CRI听力:Liu Qihua and her folklore museum in Qingdao

Ma Zhiyong and Liu Qihua is a couple quite famed in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province for their personal collections of some 60,000 folk art items.

These wide range of items which include Kerosene Lamps, chopstick boxes, furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ancient monuments marking widow chastity and more have been collected by the couple as they were travelling around China over the past 16 years.

Today, the couple launched a folklore museum in Pingdu, a county-level city of Qingdao, housing these valuable collections. CRI's Jessica Luo has more.

Reporter: Qilihezi Village, located on a street of Pingdu city, is an ordinary village. In recent years, it has suddenly attracted a lot more tourists who are coming to visit the Yonghua Folklore Museum.

Spread over an area of more than 2,400 square meters, the museum comprises six exhibition halls, including an exhibition hall dedicated to the historical items made in China's "Cultural Revolution" period, an ancient furniture hall, and also two halls that house the archives of local Pingdu folklore and China's best folk art items, respectively.

Liu Qihua, however, said the items on display constitute just a minority of their collections.

"There is one thing that's important for me. I remember in 2011, a friend of mine from Pingdu brought me a piece of rubbings which should be on an ancient boundary stone that stood between the two counties, namely Laiyang and Jiaoshui in 1188. I soon sought advice from experts who all believe this item holds historical significance to Pingdu city. I decided to purchase it and contacted the owner. The owner agreed to sell it for 300,000 yuan, however I couldn't afford it. Despite a price drop to 180,000 yuan in 2012, I still couldn't afford it. Until 2013, I contacted the owner again and bought it at 50,000 yuan."
 

In 2013, Ma Zhiyong heard that someone had found a Ming-dynasty tablet from Pingdu City and promptly contacted the owner. The owner initially wanted 100,000 yuan for the piece. But after several negotiations, Ma was finally able to acquire the piece for a reasonable 50,000 yuan.

In addition to being the most important treasures in the folklore museum, both rubbings and the Ming-dynasty tablet provide valuable references concerning Pingdu's history.

Collections include pieces from daily life such as cattle-driven carts, looms, pots, urns, baskets, trays and bowls, as well a collection that contains a Qing-dynasty hand-sewing machine and charcoal irons.

Each of these collections was discovered by Liu Qihua and her husband. Their enthusiasm about collecting historical and ancient items has won them a reputation in the community. This has made it easier for them to find background information about some pieces, as villagers who know the couple that have information to provide about specific pieces more readily approach them, volunteering their information.

Liu Qihua explains:

"In September 2014, someone called my husband to tell him a stone tablet had been unearthed near the fish pond. The inscriptions were written by Yu Canglan, an official in Qing Dynasty and also a native of Pingdu. He's also a calligrapher during the reign of Qing-dynasty Emperor Guangxu. However there is little historical record about him. As soon as we heard the news, we immediately arrived there and purchased the tablet at a price of 2,000 yuan. Then we put it on display as a piece of cultural relics in the museum."
 

In Liu Qihua's view, distorted information is inevitable in the oral transmission of history. Although real evidence like this is more powerful. So each time Liu and her husband spot anything related to Pingdu's history, they try every possible means to buy it.

"It's important to preserve it as a reference to Pingdu city's history. It enables us and our following generations to understand the history of Pingdu. If within our capability, we would go on."
 

Collecting antiques started out as just a hobby of Liu's husband. During a trip to a local village market in the year 2000, Liu and her husband found a local villager selling an old-fashioned loom that they soon decided they wanted to buy. The couple were quite interested in the loom for its nostalgia. It reminded them of their childhood. From then on, the couple became fascinated with collecting.

"Collecting is for the sake of inheritance. We want our descendants to see the stories of their ancestors and feel the changes of the times."
 

Liu Qihua feels the most proud of a memorial hall, where a collection of nearly one hundred pieces of old objects sit, including a tape recorder, camera, TV, telephone, sewing machine, pedal organ, mimeograph machine, projector as well as many others like them that have witnessed the passing of time.

Liu Qihua said whenever she went out to hunt for these historical treasures, she felt very envious of big city museums. One day, she imagined she would open her own museum. Why can't there be a museum in the countryside?

With that ambition in mind, Liu Qihua began to take action, looking for a proper museum venue, classifying her collections and also reaching local authorities for the examination and approval procedures.

The Folk Museum is now uNPRecedented in Liu's hometown. She has even made sure entrance into the museum if free of charge. In her mind, as long as the museum is open, as long as it's a good thing for the villagers, it deserves her hard work and effort.

"Local authorities have never dealt with an individual who wants to open a museum, so the application procedures are full of troubles. We encountered a lot of twists and turns in the process of mutual communication. For example, we had to fill in plenty of forms and were required to constantly give additional details. I never gave up because I wanted to see my museum open. "
 

The Younghua folklore museum opened in September 2015. To mark its launch, Liu Qihua also invited experts to edit and publish a book telling stories about Pingdu's history, culture and social development.

"I remember very clearly local leaders, cultural relic collectors, local villagers as well as our relatives and friends all came to celebrate its launch, which made me feel I did something good for everyone and felt very proud of it."
 

Over some 16 years, they spent more than five million yuan purchasing interesting antique historical items all over China. Now they house these valuable collections in the museum.

The museum has even been included into a memory project being done in Shandong Province.

Now, the museum is estimated to receive 60,000 visits by both travelers and students who enter free of charge each year.

However the museum space appears a bit inadequate when crowds of people come in. Liu Qihua said she plans to expand the museum space by 2019. Her goal also includes the launch of two other museums that house Shandong embroidery and ancient land ownership contracts, respectively.

The couple hopes the three museums could be made into a museum park, which would guide visitors onto a path to Pingdu's ancient culture and traditions.

For CRI, I'm Jessica Luo.