Straw weaving (Jinhu straw weaving, Dongfeng straw weaving), a traditional art project in the third batch of representative projects of Huai'an municipal intangible cultural heritage. Historical evolution and distribution Straw weaving is a handicraft made of leaves of various flexible herbs such as yellow grass, mat grass, rush, cattail, or rice straw, wheat straw, etc. Its raw materials grow in a wide range of regions and are easy to obtain and make, so straw weaving is very popular among the people in my country. The earliest known straw weaving relics in China were made by Hemudu people, 7,000 years ago. According to the "Book of Rites", there were Wan seats made of Wan (commonly known as water onion, also known as "small cattail", that is, cattail) in the Zhou Dynasty, and there were professional "straw workers" at that time, "making reed tools". By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were bamboo hats made of hemp and cattail. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, straw weaving was widely used among the people, including straw shoes, straw mats, straw fans, straw curtains, and futons for monks and believers to meditate. From the Han Dynasty to the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, straw weaving was also relatively developed. In addition to using cattail to weave cattail clothes and cattail shoes, there are also cattail sails woven from cattail. With the development of history, the art of straw weaving has been widely spread in the Yangtze River Basin, and it is not only limited to making practical utensils, but also provides a basis for the production and spread of straw weaving handicrafts. Qiu Weiping from Jinhu County, Huai'an City and Dong Feng from Hongze County are influential local straw weaving artists. Basic content and value The straw weaving in Jinhu and Hongze areas generally uses rice straw, wheat straw and leaves of local rush, water bamboo leaves and other plants as raw materials. Using tools such as scissors, needles and awls, the leaves of water bamboo leaves and other plants are first divided into the required width, and then winding, piercing, inserting, pulling and other actions and braiding, flat weaving, twisting, rolling and folding, cutting and other techniques are adopted. The color changes of old and tender leaves are cleverly used, and the combination of green and yellow is used to weave more than 20 shapes such as grasshoppers, mantises, cicadas, butterflies, frogs, birds, roosters, centipedes, snakes, etc. The works can also be sprayed with paint to facilitate long-term preservation. The straw weaving is simple in material selection, ingenious in conception, lifelike in shape, vivid, lively and lovely, with high ornamental and collection value. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)