In mid-May, 31-year-old Russian student Daria Dykusar stood in the experience area of the China Umbrella Museum in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, holding a toothbrush.
Before her were stencil plates, fine-mesh screens, pigments and a paper postcard. Using a brush, she gently applied pigment to the postcard. It filtered through the mesh like a fine mist, gradually creating the soft, rain-washed effect that is characteristic of many scenes depicted on West Lake silk umbrellas.
“At first, it looked easy,” she said.”But once I started, I realized it wasn’t. You need exactly the right amount of pigment — otherwise, you can ruin the whole picture.”
The technique is a signature decorative method used in West Lake silk umbrella making, a craft that has been on China’s national intangible cultural heritage list since 2008.
Dykusar, who holds a master’s degree in mechanics and mathematics from Lomonosov Moscow State University, is now studying Chinese at Zhejiang Business College. She joined 12 fellow international students on a visit to the museum to learn about the artistry behind the iconic Hangzhou parasols.
After nearly two hours of meticulous work, she completed a design depicting duanqiao canxue, or lingering snow on broken bridge, one of West Lake’s best-known scenic spots.
“I got paint everywhere — on my clothes, my hands and even in my hair,” she said with a laugh. “It requires tremendous patience and attention to detail.”
Before visiting the China Umbrella Museum, Dykusar had seen many examples of silk umbrellas online, often carried by women wearing traditional Chinese attire. Yet it was only after trying the design process herself that she fully appreciated the skill involved.
“The first time I saw a silk umbrella, I thought it was beautiful,” she said. “But when I tried creating one, I realized how much work goes into it.”
Located along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the museum is part of the Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum complex, which preserves and showcases the city’s rich folk traditions and handicrafts.
Among its most prized exhibits are West Lake silk umbrellas. First created in 1932, they are made from locally sourced bamboo and Hangzhou silk, while scenes of West Lake and the surrounding landscape are delicately rendered through painting, embroidery and brush-dyeing.
“What makes these umbrellas unique is that when opened, they reveal an elegant silk canopy, but when folded, they resemble natural bamboo,” said Song Zhiming, a national-level inheritor of the technique.
To achieve this effect, artisans carefully remove a thin outer layer of bamboo and label each strip before constructing the frame. Once the silk covering is installed on the bamboo ribs, each strip is carefully reattached, piece by piece, to its corresponding rib.
These handcrafted creations were once highly sought after both in China and overseas.
According to Chen Na, an associate research librarian at the museum, the annual production of umbrellas exceeded 600,000 in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with about 400,000 exported overseas.
However, as lifestyles changed and demand declined, the number of artisans making the umbrellas gradually dwindled.
In recent years, renewed interest in intangible cultural heritage across China has helped revive the tradition, attracting growing attention from visitors at home and abroad.
“We want these cultural treasures to truly come alive,” said Chen.”Preservation is important, but so is helping people connect with them in today’s world.”
The museum’s efforts also resonated with 20-year-old Mohammed Salah Mosleh Al-Sayadi, a Yemeni student studying Chinese at Zhejiang Business College. Having lived in Egypt for eight years, he learned through visits to local museums that umbrellas also played a role in ancient Egyptian society.
“In ancient Egypt, umbrellas symbolized power and privilege, and were reserved for royalty,” he said. “In China, however, I found that umbrellas carry many layers of cultural meaning.”
