Photo taken on June 13, 2020 shows Satar Ismail with processed mulberry-bark paper.

Satar Ismail is boiling mulberry bark.

Satar Ismail is making mulberry-bark paper.

Satar Ismail, 52 years old, is a farmer of Lukeqin Town in Shanshan County of Turpan City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, also a famous local handicraftsman of mulberry-bark paper. In 2018, he was recommended as the inheritor of mulberry-bark paper as part of the intangible cultural heritage protection efforts, and regained handicrafts of mulberry-bark paper making. On the intangible cultural heritage day in 2020, he brought with him raw materials and tools for making mulberry-bark paper to the intangible cultural heritage market in Turpan City to make and sell mulberry-bark paper on site, attracting many tourists to stop to watch and buy.

In 2006, the handicraft of making mulberry-bark paper was approved by the State Council to be listed as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

“In recent years, the concerned departments have been strengthening continuously the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage projects, and I am a beneficiary. Now, a piece of mulberry-bark paper can sell for 35 yuan.” said Satar.