The first time I met Cao Rong, the chief technician of Erhu, my first reaction was: the "landmark" chief technician of Shanghai Folk Musical Instrument Factory is so young? After a few words of communication, I felt that he was not good at words, but when it comes to making Erhu, he is like a master. He has a lot of research on the production of individual pieces and has unique opinions. Following Cao Rong's track from apprentice to chief technician, we get closer to Cao Rong and understand his road to becoming a skilled technician...

Major Honors

■ Awarded "Minhang Contemporary Craftsman" in 2016

■ "The first group of Craftsmen in Shanghai"

■ Won the ninth Shanghai "Outstanding Technical Expert"

■ Shanghai May 1 Labor Medal

■ Elected as Shanghai Chief Technician in 2017. His studio is named Shanghai Technician Studio and Shanghai Staff (Technician) Innovation Studio

The beginning of apprenticeship: Focus and burn your dreams

Cho went from being an apprentice to making individual parts in the string pulling team to being selected as the training object for the whole piece making, and gradually became the chief technician. How did he stand out and be discovered?

Before entering the factory, his father warned him to learn to have "three years of radish rice" hardship preparation. In fact, as early as 1990, the Shanghai Folk Musical Instrument Factory is such an apprentice. Later apprentices simplified the process, learning simple procedures for 3 months, complex learning for 6 months, the rest rely on their own practice.

Cao Rong came to Shanghai Folk Musical Instrument Factory when he was only 17 years old, a typical young. His first job was to follow Master Huang Hao to learn the making of Erhu drum, which belongs to the making of parts of the string group. In short, six special pieces of wood were selected, carved, glued together and matched to the python skin.

Easier said than done. Barrel production should learn to distinguish the material and seek the best match. This process is easy to say, but can be boring if repeated daily. Choosing wood, filing wood, matching wood, gluing wood, is boring and tedious. But Cao Rong was in awe of the master, devoted to the art of learning, a style of learning, step by step experience. When making the cylinder, he never stopped at will, only when the master said he could have a rest for a while, and he worked all the time without orders. Even now, he does not look at his mobile phone or play wechat when he is in production.

Huang, who retired last year and rehired as a guzheng tester at the Fengxian Dachuan Musical Instrument Factory, recalls being particularly impressed by Cao Rong, praising him for carrying on the craftsmanship and good habits of his masters from the 1960s and 1970s. During his apprenticeship, the master only went to the restaurant when he called for dinner, but the master forgot to call him, so he continued to work even though other colleagues were eating with bowls. This kind of spirit was commendable.

Making a cylinder may seem simple, but it's learned. Through observation and comparative analysis, Cao Rong found that although the sound of the erhu made of old mahogany was pleasant, the difference in the size of the tree rings, the tightness of the wood and the structure were different due to the different sunlight exposure. Drying treatment in different seasons also affected the acoustic quality of the erhu.

With his persistence and tenacity, the master and the factory leaders agreed that Cao Rong was practical, studious and a plastic material. Ten months later, Cao Rong was selected as the training object for the production of the whole Erhu, the king of the inheritance of national Musical Instruments.

Grow and become: Learn thinking and practice, run brother

With a professional heart, do professional things. Cao Rong believes that the erhu is wordless but has meaning, all by the production technicians carved to create.

Cao Rong learned the whole Erhu making technique after Gong Yaozong was his teacher. At this time, he is always maintain a simple and specialized heart, always adhere to high standards, always tighten a string, step by step in the production process to do fine, put an end to mistakes, and gradually feel a wonderful fun.

Each erhu will be made into a craft, rather than simply pieced together. This is Cao Rong's mantra. The whole Erhu production process integrates acoustic quality and technical quality, and he always pursues sound and shape. The sculpting of the barrel, the setting of the holder, the grinding of the rod, the matching of the shaft and the size of the instrument code, he considered the whole and operated it carefully from the perspective of professional production and the height of the performance, so as to enshrine the soul of the instrument.

