Deon Matzen--The Kite Tradition In China

The Kite Tradition In China

Deon Matzen

© Copyright 2025 by Deon Matzen

Weifang Dragon's Head Headed home. Photo by the author.

In Mid April, we took a trip to Weifang, Shandong Province. The purpose of this trip was to present gifts to the International Kite Museum there from The International Kite Museum in Long Beach Washington, the only kite museum in the US. We took an overnight train there leaving Beijing at 9:30 in the evening. We would arrive the next morning at 7:30.

Unfortunately, the gifts were not delivered in time for the International Kite Festival in April. It was probably as well that we didn’t work on that part of the project during the festival as there were too many activities and too many foreign countries present to focus on our project.

We were to receive gifts to present by shipment from Washington State and were acting as representatives of the US museum. Our goal was to establish a sister city relationship between Weifang and Long Beach, a goal that we finally accomplished in May.
We did arrive in time to participate in a parade at the festival. The weather in that area had been in the high 60’s and low 70’s and we hoped it will hold for the festival. It was cool, and grey, with good breezes so all the events could be held, no rain to melt paper kites, and breezes to make them fly.

All of our accommodations and our participation in events had been arranged by people at the festival. They had booked our hotel and arranged for a pass for the festivities for us. They had also made the arrangements for us to visit a kite factory. On our last morning there were tours of famous gardens in the area before boarding the train at noon to return home to Beijing at about 8:30 pm. We had been looking forward to this trip since we were first contacted about it in December and now we were finally on the adventure.

The first afternoon of the events, I was waiting to attend a meeting. The museum set this meeting up just as they would for APEC or for the president’s visit. I was wearing a Tang dynasty red and black jacket. It was a little large, but American women were assumed to be larger than Chinese and so mine was too big. It was a gift of the Weifang Municipal Government. The manufacturers of Tang jackets were experiencing a boom in sales since the APEC meeting and the visit of George Bush and the festival all required we be suited in traditional jackets.

I was in a meeting of the people who represented many nations to the kite festival in Weifang, the kite capital of China. I had been interviewed for television. I had been taken all over the city. Bob was now flying his kite in the government square a few blocks away in front of the municipal building. There was to be an opening gala this evening in a local stadium with a parade of all the delegates from all the various countries.

The second evening they were to have Y100,000’s worth of fireworks to celebrate. This Weifang City was the center of kite history. It ws also the most famous area for kite making with a large kite museum and many “sweat shops.”

On the second morning we are up early. Breakfast was early and we had to be on busses by 8 am. We were taken in a convoy of busses escorted by police with sirens and lights to the center of town. From the parking lot of the museum we hear the opening remarks of the city officials and the administrators of the International Kite Federation. We are to participate in a parade. I ask our interpreter how far the parade will travel. He estimates about five miles.

We participate in the parade with about two thousand other foreigners who have come to join this event. It was a large group and in addition, there were marching bands and school children in uniforms, drill teams, senior citizen dance teams and many elaborate floats. We would not be able to see these as participants ourselves. We were at the beginning and when we reached the end of the distance, the end of the parade hadn’t even started yet, this being an hour and a half later. It was not a distance of five miles like the interpreter said, but it was a good distance with lots of people along the way.

I would say that we walked about two and a half miles or so, primarily with a German team and the Taipei group. Met some interesting people, but I took time to go to the crowds at the edges of all the streets and shake their hands and say “ni hao” to the children along the way. They were excited to say hello to a foreigner. I shook hands with one policeman who was maintaining crowd control and he seemed genuinely flummoxed by this. It was wonderful to see the responses from the people when I greeted them.

The wind was blowing steadily and were good enough to fly the giant dragon kites which need more wind to go aloft. This, however, is a drawback for Bob as his kite only needs a light wind to sail.

