Carve “Hometown Memory” with “Craftsmanship Spirit”

　　--on Shaoqi Zhang, Founder of Xiaorui Enterprise

　　Since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy, China's urbanization rate continues to increase and western style “modern” buildings with a concrete structure occupy all the corners of almost all urban and rural areas while pink walls and black tiles behind green trees gradually fade out our vision… more and more people realize that traditional Chinese architectures carrying “faint nostalgia” and memories are fading.

　　In March 2014, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the “National New Urbanization Program (2014-2020)”, which calls for the development of beautiful towns with historical memories, cultural context, regional style and national characteristics… therefore, pink walls, black tiles, cornice, turtle ridges, large honorific arches, quadrangles and the like come back to our vision again. Do you know the basic elements that constitute these classic Chinese memories? That is the Qin bricks and Han tiles that have been inherited for thousands of years in the kiln fire…

　　“Legend” created by “Carpenters”

　　During 1960s and 1970s, carpenters were very popular in the countryside. People then needed to get approval from the village committee to learn craftsmanship; they did not have the right to learn at will. The family of Shaoqi Zhang belonged to the rank of upper-middle peasant (classification during China's Cultural Revolution period), the “family status” was so high that Shaoqi Zhang had no choice but to work as a peasant after graduating from the senior high school. Until he was 27 when he had been father of two children, he got the chance to learn carpentry.

　　Usually, those who go to learn carpentry were unmarried teenagers. Therefore, Shaoqing Zhang especially cherished this hard-won opportunity and worked hard on all the carpentry production skills. He bore in mind all dribs and drabs taught by the master, thought about and digested them carefully, and then made innovation and improvement to them… He not only had learned various carpentry skills including “cutting, sawing, dragging, adzing, planing, scraping, trimming, chiseling, paring, carving, sealing, picking out, combining, embedding, inlaying… ”, but also had realized the “craftsman spirit” advocated by Founder Lu Ban through the simple exchanges with other craftsmen. This has won him a good reputation and popularity when he made a living wandering from place to place later and also laid a firm faith and solid foundation for him to start a business.

　　As a matter of fact, the business starting travel in Dadukou of Chongqing is also a deep interpretation to this “critical step”. Because of this step, there is Xiaorui Enterprise and Kiln Car King, and Shaoqi Zhang as the executive director of China Brick and Tile Industry Association, vice chairman of Chongqing Wall Material Industry Association and vice chairman of Hubei Wall Material Industry Association. Moreover, he was also included in Hupi Local Chronicles as a successful local celebrity. Someone asked him, most people chose developed cities or coastal areas at the beginning of the reform and opening up, why he selected the mountain city Chongqing in deep inland? Shaoqi Zhang said: At those days when he led his fellows to make a living around China, what they depended on was their “craftsmanship”, and they did not need to choose environment s deliberately. He got the chance to repair kiln cars in Chongqing and finally focused on making kiln cars. In fact it is another continuation of carpentry and it is just difference in the processing material and workmanships…

　　Great hardships endured during the thirty years when starting a business

　　Since he would not do carpentry, what will he do? Shaoqi Zhang had observed for quite a long time before reporting his ideas to the village committee secretary. The the implementation of agricultural mechanization was being promoted in the rural area, and he found plowshares of the mechanical furrow plough broke down easily and seldom people could repair them. So, his first job was to repair plowshares. He applied the skills of carpentry on repairing plowshares and to our surprise; he thus greatly prolonged the service life of mechanical furrow ploughs. Therefore, he succeeded in his first job without leaving hometown. Unfortunately, the good time did not last long. As the land was allocated to each family, large agriculture machines lost their roles and work on repairing plowshares became less and less. He learned from newspaper that although land in most villages was allocated to families, the state-owned farms were still collective ones and still adopted mechanized farming. Then, he bided farewell to his wife and children together with several fellows and truly left the “small world” in his hometown for the first time. They first came to the East and West Lake Farm, Longganhu Farm, Shenhu Farm and 53 Farm in the province to find work and then transferred to Guizhou, Sichuan and even to Mangshi city far away in Dehongzhou of Yunnan Province…

　　In early 1983, when got a chance to repair kiln cars in a brick and tile factory in Dadukou District of Chongqing. After completing several orders, Shaoqi Zhang found kiln cars there were cumbersome, easy to deform and not durable. The service life of a kiln car was only around one year and that of some was even less than a year. Relying on experience accumulated in several years as well as a good studying and thinking spirit, they transformed the kiln car thoroughly and provided the factory with a kiln car with an overall cast structure, which not only had a longer service life, but was more convenient and flexible to use, so it was rather popular with the brick and tile factory. In order to express gratitude to Shaoqi Zhang, head of this brick and tile factory recommended several kiln factories around for them. Later, they got to know that there are kiln factories everywhere in the Southwestern mountain area of China and every brick and tile factory needed to replace thousands of kiln cars and drying cars, therefore, they needed not worry about customer source. More importantly, in the mist of the mountain city Xiajiang and through the pink walls and black tiles along the river, Shaoqi Zhang found the long lost “feel of hometown” and was gradually obsessed in the Qin brick and Han tile inherited in the kiln fire for thousands of years, as well as those mechanical “tools” making bricks and tiles… since then, Shaoqi Zhang began to focus on brick and tile kiln machine business and gave up all other business.

