The Secret of Rice Paper
It is not that hard to imitate rice paper. You can find its ingredients as long as you have a sample in your hand and its production process is imaginable. Numerous imitations have succeeded in its appearance. However, by ink painting artists, genuine rice paper is from Jing County only.
In 1877, an English custom officer from Tax Bureau paid a visit to Jing County. Later in his annual report, he wrote 'There are many rice paper mills run by villagers along the hill about eight miles northwest of the county. The villagers use the bark of wingceltis and mulberry and rice straw for their paper. The fiber material was repeatedly washed in water before boiled in hot lime. The boiled material will be washed again and laid on the hillside for years until it is dry.' In 1883, a Japanese disguised as chinese explored the region and wrote an article of 'Diary of Papermaking in Qing Dynasty', which was published in 'Chinese Papermaking Industry Magazine' in Tokyo, 1934. During World War II, Japanese collected seeds of wingceltis and planted them in Japan. However, the bark from those transplanted trees only produced a weak paper. Some people argue that the secret of rice paper is the chemicals in local water source while others believe it is the tree bark and rice straw of sandy paddy-field. So far, there is no one could make rice paper the same. The birthplace of rice paper Rice Paper Home | Contact | Rice Paper |