We visited an important kite factory in a nearby village of Yan Jia Bu, a village of about 1000 or so people, very small for China. I would assume that they wouldn’t consider it a community, just a large family enclave. It was the most interesting place with a factory that also focused on tourism. It was set up as a small, turn-of-the-century village, tastefully presented. The visitors were almost entirely Chinese, seldom foreigners. It was set up like a museum, but with working factories for making kites and woodblock prints. There were displays of baskets and old pottery as well.

We passed one courtyard and I saw a stack of dried corn on the cobs in the center. I entered to take a picture and saw a display of a small family compound, the open courtyard beeing about forty by sixty feet. On the south side there was a working granary, storage sheds, milling room and a “garage” for a large wheeled wooden cart. The west wall held baskets which must have had at least on half ton of grain each and were taller than I, storing wheat and corn. Adjacent to this was a chicken house and yard. On the north wall was the parent’s two-room house and the son and wife’s two-room house, both with kangs. There was a small cooking area between. The kang is a raised platform which is heated by the smoke from the kitchen fires. The occupants sit on these during the day and sleep here at night during the cold winter months.

The cooker had a large brick surround in which the fire was built. The top was enclosed and a wok about thirty inches across was embedded into the top. It cannot be removed. Water can be boiled in it for steaming and vegetables may be stir-fried directly in it, but to wash it, water must be added, boiled and scooped out into a waste bucket.

The compound had vegetables planted very densely to conserve space. A well was located in the center of the garden, the water being drawn with a bucket. Two corn ricks, about twelve feet tall, towered over all this. They looked like yellow Christmas trees and have an umbrella of thatch of rice or wheat stalks at the top to drain off the occasional rain showers.

This museum, factory and grounds were all a private enterprise and I was sure a successful one as it was all so tastefully finished. The “museum” even had a test garden/field to fly kites you might want to buy.

:Leaving this “museum village,” we went into the actual village to visit a home of an aged kite maker. On the way we encountered a van heavily draped in cloth and playing loud music. We assumed that it would be part of tomorrow’s parade. Later I asked the interpreter when we came out of the house about it. It was the beginning of a funeral. The loud music was to tell all the village people to come pay their respects. They were standing solemnly about fifty feet from the hearse. The body would be taken away later and cremated. There was no viewing of it today. We did not ask about the person, but many people for several blocks waited along the roadside for it to pass on its way.

Saturday, this morning dawned windy. Bob went to fly his kite and then a luncheon was provided for us by the city of Weifang. All the dignitaries attend and the lunch was a festive affair. We met even more kite flyers from many countries. One lady has taken particular interest in us and she and her team traveled with us on our bus when we wee taken places. They were from Malaysia and Muslims. She was very friendly as was one of the other men on the team. They chatted with us constantly on the busses and invited us to visit their country and attend the festivals they have there.

After an early dinner, we are whisked off to attend the Gala Opening of the festival at a large local stadium. We didn’t know that we would have to parade across the stage, and that we must wait for this for an hour and a half. CCTV has the broadcast rights and the City of Weifang pays for the rest. There are about twenty of China’s most famous pop stars coming to perform their hit songs and the crowd is wild with excitement. There are about 120,000 people in attendance. The stage set is bigger and better than any you might find in Las Vegas and we would call this an extravaganza. There are fireworks and light shows, dancers and TV personalities and even the most famous Chinese male singer who sings Italian opera all over the world, who performed “O Solo Mio” which is very popular here.

We, the foreign kite flyers, must walk through the stage and to our seats as the first part of the performance. Bob and I are the first and, with one other person from Jersey City, the only Americans participating. I have to walk out and across the stage and then we snake our way through part of the audience to our seats. We again shake the hands of the audience and whish them “ni hao.” The performances started at 7 and ended at 11:15. It was cold and windy and we had dressed warmly, but by 10”30 I was ready to call it quits—not a chance.

