Shangfang Sweet Potato Noodle Craft

Name and place of transmission

The public notice of January 2024 lists the Shangfang Sweet Potato Noodle Craft under traditional crafts among the newly included projects of the recommended list for the fourth batch of district-level representative items of intangible cultural heritage; the applying area or unit is Shiqiu Subdistrict and the recommended guardian unit is the Shiqiu Subdistrict Culture and Sports Station.

"Shangfang" in the title refers to Shangfang Village of Shiqiu Subdistrict. The title uses the word shanyu for sweet potato; that usage is reproduced here and is not rewritten as "hongshu" or "ganshu".

Area of production

A report of the Shiqiu Subdistrict Office of December 2024 records that Shangfang Village has thirteen natural villages, and that noodle making is concentrated in five of them: Sixian, Shetan, Shangfangs and Dacun and Xiaocun. A report of Lishui Release of November 2024 further states that Shangfang and its surroundings are hilly country rich in mountain land, suited to growing sweet potato on a large scale, and that the tubers grown there yield well and are of good quality, with a high starch yield. The two accounts corroborate each other on the distribution of the craft.

The sequence of the process

The subdistrict report gives the process as: selecting the tubers, washing, crushing, filtering, steaming, drying and shaving into threads. A report by China News Service, drawing on the Jinling Evening News, of December 2015 gives the flow in more detail: the sweet potato is peeled and ground into slurry, the residue is filtered out repeatedly through gauze, and the slurry is settled in a vat; once the starch has separated from the water the surplus water is poured off and the settled starch is taken out and dried; the dried starch is mixed with water in a set proportion and steamed on a mud stove into round trays of set paste; when the paste has hardened it is shaved into threads with a knife, and after drying the noodles are ready for sale.

On the steaming stage, the subdistrict report records that a steamer holds five trays, that only a thin layer of slurry is poured into each tray and a second layer added only after the first is cooked, and that about two and a half hours are needed to steam them all; it adds that only an experienced hand can produce noodles of even thickness and firm texture.

As to what is added, the China News Service report states that nothing is added at any stage other than water. This is a statement about the making of the product in that report, reproduced with its source and not adopted here as a conclusion about quality.

Transmission and industry

The subdistrict report records that the village set up a noodle cooperative, registered the "Yulong" noodle trademark and formed a complete chain from growing sweet potato through making starch and processing noodles to transport and sale; in 2024 more than a hundred households took part, with an expected output of 100,000 jin and sales of over 1.2 million yuan. A report of Lishui Release of November 2024 dates the cooperative to 2007 and describes a "party branch plus cooperative plus households" model. An article carried by Nanjing Social Work in June 2026 gives the 2025 figures as an output of 100,000 jin and sales of 1.2 million yuan. The two years carry similar figures, but they are separate annual counts and are marked with their years here; they are neither merged nor added together.

The June 2026 article also states that the village keeps to the old method in making the noodles and that the traditional craft has already been entered in the Lishui District list of intangible cultural heritage, which corroborates the public notice.

On transmission, the subdistrict report mentions a villager, Wang Yuancai, aged seventy-four in 2024, who had been making noodles for more than fifty years and says his grandfather began. This is the account of an interviewee and is self-reported; the public notice lists no representative bearer for this project, and no bearer is inferred here.

The tools have changed as well: the report notes that the work once relied entirely on manpower and had no tap water, and that semi-automatic machinery has since been put to use and reduced the labour needed.

Uncertainties

First, no date is established. Both reports describe the craft as having been handed on for "more than a hundred years"; this is a rounded figure in the press wording, is reproduced as it stands and is not converted into a starting year, and no record in a gazetteer or in earlier literature has been found here.

Second, the relation between "already entered in the list" and the public notice. The June 2026 article states that the craft has been entered in the district list, while what this library holds is still the public notice of January 2024; the formal list published after the close of the public notice period has not been retrieved. The two are not in conflict, but the entry continues to follow the wording of the public notice and does not state that the list has been formally published.

Third, the line of transmission remains to be added. Wang Yuancai's statement that it began with his grandfather is self-reported, with no systematic record of generations, and the eight bearers named in the public notice do not include this project.

Fourth, the variety of sweet potato is not recorded. The sources note only a high starch yield.

Fifth, the recommended guardian unit is the Shiqiu Subdistrict Culture and Sports Station and the applying area or unit is Shiqiu Subdistrict. These are two different columns of the notice's table and must not be used interchangeably.