Liu Weixue learns the craft from scratch, such as sawing a bamboo culm, polishing ribs and intertwining thread.[Photo provided to China Daily]

To prove his paper umbrella can stand the test of time, Liu sent his umbrellas to undergo quality testing and the results showed that the umbrellas can be opened and closed more than 1,000 times.

What's more, Liu wants his umbrellas to resonate with today's consumers. Applying the colors that he mixes by himself, every umbrella is dyed by hand. His shop on e-commerce platform Taobao has nearly 85,000 followers with umbrella prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan.