On February 11st and 12nd, 2025, members of the Social Practice Team from Chu Kochen Honors College, Zhejiang University embarked on the final phase of their journey. They paid visits to Bull Group, Minghe Ancient Town, Fangjiahetou Village, and Shanglinhu Celadon Culture Heritage Park for on-site research. A dialogue that transcends time and space quietly began amid the mountains and waters of southern Zhejiang.
Innovation: Bridging the Past and Future of Technological Advancement
On February 10th, the team embarked on an in-depth visit to Bull Group. Led by company guides, we first explored the evolution of its products, including sleeker switch profiles, multifunctional retractable sockets, hidden clothes racks, etc. Each innovation reflected the company’s relentless pursuit of excellence in specialized fields.
Stepping into the smart manufacturing facility, we observed the entire lifecycle of a switch, from plastic casings to a fully assembled product. This efficiency was striking: every six workers oversee five production lines, where automated systems handle routine tasks, while human operators focused on quality control and exception management. Here, we truly felt the pulse of intelligent manufacturing.
In the logistics zone, we encountered a seamless integration of automation and precision: self-guided vehicles shuttling packages to smart storage racks, while overhead cranes orchestrated seamless distribution. Watching this mechanical ballet unfold, we felt it indeed an efficiency far beyond human—a testament to the transformative power of automation.
The construction of such smart factories demands substantial investment—1.5 million RMB per production line—but the returns are also extraordinary, with the daily output of one smart factory reaching 3.2 million RMB. Progress calls for us to be pioneers in industrial innovation.
Innovation: Encountering Another Possibility for the Ancient Town
In the Minghe ancient town, we encountered an artist who integrates CNY paintings into modern design. In his studio, ancient elements are deconstructed into modern patterns, printed on phone cases and canvas bags, captivating young minds. In a time-honored pastry shop, the owner was live-streaming the process of making rice dumpling pancakes. Here, tradition and trend unexpectedly reconcile with each other, the special foods and folk customs of the ancient town empowered through modernization and intelligentization.
In Fangjia Hetou, we saw an old teahouse turning into a culture creation space, where traditional artisans set up workshops for visitors to experience crafts of bamboo weaving and embroidery. These skills, once on the brink of extinction, have been preserved through commercial operations. Such interventions have allowed the rice dumpling pancakes of Minghe and the stir-fried rice cakes with big-headed cabbage of Fangjia Hetou to break out of their traditional confines, not just being confined within the ancient town, but instead reaching a wider audience, which is also cost-effective.
Edited on Claude 3.7 Sonnet’s version: Once on the brink of extinction, these traditional crafts have found new life through commercial revitalization. These strategic interventions enabled local delicacies to break free from the confines of ancient town alleyways, gaining widespread appeal through cost-effective innovation.
The revival of ancient towns is nothing about simple nostalgia; but is about infusing traditional culture with new vitality within the modern context. Commercialization is not a rampaging beast; the key lies in how to harness it as an aid to heritage preservation, rather than a force of destruction.
Innovation: Perceiving the Eternal Poetic Charm of Celadon Art
On February 11th, the group visited the Shanglin Lake Celadon Culture Heritage Park in Cixi City. The structure of the Tang dragon kiln is reborn on the projection wall: the long and narrow kiln winding along the mountain resembles a dormant azure dragon, and the figures of the bare-chested workers adding firewood into the kiln flickered in the firelight. At that moment, we seemed to hear the sound of the howling fire, to smell the aroma of burnt pine firewood, and to touch the heat waves from the scalding kiln. The celadon has never been an isolated work of art, but a grand bonding between human and nature. As we walked through the corridor to the screening room, the lights suddenly dimmed. With the glaze and the kiln fire, the craftsmen solidified the prime pursuit of Eastern aesthetics on the porcelain: implicit but profound, cold yet gentle.
Stepping into the celadon exhibition hall, we once again appreciated colorful celadon artworks, in which designers integrated modern aesthetics and abstract art. Simple and smooth lines were employed to break the traditional symmetrical layout, endowing a simple yet powerful visual effect. These innovative designs not only conform to modern aesthetic preference for simplicity, but also breath new vitality into the celadon culture. As Longquan celadon was applied as insulation material for NASA spacecrafts, and ice crack pattern lost to time was reborn through 3D printing, we see a blurring boundary between tradition and future.
The legend of Yue Kiln celadon has never truly reached its conclusion. Emerging phoenix - like from the searing kiln fires of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it found eternal resonance within the verses of the Tang Dynasty. During the Song and Yuan eras, it traversed vast oceans, carried by the tides of trade and exploration. Today, though it stands as a silent exhibit in the hallowed halls of museums, it reawakens with every lingering gaze cast upon it.
Edited on Claude 3.7 Sonnet’s version: Rising from the kiln fires of the Eastern Han, immortalized in Tang poetry, journeying through the waves of Song and Yuan dynasties -- these artifacts now rest as silent exhibits in museums—yet they awaken with each gaze that falls upon.
In truth, the transmission of civilization is not the inert piling up of ancient artifacts. Instead, it's a living, breathing connection. It allows us, millennia later, to perceive in the delicate crackling of the glaze the unwavering courage of our ancestors as they dared to challenge the relentless march of time.
This social practice took place between the earthen walls of ancient towns and modern industrial zones, decoding the relationship between the inheritance of civilization and industrial transformation. History has never been distant, as it is continuously stirring in every present moment with innovative vigor.
Innovation is not a departure from tradition but a re-encoding of the genetic code of civilization. True innovation is about salvaging wisdom from the river of time and reshaping value in the waves of the era. Let us carry this cross-century spark of innovation as we move forward, because the best form of inheritance is always its creative continuation.