　　According to Qingmu Yi, vice chairman of Chongqing Wall Material Industry Association, in sintered brick and tile enterprises, the quantity of mechanical devices of a single kiln car accounts for more than 30% of the total mechanical devices. Kiln car brought success to Shaoqi Zhang. It was this small foundry factory that year that rapidly occupied the kin car market of Chongqing brick and tile industry. Up to early 1990s, this small factory's products had become hot consumer goods in the field of brick and tile kiln mechanical devices; they not only occupied the largest market share in Chongqing but also were sold to Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian, Guangxi, Guangdong , Anhui, Yunnan, Shanxi, Henan and other provinces. In 1991, in order to expand the scale of production and further promote the brand, Shaoqi Zhang purchased 13-mu land in Mutual-Help Industrial Park, Dadukou District, Chongqing, by then this small foundry factory was upgraded to Chongqing Mutual-help Machinery Factory; and renamed Chongqing Xiaorui Kiln Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd. in 2005. At this time, kiln cars made by Shaoqi Zhang had hailed throughout the country and he himself was known as “Kiln Car King” in the industry…

　　Never change the mind to serve for the native place

　　Shaoqi Zhang who has run a business in other place for 30 years and achieved success and recognition has taken Chongqing as his “second hometown”. But every time when he is back to his native place in Hubei, he feels a hint of heartache. The hometown with pink walls and black tiles just appear in dreams occasionally. The kiln fire that has been handed down for thousands of years in the earth of Hubei seems to have dimmed… When kiln fire are flaring and new-type sintered energy-saving building materials are rising suddenly in surrounding brother provinces, the vast majority of sintering brick and tile factories in Hubei are shut down under the policy of “Prohibit the Use of Solid Clay Bricks and Limit the Use of Clay Products”, and only a few shale brick enterprises in northwest and southwest Hubei “survive”.

　　Perhaps it is because of the deep attachment to “Qin bricks and Han tiles”, Shaoqi Zhang was quite a bit sad and helpless when talking about this. He said, the period from 2005 to 2015 was the golden period when urban real estate developed rapidly and new urbanization in rural areas was rapidly promoted in China and also the key period when China actively carried out reform in wall and roof materials, and the development of wall material industry around China appeared a major turning point. In the context of “prohibiting the use of solid clay bricks and limiting the use of clay products”, some places encourage and support diversified development, develop sintered and non-sintered materials at the same time; while some places “overdo it” and completely prohibit the production and use of sintered wall materials…

　　In fact, that “prohibiting the use of solid clay products and limiting the use of clay products” without any pre-conditions is a serious misunderstanding to national policy. Shaoqi Zhang pointed out the country issued “the general office of the State Council on further promoting the wall materials innovation and promotion of energy-saving construction notice”(SCS [2005]33) and the 12th Five Year Plan Wall Construction Materials Directive (No. 2437 [2010] of the Department of Resources Conservation & Environmental Protection, National Development and Reform Office) at the time was because the production of traditional bricks and tile with clay had destructed cultivated land; “prohibiting the use of solid clay products and limiting the use of clay products” aims to protect the increasingly scarce cultivated land, and substitute materials after this policy must “make use of wastes and be energy-saving”.

　　In fact, not all the raw materials of sintered bricks and tiles are from clay of cultivated land. Shale from weathered mountains, sludge dredged from river and lake channels, urban sludge from water supply factories and sewage treatment plant pipe networks, and foundation ditch soil excavated from building underground structure construction are all quality raw materials for sintering bricks and tiles. And the Qin bricks and Han tiles experiencing thousands of years of testing more have unparalleled weather resistance, stability and durability. Their comprehensive energy consumption and carbon emissions are also much lower than that of many emerging “non-sintered materials”. Because of these “two advantages”, sintered shale bricks, sintered porous bricks and sintered porous energy-saving bricks are very popular in most areas of the country; especially in Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Shanxi, Shanxi , Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hainan and other provinces, new sintered wall materials still occupy a major share. Even in the plain lake areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, there are still lofts of new type sintered building material enterprises. But the energy conservation and emission reduction abilities of these enterprises are no longer that of the past and their products have been fully upgraded.

