When you come to Dongyunba in Luzhou City, you can smell the tung oil, which is the smell of oil-paper umbrellas. As a cultural symbol of Luzhou, oil-paper umbrella has a history of more than 400 years and is known as ‘the living fossil of Chinese folk umbrella art’.

What is the story behind an oil-paper umbrella?

Although Bi Liufu is already 60 years old, he is in high spirits when it comes to oil-paper umbrellas. As a result of years of making oil-paper umbrella, there were several scratches on his thumb and forefinger, and his hands smelled of tung oil.

He was born in a traditional umbrella making family. Influenced by what he saw and heard, he grew up with his parents who make umbrellas, and gradually developed a strong interest in it.

"Make the oil-paper umbrella well, opportunity is for those who can stick to it. When the time comes, they can seize it." The words his father left to Bi Liufu were deeply engraved in his mind. In order to make more people fall in love with oil-paper umbrellas and better inherit the techniques and culture of oil-paper umbrellas, he made bold innovations and improvements on oil-paper umbrellas. In 2009, he registered Bi Liufu oil paper umbrella brand, which changed the history of oil paper umbrella without a brand.

An oil-paper umbrella renders his life is no longer ordinary, but also for the masses of Dongyunba brought good days.

There is a local saying," If you have a daughter, you must not allow her to marry someone from Dong Yunba. "From no wild street in the past, to today's national AAAA level scenic spot and modern agricultural demonstration park, people in Dongyunba have never thought that this backward small village can have dramatic changes.

Since 2014, Jiangyang District of Luzhou City began to build Dongyunba as the core of the city's modern agriculture. Today, Dongyunba is not only the settlement of local farmers, but also the display area of oil-paper umbrella culture and the history of Three Kingdoms. In the total length of 1.1 kilometers of the ancient street, everywhere is beautiful because of the oil-paper umbrella.

"The oil-paper umbrella has become our spiritual support and a unique mark in this town. I hope this good thing will be handed down forever." Bi said.