Nanjing Folk Museum in a studio, specializing in Jinling embroidery experts Gao Ruilei is sitting in front of the case, twisting the top needle, fingertips flying, a lifelike "reflecting the snow and red plums" on the embroidery.
Interestingly, across the Yangtze River Bridge, to the Jiangbei New District Biomedical Valley, in the "potential unicorn" enterprise Sundise Medical production workshop, there is also this traditional craft "shadow".
Two friends from a heart-to-heart talk
Gao Ruilei comes from a family of embroidery, his ancestors were court embroiderers, and he has been very interested in embroidery since he was a child by his mother's side. As an adult, Gao Ruilei brought his family to Nanjing and settled in Taishan Street, becoming a new Jiangbei man.
2018.Because of his embroidery's delicate stitching, vivid colors, and the taste of Nanjing, Gao Ruilei was awarded the title of Representative Inheritor of Nanjing Intangible Cultural Heritage (Folk Cloth Art).At the same time, he is also the "three belts" celebrities in Jiangsu Province, Nanjing City, young and middle-aged top-notch talents, Jiangbei New District Folk Literary and Artistic Artists Association Chairman, Jiangbei New District Xinlian Association Vice President.
Just as he continued to absorb the elements of the current trend, continue to refine his skills, the output of embroidery, a meeting, Gao Ruilei met the same new Jiangbei people, Dr. Ma Chenming, the conversation between the two found that they share the same interests.
Samuel Ma was an accomplished cardiovascular surgeon at the German Heart Center, a national center for cardiovascular disease in Germany. Due to hereditary reasons or ageing, people's hearts may develop various diseases, among which the heart valves may become narrowed or incompletely closed.This heart valve disease is treated with the implantation of a prosthetic heart valve. Samuel Ma is an expert in this field.
"The cost of a minimally invasive valve surgery abroad can be as high as 400,000 yuan, and there are more and more patients in China who need such surgeries, but the cost is difficult to afford and the technology may not be appropriate." While working abroad, Ma often saw many compatriots traveling to other countries for treatment, but may not be able to get the best results.
With ideals and sentiments, in April 2019, Ma Chenming returned to China to start his own business and set up Nanjing Shengde Medical Technology Co. Ltd. with the ambition to independently develop heart valve products that are more suitable for the national physique and bring the gospel to Chinese patients.
Two tracks connected by a silver needle
After this acquaintance, Machenming realized the similarities between what he was doing and Gorey Ray's skillful craftsmanship.
"The artificial heart valve product, which is composed of two main parts: 'valve leaflet material made of animal tissue' and 'nickel-titanium alloy stent'. Since the birth of this technology in Europe, the step of fixing the valve leaflet material to the stent has been carried out by hand-stitching." Ma Chenming said.
As a result, Sundance went all out to recruit a group of skilled craftsmen to hand-sew artificial heart valve products at its inception. "To sew the valve leaflet material very snugly onto the tiny metal frame requires sewing workers to be especially careful and dedicated." Ma Chenming explains, "The female workers go through a patterned training program before they start work, and when they reach a certain standard, they are allowed to enter the workshop to sew different products."
Since women workers need to be trained on a regular basis, why not give it a try now that there is a highly skilled candidate in front of us?In February last year, Machenming first invited Gao Ruilei to the production workshop of Sundise Medical, hoping to further collide more sparks about sewing skills from the perspective of traditional embroiderers.
Put on the white coat, put on the shoe covers, enter the production workshop, witness a hundreds of thousands of yuan worth of artificial heart valves were born under the exquisite hands of female workers. Gao Ruilei had never felt such a magical experience before.
"After I came back, I've been thinking about how to help people improve their skills in a more targeted way, so during the training of the first batch of 16 female workers, I explained a lot of traditional Chinese embroidery techniques and took them to practice the 'backstitch skeleton stitching'." Gao Ruilei said that this method requires a silver needle to pass through the middle of a silk thread, splitting a thin thread in two to form an openwork shape, "which particularly tests the worker's concentration and finger dexterity."
"The learning process has subconsciously influenced the women workers to grasp the product with care, patience and concentration, which is of deeper significance." Ma Chenming said.
New directions inspired by a collaboration
After the training activities, the ties between the two sides became stronger and stronger.How to further empower the work of science and technology with cultural heritage, so that the artificial heart valve industry originated in Europe to achieve localized development, more new directions of the "seedling" began to appear in the mind of Ma Chenming.
"Our country has a deep historical and cultural heritage, and the strength of these traditions is a powerful 'engine' to support innovation and transformation. If there is any question as to where artificial heart valves can first achieve a breakthrough, I believe it will be generated in China." Ma Chenming said, "To reach this step, cross-border is very important."
Since this year, Ma Chenming has made several visits to companies that make knitting and textile machines to explore the possibility of industrializing heart valve products in the future.
As a medical device manufacturer, the uniformity and standardization of process control is critical, said Ma Chenming.China has a great advantage in industrialization, if this can be used to empower handmade products, it will speed up the development of the artificial heart valve industry to a certain extent.
"These cross-border ideas are what inspired me from Mr. Gao's course." Ma Chenming said that although Gao Ruilei inherits a traditional craft, his product form is more in line with current trends, not only the past fashionable cloth products, but also make embroidery rings and embroidery wearing armor that fit the contemporary young people's consumer aesthetics, so that this skill can be passed on in a better form.
"What I did when I returned from my studies also originated from traditional craftsmanship, and I hope, too, to refresh valve technology with Chinese strengths." Ma Chenming said.
Nowadays, walking into the workshop of Sundise Medical, series of heart valve products such as aortic valve implantation products, mitral valve implantation products, tricuspid valve implantation products, etc. are being born in the hands of a female worker with high sewing skills. In the future, these serialized heart valve products with high technical barriers and complete independent intellectual property rights may have more new possibilities.