April 21, 2002

Up and out early to the field, we must be on the busses by 8, breakfast at 7, and I am bleary-eyed. The field is about 15km outside of town and a zoo of folks from all around the countryside. We have an enjoyable time, in spite of the considerable dust cloud which hangs over the event, but feel it is not safe for Bob to try to fly a stunt kite amongst such a tight crowd of people. Someone may be hurt. I take loads of pictures. I am taking some of children sitting near me and I show them their picture on the digital camera. Soon there is a terrible crowd, all wanting me to take their picture. Some are very disappointed when they cannot have the picture. I try to explain the picture does not come out. It was pretty exciting and we were the center of attention of about 75 or 80 people.

Sunday night is the awards presentation and fireworks display, again at the stadium. You have never seen fireworks until you have seen them in China. China has a long history of creating elaborate displays. We had a full hour’s and at no time were there less than a half dozen in the sky. At one point there was a loud whoosh and two lines across the sky lit up. There were two lines strung from one side of the stadium to the other (longer than a football field). It was a shower of white sparkles in two layers which looked like a giant waterfall changing to a tremendous ocean wave and back again. It lasted several minutes and lit up the whole stadium. There were fountains and geysers and whirligigs and giant trees of torches that changed colors as they burned. There were all the normal aerial explosions sometimes forty or fifty at once. Never was there a time without something going off for the entire hour. We went home exhausted and deafened, but amazed.

April 22, 2002

Monday morning we visit a model school in Weifang. It is a government model in language studies. In addition to the regular curriculum they receive language instruction in English or Japanese. The school is one year old and very modern, clean and upbeat. We spoke with a Canadian instructor and the top two administrators. They teach levels 1-8 here and will expand through 12 as the students advance.

Off to look for more kits and buy food four our train ride back to Beijing. It leaves at noon and we have a soft sleeper even though it is a day train. Our roommates are an affluent, outspoken couple who grew up in Taiwan and returned after “the opening.” He is a businessman who criticizes the country’s policies almost the whole time he is awake. They have six large suitcases which crowd the small compartment. We will arrive in Beijing at 8 pm.

The countryside here is heavily agricultural and very beautiful, green and prosperous. It is the breadbasket of China. It is foggy, and toward Beijing, raining. There are patchworks of gardens and it is pastoral and placid outside the train window. The countryside is very verdant this time of year and the plants are getting large, the cloches have been removed during the days now. There is not as much wind today and the weather is warmer.

We have just passed a region of small ponds where fish and ducks are raised while it also holds water for irrigation. In some areas they also raise fresh water shrimp in these as well.

We have been told they introduce CO2 to the greenhouses to spur growth. I am surprised they haven’t discovered raising rabbits inside will help provide this and produce meat as well, but I guess not. We have done this in our greenhouse at home and it works well.

In general, I really liked Weifang and I would mind teaching in that city, but I don’t think I want to teach small children. There are three universities there and I might pursue these to see what is available. It is a pleasant place to stay and we will visit there again before we return to the US.

We have just returned last night from Weifang, a city which we visited in April when we went to the famous kite festival there. We had a gift for the Weifang Kite Museum from the World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame in Long Beach, Washington. We were honored as dignitaries when we arrived. The curator of the city and the Secretary General of the Municipality of Weifang (Information office of Weifang Municipal People’s Government and Weifang Association of Cultural Exchange with Foreign Countries) greeted us. We now have a very official document which provides for “Sister” Museum relationships between the two organizations. We had many pictures taken and were taken to lunch. The newspapers interviewed us and reported that the World Kite Museum in Long Beach, Washington had extended its wishes to establish a relationship with the Weifang Kite Museum. The Weifang is the historical capital and cultural center for the kite flying tradition. It is supposed to be the area where kite flying and making was originally established. It is also the kite center of China.

We have in our possession official documents establishing this relationship. Now they would like to do cultural exchanges as the next step. I will contact our museum and they will correspond back and forth to establish a cultural exchange. They are interested in sending a team to Long Beach, Washington. It is too much for an art teacher from Clinton, Washington, all this international relations foobazz.

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