Shaoxing Tin Foil

Shaoxing Tin Foil

　　　Product Alias: Foil

　　Product Name: Tin Foil

　　Product Origin: Shaoxing

　　Product Introduction: In the past, Shaoxing was often called the “City of Half Tin,” referring to how nearly half the city's people were involved in the tin foil trade, relying on it for their livelihood. The history of tin foil can be traced back to the era of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and it has now been around for six or seven hundred years. In those days, tin foil in Shaoxing was primarily used for religious offerings. In Lu Xun’s novel "Medicine," the character Old Lady Hua burns tin foil-made ingots when she visits her son Xiao Shuan’s grave.

　　The craftsmanship of making tin foil is relatively complex and entirely manual. First, tin blocks are melted in a crucible to form “tin liquid,” then poured into layered molds to cast long strips three inches in length and one inch in width, known as “stacked foil.” This process is called “casting foil.” These strips are then hammered by upper and lower workshop workers until they can no longer be beaten. One tin casting typically yields 3,200 sheets of tin foil, referred to as “one batch.” After dusting with powder, the sheets are cut into various styles of “pages” by the foil workshop foreman (commonly called “foregunner”). The next step is “mounting paper,” where the tin foil is affixed onto “Lu Ming paper” of similar size. It is then passed through a calendering process to bond the foil more firmly to the paper. Once the foil is fully processed, it can be used to make paper ingots shaped like gold nuggets. At this point, the entire production process of tin foil is essentially complete.

　　Product History: According to legend, its origins date back to the early Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu era, initially produced by “convicts.” The shops had wooden fences with bamboo strips nailed on and iron chains strung across, resembling prison gates. Gradually, the trade was taken over by commoners, and the industry developed rapidly. In the 18th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1892), Shaoxing produced 500,000 pieces of tin foil. By the 3rd year of the Xuantong reign (1911), production had reached 1.6 million pieces. In the 20th year of the Republic of China (1931), the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance established a special bureau to collect a special tax on tin foil, yielding “an annual revenue of two million two hundred thousand yuan.” At that time, “over three hundred thousand residents of Xiaoshao (Shaoxing and Xiaoshan) relied on it for their livelihoods” (from "A Guide to Yu Region Travel"). After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, most foil workshops and factories ceased operations. In 1979, to meet foreign trade demands, the Shaoxing Foil Workshop was re-established. Aside from a small amount of domestic sales, most of its products were exported via Hong Kong to countries such as Japan, Singapore, and the United States, though the output remained modest.