Varieties of Weifang Kites

The shape of Weifang kites can be divided into six types: String, bucket-form, flat, hard-winged, soft-winged, and free style.

String: A kebab-like kite that can consist of similar or dissimilar cross sections and controlled by one or more than one threads. For example, dragon kite, it made up of the head, body and tail three sections. The body is the main part of the kite and composed with a number of round hard plates. Every individual plate is a single kite.

Bucket-form: is also called three-dimensional kite. It is made into a bendable structure in general and composed of one or more bucket-form structures, such as a palace lantern, flower vase, rockets and so on.

Flat kite:A flat surfaced kite supported on four sides by bamboo. Shapes include octagons, triangles, squares, and rectangles etc.

Hard-winged kite: These kites have varied in theme design and structure except for fixed hard wings. It made of two bamboo strips which like wings parallel to each other. A wind duct is formed with convex edges and concave center. The two ends of the wings are bent slightly to be higher than the centre, so as to better catch the wind.

Soft-winged kite: The wing (for elevation) of this type kite is made of a main bamboo strip. There is no other tying material to support the lower part of the wings. The main body is mainly in the form of a relief. Most kites of this type are in the shapes of birds or insects, such as eagle, bee, swallow, crane, phoenix, dragonfly, mantis, cicada and so on.

Free Style kite: the class includes the kites with mixed different styles, the kites made with new techniques, and the kites obtained foreign characters. The mixed styles kites like the one named as the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, it combined several kite-making methods such as string, three-dimensional and flat into one. While the kites made with new techniques are the 120 meter long string kite- one hundred and eight heroic figures in Liangshan, Golden Phoenix and so on. They are able to twirl against wind, also beat a gong or drum and spray smoke and flames. The kite which name is the Monkey King Sun Wukong is able to change into seventy-two images in the sky.　

Kite-making Craft in Weifang

Chinese kites are already widely known for its fine craftsmanship and long history. However, records of the Chinese kite remain inadequate and descriptions of the ancient technique even scarcer.

Chinese traditional folk arts and practices were largely carried on orally from generation to generation. This was the formula popularized in the civil craftsmen. In order to ensure easy learning and secrecy, the formulas often took the form of a song or chant. Due to the poor cultural backgrounds of traditional craftsmen at the time, these chants and songs were often sounds without words, or words without form. Much of its essence has either been lost, revised, or misinterpreted.

The traditional Chinese kite-making skills are able to be summarized into four terms below: tie, paperhanging, painting and flying. These referred to as the ``four arts.`` Simple to understand ``four arts`` that making frame, covering paper, drawing on paper and flying kites. But in fact the four arts have the connotation is much broader, almost contains all the elements of traditional Chinese kite art.

For example, tie skills include material selection, split, bend, chop and bind.

Paperhanging skills include paper selection, cutting, mount, wrap, and supplement.

Painting skills include color, background, depict, dye, and decorate.

Flying skills include wind observation, thread control, set off, adjustment and withdraw. 

Through a combination of the ``Four Arts,`` a new standard of design and innovation can be achieved. Recently, the development of new materials and techniques along with the introduction of foreign kites has changed both the structure and perspective of the kite as a whole. Particularly through the using of modern science, it has opened up new and big avenues for the kite. But all things lead us back to the fundamentals and these modern improvements serve only as new methods, ideas, and materials for the ``Four Arts.``