How are Chinese traditional handicraft skills inherited from master to apprentice?

The inheritance of traditional handicraft of intangible cultural heritage is facing an unprecedented crisis. The essence of inheritance is the process of imparting and inheriting from master to apprentice, but there is acute shortage of research about the parties, the relationship and the behavior of inheritance. Therefore, choosing inherited behavior as a starting point to explore the inner formation mechanism of master and apprentice inheritance in traditional handicraft, as well as determining the influencing factors of the inheritance, have important theoretical value and practical significance for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Using 4 traditional handicraft inheritance institutions in China as case objects, 37 inheritance parties and 21 mentoring matching groups were interviewed. Through standard case analysis and three-step coding method of grounded theory, it is found that skill generation involves the stages of inquiry, interaction and feedback, as well as the following steps:cognition of skill generation, coupling of skill generation, automation of skill generation, etc. Through coding, 12 categories and 33 specific influencing factors are identified. Among them, individual factors influence interaction relation, and the interaction relation has a concrete influence on the process of inheritance, affecting the ultimate effect of inheritance. This study is of reference value for improving the relationship between masters and apprentices and promoting the effective inheritance of traditional handicraft.