Making flour sifter now a craft of the past

Chen Jianhua, a craftsman, makes a flour sifter at his shop in China West Film Studio, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on March 16, 2012. [Photo/CFP]

Flour sifter was a must-have tool for dividing fine flour particles from the oversized ones in rural China in the past. The sifter consists of a net made of horsetail and a round wooden frame.

It helps to make fine wheat flour, which is the raw material to make steamed bread, a major staple food in China. Therefore, some people became professional sieve makers. Today the popular tool is almost entirely replaced by milling machines, and it can be found only in some remote areas.

Chen Jianhua, a craftsman, makes filters at his shop in China West Film Studio, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. The 60 year-old Gansu native migrated to a small village in Xiji county, Ningxia, with his family when his was 4 or 5. He mastered the skill of making the flour sifter from elders in his family. Chen has no choice but to become a migrant worker, as most handmade sifters were replaced by machines in the 1990s.

Chen resumed making the sifters in 2009, when he was invited to demonstrate his skills for visitors at China West Film Studio, Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Chen said his father made sifters to raise his big family in the past, but it is only for performance now.