Innovating tradition

The Li family lives in the village of Gushanzhou in Jingxi Township in Fuzhou’s Minhou County. For hundreds of years, the village has been famous for its lacquerware art. Some local families have developed their own art styles and passed them on through generations. Many folk lacquerware masters have been trained in the village, and Li Changmin is one of them.

Bodiless lacquerware is considered to be one of the “three treasures” of traditional Chinese crafts, which also include Beijing cloisonné and Jingdezhen porcelain. Since 1910, bodiless lacquerware has been shown at many international exhibitions and won prizes and accolades. Items made this way have been dubbed “precious dark gems” and “oriental treasures.”

Li began to learn the skills needed to make bodiless lacquerware from the age of 15, when he was allowed to learn from his uncle Li Zhenrong, a renowned lacquerware master at the time.

In the late 1980s, state-operated lacquerware factories were closed down one after another due to bad performance. A large number of lacquerware workers were laid off and many of them eventually gave up their careers in the industry.

Li Changmin is one of the few who decided to persist. “If we all left the industry, the traditional art form would vanish. It would be a pity for everyone,” Li said. In spite of intense opposition from his family, Li gathered many former colleagues and set up the market-oriented Minhou County Minxin Craft Factory. He vowed to keep the traditional art form alive. The