Do each batch of piano, set up a file, summarize and improve. In the process of making the erhu, Cao Rong discovered that the key to a good instrument is the perfect combination of the cylinder and python skin, which resonates with the best acoustic quality. He devoted himself to the study of material identification and concluded that the cylinder could be classified and combined according to different elements of the material to ensure the balance of sound and vibration of the cylinder. He according to the wood is loose, tight, appropriate to increase or reduce the thickness of the plate head, even if the difference is 0.1 cm, there will be a different effect on the acoustic quality, in order to achieve sound both thick and concentrated bright, and strive for perfection. Instead of simply knitting and gluing python skin, he scientifically distinguished male and female, tightness, thickness, and the size of the wheel to match the cylinder and ensure the sound of the erhu is clear and thick.

In order to distinguish the good and bad timbre of the erhu, Cao Rong used his spare time to learn to play the erhu, and humbly learn from the enterprise Xinyi Band Erhu players Li Zhiqing and Zhu Yuhong, to study the timbre and quality of the Erhu products, and strive to achieve the best from the beginning to the finished product. In 09A of 2014 and 2015, the output of erhu above professional reached 504 sets, and the gold medal rate of Erhu reached 80%, and became the main professional erhu production technician.

Production depends on the process, debugging see level. Understand the reason of erhu sound, master the key debugging, the piano will be better and better. In the final stage of erhu production, commissioning is the most testing technician's skills. He can tune it. He can play a professional instrument with an ordinary instrument in his hand. In the long process of production, Cao Rong found that he could choose the size of the instrument according to the size of the python skin wheel. In order to avoid the change of timbre of erhu caused by the change of weather, the sponge soundproof cotton was replaced with wool cloth. This initiative was welcomed and praised by experts.

It was precisely by grasping every detail and feeling every Erhu that Cao Rong practiced hard and became a master of kung fu. Many times by Jinshan District, Double happiness Group, Shanghai folk musical Instrument Factory as advanced worker, outstanding Party member. Successively won the honor in the National Ethnic Musical Instrument (Erhu) production competition, and then became more and more progressive, and was awarded Shanghai "Technical Expert," "First Group of Craftsmen", "Outstanding Technical Expert", "May 1 Labor Medal".

Religious education: From generation to generation, embrace the future

The Erhu and the western violin, as the representatives of the two major strings in the world, have become the king of national instruments because of generation after generation of artisans to inherit and bravely reach new heights. As an old traditional musical instrument enterprise with a long history and profound cultural heritage, it needs a batch of "Cao Rong" type technicians to become the new force and reserve team.

Shanghai Folk musical Instrument Factory decided by research, Cao technician should have a successor. His apprentice, Shen Minjie, a post-90s veteran of the Armed police, has similar personality traits to his master. He is simple, quiet and even shy. During the interview, Shen said that the master was serious and required to have a blueprint in mind before he began to make the instrument. When it comes to the whole erhu production, he says Master Cao asks to start with the material selection and ensure the quality step by step around the goal of technical quality and acoustic quality. He remembered the master warned him: "Do 100 good things, there is 1 did not do well, just like the erhu production quality of a little problem, an erhu on the previous work wasted."

When it comes to making the cylinder, Xiao Shen said that the master also has strict requirements. Three of the six pieces of disassembly material with similar color differences must be placed on the top, and the tightness of the six angles should be the same. When installing the python skin, a clear clanging sound should also be heard.

The factory labor wage section chief Chen Yiling talked about Cao Rong, praise work seriously, excellent technology, not only good at pulling string instrument tuning, as the factory fire chief, security activities actively perform their duties, everywhere lead by example around people.

Plant Party branch secretary Sun Yun said Cao Rong; "Healthy, sunny, upward, national musical instrument factory personnel flow is large, but he is calm, not impetuous, did not go with the flow, single-minded learning technology, the production of piano sound learning quality, once his hands have more gold MEDALS, is a peach and Li do not speak, lead by example of a good teacher!

Cao Rong, a craftsman born in the 1980s, constantly explored the essence of pulling strings and advancing and the fragrance of folk music, transformation and upgrading with his disciplined style of study, the standard of crossing over and the feelings of educating people. He is proud and confident that he will follow the example of Antonio Stradivari, the greatest violin maker in the world, and make the top Erhu with both sound and shape, which will write an important page in the production of Chinese folk music.