This video from Hangzhou, China, brought to us by GoPro, allows us a look at a dying art: bamboo weaving. Master Wang Li sits quietly behind a table full of the fantastically complex creatures, all of which he’s hand-crafted from simple stalks of bamboo.
It’s a two-sided show, with one crowd in front examining Wang Li’s nearly impossible creations, and another in back watching the artisan masterfully fashioning yet another amazing bamboo cricket.
Wang Li is from Benbu, in Anhui province, and fell in love with his craft as a child after being taught by his father. As Wang Li’s steady hands paint the tiny eyes on his cricket, he laments the disappearance of hand crafts, saying that people just don’t care about them anymore. But the looks of delight on the faces of passersby suggest we’re not ready to let go of such age-old crafts just yet.
