Profile: Li Qiuyue studied at the Shifang branch of Deyang RTVU as a junior-college student in 2004, and continued as an undergraduate in 2021.
She is the master cigar-roller in the handmade-cigar workshop of the Great Wall Cigar Plant of China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial. She also practices the “intangible cultural heritage” of traditional cigar-making. She has been named a National May Day Female Pacesetter, Sichuan Labour Model, and Sichuan Technical Expert, and has been awarded a May 1st Labour medal and Deyang’s “Craftsman Innovation Achievement Award”.
Li Qiuyue working.
Over the past 17 years, earnest and persistent, Li Qiuyue has solved many technical problems while becoming a skilled craftswoman.
Research and Achievement - Striving to Lead Technological Innovation
In 2005, Li Qiuyue passed a recruitment test, and joined the Great Wall Cigar Plant as an ordinary cigar roller. From there she gradually gained mastery. The boring repetitive work did not kill her enthusiasm, but rather gave her opportunities to innovate in upgrading and development.
As the first plant producing cigars in China, the Great Wall Cigar Plant, although it had inherited cigar-making skills, faced a high challenge to meet consumer demands for flavour and shape. For this reason, she continues to improve her rolling skills through independent study and extensive practice.
Rolling a handmade cigar used to be simple, but she decided to innovate, and after hundreds of trials was able to improve efficiency and quality.
Skill comes from practice and efficiency from diligence. With her hard work, she has developed and refined unique ways to improve quality and reduce consumption of raw materials while adhering to traditional cigar-making techniques.
She has obtained 16 patents for design and has presided over or participated in 7 innovation projects, enhancing rolling efficiency by 30%. In 2018, she participated in rolling the "World's Longest Cigar” of 119.18m, becoming the first "World's Best" for Chinese cigars.
Li Qiuyue, as a typical grassroots craftswoman, was named a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress, demonstrating the nation’s respect for labour, skills, and the spirit of craftsmanship and innovation.
Heritage and Development – Training Handmade-cigar Rollers
Adhering to a century-old cigar-making tradition, she continues to refine her rolling skills by incorporating her experience, and innovating to keep up with the times. From an apprentice to an expert cigar roller, she has been at the forefront of her trade all these years, and is now passing on her skills to a new generation of technicians.
In July of 2016, her company set up the Li Qiuyue Innovation Studio, which has helped lead technological innovation and skills training. According to Li Qiuyue, the studio is based on the concept of people-oriented sustainable development, and its commitment to training has created more than 600 skilled cigar rollers. It has laid a solid foundation for the development and expansion of the craft in China.
She hopes to continue to innovate and to pass on the skills she inherited, standing as an example through her words and actions, and spreading love of the craft and profession.
By OUC News Network