Du Wenjie: Injecting new vitality into time-honored Yunnan tin culture

As an inheritor of Yunnan tin culture, Du Wenjie has dedicated himself to passing on the culture while making innovations by virtue of his exquisite skills and deep love in the tin craft.

Blessed with abundant tin resources, southeast Yunnan’s Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture is known for its thousand-year-old tin culture with tin production and processing as the main content.

Born in Honghe in 1979, Du Wenjie grew up in a world of tin making. So far, he has been awarded titles including National Master of Arts and Crafts and Yunnan Crafts Master.

In 1999, Du graduated from arts and crafts major and joined Yunnan Tin Group. He worked in several entry positions such as stone model, tin painting, molding, sculpture and design, which laid solid foundation for his future career.

Ever since he worked in the company, Du has participated in making a large number of tin crafts. In 2009, 10 years after joining the company, he started to inject innovations into the mechanic manufacturing by adding more handmade processing. It is also in that year that a young designer, Shen Yi, joined the Yunnan Tin Group and became a partner of Du.

Shen loves painting since his childhood and has turned his interest into a career. The post-80s artist is adept in combining modern aesthetic trends with traditional Chinese elements.

With more and more customized demand for tin products, Du Wenjie constantly caters to market needs. He has designed a variety of tin tea sets and combined porcelain, tin and other materials. He and Shen Yi are now injecting new vitality into the time-honored tin culture by complementing each other's advantages.

(Translated from the “Travel in Yunnan” app)