[The Village of Chalk] Li Junzai: Painting with Chalk, Advocating the Hometown

[The Village of Chalk] Li Junzai: Painting with Chalk, Advocating the Hometown

The story of  Mr. Li Junzai is a microcosm of the transformation from “chalk manufacturing” to“chalk art”in Liuanyuan Village Huangtan Town, Yingcheng, Hubei, and even more so a paradigm of how traditional industries can be revitalized under cultural empowerment.

I.Background: The Splendor and Dilemma of the Chalk Village The

Foundation of “The First Chalk Village in China”

Liuyuan Village has been developing the chalk since the 1950s, relying on the local abundant gypsum resources. At its peak, 90% of the households in the village were involved in, with an annual output of 9,000 tons of chalk, accounting for 85% of the national market share, and products were exported globally. With theization of electronic teaching equipment, the market for traditional teaching chalk has shrunk, and Liuanyuan Village has been in a dilemma of stagnant sales, urgently needing to through the industrial bottleneck.

2、 Li Jun's Return to Home and Industrial Innovation

Li Junzai's Return and Industrial Innovation In 2014, Li Junzai brought the advanced technology he in Guangdong back to his hometown and established Hubei Sanji Culture and Stationery Co., Ltd. He led the development of new products such as glow-inthe-dark chalk, irregular chalk, and toy chalk. Among them, a box of four glow-in-the-dark chalk is priced at $5, far exceeding the of traditional chalk.

Adopting silicone molds and 3D printing customization technology, it has achieved  customer-supplied images to finished products in 24 hours flexible production. 90% of the company's products have been converted to export craft chalk, sold to Europe and the United States, and orders are full all year round Through e-commerce platforms, Yingcheng chalk is sold to more than 100 countries around the world.

Cooperating with the self-media association to out live broadcasts to promote sales, such as the “Bookish Lu Temple”live broadcast event in 2023, to strengthen brand dissemination. In 201, he took the lead in establishing the Yingcheng Chalk Association, joining 150 enterprises to promote standardized production and joint order receiving. Huangtan chalk an annual output value of 450 million yuan, driving 6,000 people to employment, and the domestic market share is 95%.

3.Chalk Painting: The Deep Meaning of Art as an “Advocate”for the Industry 

Li Junzai self-taught chalk painting, creating with such as flowers, plants, fish, and insects, is not an accidental personal interest, but a strategic extension of the cultural value of the industry. Through artistic creation, chalk isdefined from a “teaching tool”to a cultural carrier, reversing the market's stereotype of the product. The content of the painting (such as local customs) becomes emotional symbol of the “Chalk Village”, helping to build an intangible cultural heritage cultural tourism industry ecology. The high added value of artistic chalk (such custom-painted chalk) relies on the public's recognition of the artistic value of chalk, forming a consumer mindset anchor. 

4.Advocating for the Hometown From Product Output to Cultural Output

Li Junzai's chalk painting and industrial practice is essentially a three-dimensional construction of the “local IP”.

He was called “King of Chalk”in the CCTV report, and his artistic creation has become a symbol of local industrial upgrading. The association plans to promote “the combination of production,, and tourism”, integrate chalk painting skills and craftsmen's stories into rural culture and tourism, and attract tourists to experience. Chalk painting enhances the attention of traditional, driving the development of supporting industries (molds, packaging) and forming an ecological chain of 6,000 people employed.

Li Junzai used a of chalk to draw the resilience of local industries. In the first half, he was a “breaker” who broke through the dilemma of stagnant sales; in the second half, became a“spokesperson” who used art to recast the soul of the industry. When the chalk of Huangtan Town moved from the classroom to the picture frame, a tool to a work of art, the story of rural revitalization has also undergone a sublimation from “survival”to “life” - above the products is the ingenuity, and the ingenuity is the hometown.