Pan Renguan carefully carves his name on his latest creation, a wooden steelyard, the portable balances that Chinese vendors have been using to weigh goods for thousands of years. The 73-year-old Pan has been making steelyards for 56 years and he has inherited this district-level intangible cultural heritage. In the past, people who ordered customized wooden steelyards would often ask him to engrave their names on them, but now as Pan is a sort of celebrity, he thought his own name should have some worth.
Pan inherited the skills from his father, and his father acquired them from Pan's grandfather. Their skills and reputations have been passed down through the generations. Pan's small workshop can be found in a narrow alley near the food market in Pudong New Area's Shuyuan town. Most of the steelyards he made were the traditional and practical wooden steelyards. In his shop customers can find various kinds of wooden steelyards, from big to small, and they can watch the craftsman at work as he makes new steelyards.
Today most people are using electronic scales, but some of the older vendors in marketplaces still use wooden steelyards, and many people in the countryside keep at least one steelyard in their homes. For Pan these steelyards are more than just a tool for weighing things - they are also an emblem of Chinese culture and tradition. Some of his customers not only want to have their names engraved at the 50-kilogram mark on their steelyards but also their Chinese zodiac animals. Newly married couples will buy and customize a steelyard for their homes - in Chinese, the word for steelyard is pronounced "cheng," which sounds like the word for "contentment," suggesting these newly-married couples will be "content with everything."
Nowadays fewer people are buying steelyards and there are few of these craftsmen. Pan said he was the youngest of all his father's apprentices, but now he is the only one still making steelyards. As an heir of this intangible cultural heritage, Pan has passed his skills on to his son who has chosen not to earn his living this way. Pan cannot predict the future of this craft but while he lives he will continue making these intricate and delicate balances.
