Zhang Renbing poses with his handmade leather products at his studio in Heze, East China's Shandong Province on February 17. Photo: IC

Zhang's eldest son shows off one of his father's bags shaped like a wok. Photo: IC

Zhang Renbing wakes up around 5:30 am and then gets his eldest son ready for school. After dropping his son off at school, Zhang drives directly to his studio and buries himself in his work designing and making bags. If he's not satisfied with even the tiniest detail, he starts over from scratch. 

He tries to get back home around 10:30 or 11 pm to get some sleep before his 10-month-old son wakes him up for a nighttime feeding. 

Almost every day unfolds like this, except for the weekends when his wife brings their children to his studio for lunch.  

The 36-year-old Zhang is a Chinese leather craftsman whose work went viral online in China recently. His novel and, as some have described them, "eccentric" bags have attracted more than 84,000 followers to his TikTok (known as Douyin in China) channel. 

A video of a large backpack that can be driven around like a tiny car earned Zhang more than 323,000 likes, making it the most liked post on his channel. Most of the videos, shot by his brother, show him taking his bags out in public, where they never fail to capture people's attention.  

Minimum standards

Zhang is very serious about designing and making completely unique bags. He spends enormous amounts of time carrying out research on the internet to ensure that his work doesn't follow others. Even if he has finished designing a bag, if he discovers that another bag is similar to his, he drops the project right there and then. If he doesn't find anything similar, he throws himself into his work, making his designs a reality. He doesn't accept imperfection, just like he doesn't accept that his work will not be one of a kind.     

Zhang is even more serious about incorporating Chinese elements in his designs. With 2019 being the Year of the Pig, he designed a huge backpack shaped like a pig's head. Not only does the backpack have a lot of storage capacity, it can also be worn over one's head as a costume and uses dry ice to make it look like smoke is pouring from the pig's nostrils. 

"The pig's head looks like it is holding its chin up, which denotes the spirit of being brave and confident. The vapors that pour out of its nostrils and drift up into the air, symbolize that one's fortunes during the Year of the Pig will go sky high," Zhang told the Global Times. 

Besides the pig bags, Zhang has also designed bags in the shape of Chinese swords, sundials, Peking Opera masks, axes with the Chinese character fu (meaning fortune and good luck) and so on. 

Rather than just incorporating these Chinese elements as minor decorations, he made them the main body of his work. 

"I want to amplify these Chinese elements through my design, because I am very proud of Chinese culture and its 5,000-year history. I hope that people will learn more about our culture. Or maybe my work will evoke people's curiosity to learn more about the culture that is related to the design. That's why I put so much effort into each and every single detail of my designs. They all have meaning," Zhang explained.

An 'ordinary' craftsman 

Zhang has worked in the industry for almost 20 years. He started with the most basic jobs at a leather factory, and then, through incessant hard work, gradually moved up to a management-level position at a foreign-invested factory.  

Driven by a passion for producing original works and creating a Chinese brand that can compete with foreign brands, he started his own company. However, due to a lack of managing experience, his business failed and lost money. 

While many tried to persuade him to give up the idea of working on his own, his brother suggested that he could try posting his unique works on social media. He began doing so in October 2018 and quickly captured people's imaginations. Amazed by his prolific and creative ideas, netizens have given him the nickname of "Leather da Vinci."  

Zhang told the Global Times that after a US designer's Chinese wife saw his work on TikTok, she reached out to him to see if they could collaborate.

"I am really grateful for social media since it provides a platform with equal access for an ordinary craftsmen like me to show my work to the public. It takes you to places that are hard to reach in person," he said.