China News Service, Changting, Fujian, September 14th. Title: Birthplace of "The First Set of Military Uniforms of the Red Army": From Red "Weaving" to Digital "Intelligent Manufacturing"
Author Peng Lifang
Changting Shuidong Street in Fujian Province has a series of arcades and numerous shops. In addition to Hakka snacks, every few steps is a cloth, home textile or clothing store. This small town in western Fujian is still a corner of China's textile map.
"There is one textile and garment worker in every two to three households in Changting." Wang Ying, former director of the Party History Office of the Changting County Party Committee, said that the industrial context can be traced back to the red years nearly a hundred years ago. During the Soviet Area period, Changting was a hub of business and trade, and the clothing and handicraft industry flourished. It was known as "Little Red Shanghai". In 1929, after the Fourth Red Army liberated Changting, it set up a temporary Red Army uniform factory and summoned local sewing masters to rush to produce more than 4,000 sets of military uniforms. The first set of unified regular military uniforms of the Chinese Red Army was born.
Since then, relying on the cotton raw materials transferred by the Tingjiang River water transport and the local printing and dyeing foundation, Changting has supported the military supply support task of the Central Soviet Area. Before the Central Red Army's Long March in 1934, the Changting Quilt Factory and others worked day and night to produce a large amount of military supplies to support the Red Army's strategic shift.
A historical exhibition hall on Shuidong Street has restored the production scene of the Red Army Quilt Factory: hand spinning machines and wooden looms are lined up in sequence, and scissors, needlework and gray-blue military uniforms are placed on the cutting table. "Back then, the people of Changting supported the Red Army with every effort, and also left their skills and workers on this land." Wang Ying said.
After the reform and opening up, the Changting Cotton Mill was built, laying the foundation for modern industry. Entering the 21st century, Changting has seized the opportunity of coastal industrial transfer and listed textiles and clothing as its primary pillar industry, and a number of well-known private enterprises have settled in it. Currently, there are more than 300 textile companies in Changting, 18 of which are listed above, with a spinning production capacity of 870,000 spindles and nearly 20,000 employees, forming a complete industrial chain of "spinning-weaving-knitted clothing-marketing" and ranking among the five major textile and clothing clusters in Fujian Province.
Today, a transformation from "weaving" to "intelligent manufacturing" is underway in Changting Textile Enterprises. Fujian Tianshou Textile New Materials Co., Ltd. settled in Changting in 2003. Cao Nianhua, assistant general manager of the company, said that it was the industrial foundation here that attracted its attention. Since 2017, companies have gradually eliminated old equipment, introduced intelligent production lines, and launched digital management systems. This year, the 5G smart factory transformation has started, with the goal of connecting all equipment and moving all data to the cloud.
Zhang Wenhai, 33, returned to his hometown this year to work in digital production management at this company. He said that when he was a child, there were people all over the open-end and ring-spinning workshops in the workshop. Today, a 3,000-square-meter warp knitting workshop has 74 machines with a daily output of over 100 tons of cloth, and only about 20 people are on duty daily. In the newly put into production circular weft knitting machine production line, one worker can look after about 20 machines.
"Digital transformation has significantly improved production efficiency and quality control." Cao Nianhua said that the company's output value has increased three times compared with before the transformation, and the output value in 2025 will be approximately 300 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25%.
"The Long March left behind more than just red memories in the old areas." Wang Ying said that this spirit will become the driving force for industrial upgrading. Changting's textile story is far from over.
