The Wang family

Three of us, one bench, and a drying wall full of kites on Kite Lane in Yangjiabu.

An older woman with white hair in a blue patterned shirt, smiling in a doorway — Liu Meihua

An older man in a pink checked shirt looking straight at the camera — Wang Jianguo

A laughing woman in a patterned jacket at a busy street market — Wang Lan

Who does what

A hand holding a fine brush, laying colour onto a painted panel

Liu Meihua paints

She learned from her father in 1968 and still won't use a stencil. “A printed swallow looks the same from the ground as from the hand. Mine doesn't.”

A man sitting outdoors in the shade working a length of bamboo

Wang Jianguo builds

Every frame, every spar, every bridle. He buys his bamboo from one grower in Anji and has done for twenty years.

Rows of painted paper kites with tassels hanging on the drying wall

Wang Lan flies and posts

She test-flies each kite on the field opposite, writes the slip, packs the tube and answers your messages.

1987

A table in the courtyard

Liu Meihua sold her first painted swallows at the Weifang kite festival the year it went international. She sold forty on the first morning and went home to make more.

The workshop moved indoors in 1999. The drying wall is the old courtyard wall with a roof built over it.

A woman holding up a large painted dragon kite on the field

Around the workshop

April is festival month and the bench runs from six in the morning. August is quiet; that's when the dragons get built.

A crowd of painted bird and butterfly kites filling a blue sky — Festival week, April

Yellow, green and blue paper kites with tassels hanging on a workshop wall — The drying wall

A red hawk kite flying at sunset above a crowd watching from the field — Test flights at dusk

A stack of finished red, green and white kites piled on the bench

Come and see us

Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 to 17:00. Ring ahead if you want to watch the painting; Liu Meihua works mornings.