Modern Yiyang Oil-paper Umbrella from Hunan Picture 1

The oil-paper umbrellas of Yiyang in South China’s Hunan province was known for the ingenious craftsmanship in history, as stated in the popular local saying that “Yiyang is famous for umbrellas, just as Xiangtan for clogs and Yuanjiang for pretty girls”. As a perfect combination of cute, light frames, bright colors and durableness, Yiyang umbrellas have been exported in large volumes to a dozen countries including Japan and many Southeast Asian countries.
With moso Bamboo for ribs, human hair for threads, together with high quality tung oil, oil-paper from Hangzhou and sticks from Guilin, Yiyang oil-paper umbrellas’ production involves more than 60 procedures. Out of the many categories of Yiyang umbrellas, the patterned umbrellas are even more spectacular as the birds, animals, flowers, plants vividly stand out from the canopy thanks to the techniques such as colored drawing, oil painting, double-layer floral patterns, etc. that are applied. Yiyang umbrellas are also known as “Friend of the Country” in Indonesia and they can be seen hung in pavilions every several miles.