Wooden movable-type printing technique in SE China

Qiu Zhiqiang makes wooden movable types in Ninghua county, southeast China's Fujian province, Nov 21, 2012. The wooden movable-type printing technique in Ninghua could date back to Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and it is mainly used to print genealogies and scriptures at present. By far, nearly 400,000 movable types have been reserved in the county, but few people could conduct this technique. Qiu, 34, is one of the few and the youngest among the four inheritors living in the county. The young inheritor intends to run business to produce craftworks related to the old-age technique to develop its economic benefits as the wooden movable-type printing is under a threat of being lost to the world due to the shortage of its traditional business like printing genealogies.[Photo/Xinhua]