Origami enthusiasts in Chengdu are willing to pay 1,000 yuan to "seek defeat"

Yesterday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 8 elderly models put on cheongsams and beautiful paper hats handmade by Uncle Zheng for rehearsal at the Immortal Tree Zizhu Square in Chengdu. Uncle Zhengs name is Zheng Chongzhi. As a literary and artistic backbone of the community, he gradually became obsessed with the art of origami after his retirement. Now, he can use a whole piece of paper and a pair of scissors to fold out various animals. He said that if anyone can fold a more beautiful crab using a whole piece of paper, he will reward 1,000 yuan.

Among the few cardboard boxes that Zheng Chongzhi moved, there are hats and animal ornaments that he carefully made. The hats have different shapes and are decorated with clips, Chinese knots, plastic beads, etc. Even the mesh film used to wrap the apples was made into a vase and attached to the hat by Uncle Zheng. In another carton were several one-meter-square pieces of cardboard. Taking out the cardboard, many marine creatures appeared like reliefs: shrimps, crabs, shells, sea urchins, starfish... Uncle Zheng asked the models to hold these cardboards on a catwalk, which was called "Seafood Show".

"My origami is inherited from my ancestors." Uncle Zheng said that when he was a child, he often secretly learned how to make origami from his mother and grandmother, but they would not let him learn. After growing up and working, Zheng Chongzhi never continued his hobby. It was not until his retirement that he resumed this interest and began to innovate on his own. He never learned the art from a teacher or bought an origami book. He started folding from old newspapers. Zheng Chongzhi relied on his own ideas to fold various new shapes with pieces of paper. After going to the museum to see Pig Jianqiang, he was able to study and fold a pig out of paper. In order to make better-looking hats and belts, he not only used bottle caps and plastic films, but also often went to the lotus pond for wholesale

Hundreds of dollars worth of beads and Chinese knots.

During the rehearsal for the catwalk, the crabs folded by Uncle Zheng made the nearby residents applaud. "My crab is folded out of a piece of paper." Uncle Zheng said that he basically only uses a whole piece of paper to fold animals. After folding the shape, he uses scissors to process it. The crab is still a piece of paper when taken apart. Although origami is just a hobby, Uncle Zheng is quite confident in his work. He said: "If anyone can use a piece of paper to fold a crab more beautiful than mine, I will reward him with 1,000 yuan." When he said this, his wife Zheng Yuxiang frowned: "I will not take money. I gave it to him. I just played it for myself. I haven’t seen anyone fold it." Zheng YuXiang said that before March this year, Zheng Chongzhi was not as obsessed with origami as he is now. The current achievements are entirely due to the ability to use ones brain and be able to innovate.

Nowadays, Zheng Chongzhi’s folded works are not for sale, so his wife puts them in cardboard boxes for him to put away one by one. Now his cartons are filled with more than a dozen pieces.

Origami enthusiasts in Chengdu are willing to pay 1,000 yuan to seek defeat