuan in 2019 to about 20 million yuan. This year, Qiu Chunliang decisively changed the business direction of professional fireworks export in the past, and increased the export proportion of consumer fireworks.
"Professional discharge fireworks are mainly supplied to discharge companies and will not be sold to individuals. Consumer fireworks can be retailed to individuals. " Qiu Chunliang introduced that in the past, the company’s consumer fireworks exports were very small. Since last year, due to the epidemic situation, the number of foreign large-scale fireworks shows has decreased, resulting in a sharp decline in the professional fireworks market, but the demand for consumer fireworks has not decreased.
Looking for an opportunity in a crisis can turn a crisis into an opportunity. After adjusting the direction, Tanghua Company’s export of consumer fireworks is expected to increase tenfold this year, from more than 1 million yuan to about 10 million yuan.
The real-time status of more than 400 workshops in the monitoring room of Tanghua Company’s production plant is clear at a glance on 10 electronic display screens. Charging, granulating and other processes are only allowed to be operated by a single person in a single room. If there is an over-capacity, the system will automatically give an alarm at the first time. Today, 58 fireworks production enterprises in Dayao have been connected to the safety production risk early warning and prevention and control system, and realized the networking at the town and city levels.
While fireworks production is safe and standardized, the forms of discharge are also more diverse.
"The younger generation pays more attention to the artistic appreciation of fireworks, and enterprises have to keep up with market trends." At present, Qiu Chunliang has set up two companies, focusing on fireworks display creativity, product research and development, and integrating music, dance, laser and other multicultural arts into fireworks display, and has participated in more than 1,000 large-scale fireworks display activities at home and abroad.
The spirit of innovation in development has pushed Dayao Fireworks from a scattered, small and chaotic family workshop to a large-scale industry step by step.
In recent years, in order to continuously promote the transformation and upgrading of the traditional fireworks industry, Dayao Town has implemented the strategy of "four modernizations and two types" (intensification, mechanization, specialization, informationization, safety and environmental protection), and invested more than 50 million yuan to build a scientific and technological platform for the fireworks industry, an industrial service support platform for the fireworks town, and set up a research and innovation cluster for the fireworks industry.
Today, Dayao has formed six industrial clusters, including fireworks production, fireworks management, raw and auxiliary materials management, packaging and printing, papermaking and machinery. In the past five years, the town’s fiscal revenue has jumped from 228 million yuan to 384 million yuan. Last year, the total industrial output value exceeded 12.6 billion yuan.
The form of fireworks display is also constantly innovating. Photo courtesy of Dayao Town
Inheriting fireworks culture in development and adding vitality
Liu Yuwen, 59, is a native of Dayao. When he was 5 or 6 years old, he followed his grandfather to plug in the lead and pull the fireworks bobbin, and successively set up two fireworks factories. Last year, according to the relevant regulations of the town, the Yinfeng Fireworks Factory, which Liu Yuwen had operated for more than ten years, withdrew from the production ranks and switched to the fireworks trading business.
"Industrial development, no rules, no Fiona Fang, my factory quit in an orderly manner when it expired, and I have no complaints." Now, Liu Yuwen has left the trading company to his son to take care of, and he has devoted himself to being the curator of "China Fireworks Culture Museum".
"I took the lead in building this museum in 2001. At that time, many people didn’t understand and asked me why I spent this effort. I said, the fireworks in China are going out from here. Can there be a decent museum? " In the square in front of the museum, surrounded by bamboo, Liu Yuwen’s words are full of feelings.
Industry is the root and culture is the soul. In the Fireworks Museum, there are more than 100 printed fireworks and trolleys in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which record the development history of Liuyang Fireworks for more than 1400 years and display more than 200 photos of each period. In addition to the physical display, the museum also vividly shows 72 processes of traditional fireworks production, such as pulling the tube, winding the tube, loading the plate and drilling the hole. It attracts more than 200,000 domestic and foreign tourists every year.
Promote production with the city, and prosper the city with production. In recent years, Dayao Town has invested 1.06 billion yuan to build a series of core attractions, such as Li Miao Temple, Li Fang Square, Fireworks Cultural Pedestrian Street, Fireworks Museum, etc., which has shaped the characteristics of the fireworks town and made the cultural heritage of the Millennium fireworks increasingly prominent.
On June 12th, last year, Dayao Town successfully held the first fireworks "Yuan" Happy Festival in Hunan and Jiangxi (Dayao). This is the second consecutive year that the town has held a grand event related to urban fireworks. At present, Dayao has opened four fine tourist routes of fireworks culture. Through the festival, the industry will sing opera and promote the integration of fireworks and cultural tourism industry.
At present, in order to seize the strategic opportunity of the regional cooperation demonstration zone along the Hunan-Jiangxi border, Dayao is actively introducing well-known fireworks enterprises and cultural and creative companies to settle in, and gradually forming a big development pattern with fireworks towns as the core circle, surrounding towns as the sub-core circle and the main producing areas along the Hunan-Jiangxi border as the radiation circle.
A river of poems and paintings, fireworks all over the city. "Fireworks Town" is making the Millennium fireworks bloom with new colors!
Source of this article: People’s Network-Hunan Channel