　　In the spring of 2012, when kiln machinery market in Henan and Shanxi provinces were booming, Shaoqi Zhang made a surprising decision. He wanted to move the kiln machinery equipment factory in Pingdingshan of Henan to his hometown Huangpi of Wuhan, expand the production scale and strive to build central and south China's most advanced modern brick and tile machinery equipment business. But his decision was questioned by many friends and relatives, even leaders from his hometown to attract business showed some worries - because Wuhan city had thoroughly implemented the policy of “prohibiting the use of solid clay products and limiting the use of clay products” by the end of 2010; while Hubei was also accelerating the promotion of this policy and had confirmed to shut down total clay brick factories by the end of 2015. It is impossible to introduce new sintered brick and tile products around, then where to find the market of brick and tile kiln machinery?

　　Looking at the rows of Hui-style black brick houses not far away, Shaoqi Zhang was a little excited. He said, Hubei in the central place of China has resource advantage and regional advantage, as well as a three-dimensional transportation network extending to different direction, so it is one of the few rare places to develop high-end new sintered building material industry. Insisting on putting equal stress on sintered and non-sintered wall materials and developing diversified new energy-saving wall materials benefits to disperse and reduce potential building quality risks on one hand and can help to promote the development of local characteristic buildings on the other hand, avoiding “all the villages look the same” or “all the cities are the same”… therefore, he is convinced that some places desolating sintered wall materials, sintered bricks and tiles temporarily will eventually come back to re-ignite the millennium “kiln fire” one day!

　　In warm spring when flowers boom, the vision is expectable

　　It seems that his decision to go back to his hometown Huangpi to start business for the second time is right, said Shaoqi Zhang. He stressed that there were two reasons for him to return to Huangpi of Wuhan. One is he observed the regional and transportation advantages of Wuhan, which facilitates to expand broader channels for equipment marketing; and the other is the comprehensive utilization of geographical resources in Wuhan and even Hubei will reawaken the huge market of sintered bricks and tiles. Daye and Zhijiang of Hubei have formed China's largest-scale collecting and distributing center of ancient building used black bricks and tiles, which also will be bound to contribute to the return of sintered wall materials. In his view, the launch of the building material industry planning in the “13th Five-year Plan” of Hubei province will further accelerate the recovery of the local sintered wall material industry. Of course, what is absolutely different from traditional bricks and tiles are “Green, High-performance, High-grade and High Value-added” will become the key words explaining new sintered wall materials, while energy conservation and waste utilization will be the sacred mission of the sintered wall material industry.

　　Speaking of comprehensive utilization of waste, Shaoqi Zhang thought the task of Wuhan in this aspect is very arduous. In recent years, Wuhan has been one of the largest construction sites in China. The construction pace of overhead bridges, subways, comprehensive pipe racks and other municipal infrastructures is accelerating; the development of real estate industry is also continuing hot, and foundation ditch soil excavated every year reaches hundreds of tons, so how to deal with building dregs has become the most troublesome thing. At the same time, because Wuhan is located in the intersection of Jianghan and has hundreds of lakes scattered all over like stars in the sky, so the disposition of sludge dredged from rivers and lakes is also a difficulty. Moreover, there is also plenty of sludge deposited in water supply plants and sewage treatment works, Wuhan urgently needs a channel capable of digesting and accepting muck and sludge. Referring to the advanced experience at home and abroad, this “channel” can only be the sintering building material industry currently. Development characteristics of other cities in Hubei located in the belt where the east and west connect and the south and north transit, including Xiangyang, Yichang, Jingzhou, Huangshi and other sub-center cities and key cities are similar with that of Wuhan, so their pressure of disposing foundation ditch soil and urban sludge is also great.

　　His Xiaorui Company has been long committed to the R&D and manufacturing of brick and tile machinery, and especially has won a remarkable reputation in the industry for its new hydraulic positioning ferry vehicles, hydraulic kiln car pushers, exit pulling vehicles, brick kiln return tractors, mechanical arm base stacking and positioning steppers (first in China). In order to further adapt to the development of the modern new sintered building material industry, Wuhan Xiaorui Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Xiaorui Company in east and west China respectively fully integrate resources, carry out in-depth cooperation with Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Xi'an Wall Material Design and Research Institute, Guizhou Architecture Design and Research Institute and other universities and research institutes, and successfully develop secondary stacking and sintering upper and lower rack grouping system, automatic base stacking system and other complete sets of advanced devices. The assembly-type kilns, rapid dying systems, etc. are also being promoted orderly and about to enter the market officially.

　　When driving to Wuchang through Hankou, the building groups of the Minguo period along the Riverside Avenue, red mansions on the Horse Guards Parade, Han Street beside Chuhe River… flash away, but those black, red or soil red brick and tile buildings still with the residual heat of the millennium kiln fire give Shaoqi Zhang an unspeakable charm. He seemed to see Xiaorui Kiln Machinery is writing that “faint nostalgia” with brick bricks and blue tiles…

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