On the 23rd, reporters learned that Chen Heilong, a returned overseas student from Taitou Town

On the 23rd, reporters learned that Chen Heilong, a returned overseas student from Taitou Town, Tiantai County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, has been innovating traditional wooden crafts by combining Eastern and Western cultures since taking over a local handicraft company in 2015. He primarily targets the overseas market, and recently his products have been very popular abroad, with sales in the first quarter of 2022 approaching the total sales for the entire year of 2021.
Recently, a batch of newly designed samples of the "Twelve Zodiac" series puzzles and Luban locks were displayed in Chen Heilong's office, ready for mass production. This batch of wooden crafts is planned to be shipped to Europe by the end of May for sale in major supermarkets.
Influenced by both Eastern and Western cultures, Chen Heilong has actively expanded the overseas market in recent years, with products sold in more than 30 countries including Italy, Poland, Germany, France, Portugal, and Spain.
Chen Heilong revealed that during his studies abroad, he conducted a survey and found that many foreigners are very interested in Chinese culture, such as Chinese Kung Fu, traditional cuisine, mythological legends, and Buddhist culture, all of which have a great appeal to them.
"This gave me great confidence to let handicrafts infused with the 'soul of culture' set sail overseas," Chen Heilong said. The popularity of innovative traditional wooden crafts abroad not only opened his eyes to business opportunities but also showed him the market for Chinese traditional culture overseas, proving that the path of creating crafts based on traditional cultural IP is the right one.
Since 2015, Chen Heilong's team has continuously increased intellectual support and financial investment in integrating traditional cultural IP into handicrafts, hiring professional design teams to draw inspiration mainly from traditional culture, innovating types of crafts, and giving new meanings to wooden crafts.
"Our team has successively launched a series of products themed around the 'Buddhist Origin of Tiantai Mountain' such as prayer beads, rosaries, and pendants; designed accessories, ornaments, and toys based on Jigong culture; and created related pendants and decorations based on China's scenic spots and totem symbols according to customer needs." Chen Heilong mentioned that the launched "Twelve Zodiac" series wooden puzzles have become a "hot item" in major supermarkets and wholesale markets abroad.
According to Chen Heilong, they currently export more than 500 types of traditional cultural crafts, covering various categories such as wooden bead crafts, car air fresheners, and children's toys. "In addition to wooden crafts, there are many traditional skills with rich heritage and superb craftsmanship. We cannot just indulge in tradition but must find our own path of innovation. It is essential to forge tools with the soul of culture to establish our foundation."
With the deepening of the "Belt and Road" initiative, many handicraft and automotive product companies in Taitou Town, Tiantai County are accelerating iteration, transformation, and upgrading.
Tiantai is one of the important birthplaces of Chinese harmonious culture. A relevant person in charge of Taitou Town stated that Taitou Town will actively cooperate and strengthen connections to bridge enterprises with experts and scholars, deeply explore the connotations of traditional culture, enhance the creation of harmonious IP, continuously broaden the sales channels for products at home and abroad, expand the coverage of cultural promotion, and invigorate traditional culture.
In addition, the local plan for the next phase is to leverage the international attention of events such as the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou 2022 to showcase Tiantai's harmonious culture, Buddhist culture, intangible cultural heritage projects, and traditional cuisine through live broadcasts by hosts, enterprises, and experts. This aims to attract attention to harmonious culture from all sectors of society and present a new cultural card of harmony to the world.