China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Handicrafts fetedd
Beijing museum displays city’s traditional craftsmanship
The Capital Museum is celebrating 35 years of its opening with the ongoing exhibition Eight Marvelous Handicrafts of Beijing.
The best of the city’s traditional craftsmanship in enamel, lacquerware and more is being exhibited. Nearly 270 items are in the show that runs through Nov 9.
According to museum director Guo Xiaoling, the display, which began on Aug 9, aims to advocate the spirit of craftsmanship defined by delicacy and luxury.
“This is an attempt to help traditional craftsmanship survive and thrive in the modern world,” Guo says. “The handworks are complicated, so inheriting such skills is imperative.”
The eight Beijing-style handicrafts are: jade carving, ivory carving, cloisonne enamel, carved lacquer, painted and inlaid lacquer, filigree, embroidery and imperial carpets.
Some exhibits are from cultural relics that are permanently housed at the Capital Museum. A cloisonne tripod that was used to burn incense sticks during Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Qianlong’s era, a gold hairpin studded with rubies from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and a bird-pattern lacquer plate from the Yuan Dynasty (12711368) are among the displays.
Many exhibits show day modern-craftsmanship.
Hou Xue, a Beijing-based artisan who specializes in painted and inlaid lacquer, showed his skills at the exhibition. According to him, a small lacquer plate that needs a coating of gold foil usually takes a month to make.
“Most of the artisans earlier only served royal families and nobles. The items went to ordinary families after the Qing Dynasty fell,” Hou says.
“In olden times, laquerware for emperors would be painted 18 times to create a cubic feeling on its surface. We may partially simplify the process today for the public — by, for instance, reducing some auxiliary ornamentation — but the gist of the skill remains.”
Hou now helps with the restoration of royal furniture at the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City. When a layer of paint dries, he still uses old ways to polish the surface — mixing bean oil and flour. But even when laquerware largely belonged to the upper class, it was found in daily-use articles, he says.
“When we revitalize traditional craftsmanship, we need to respect functionality rather than merely treating items as fine art pieces.”
Yu Jing, who runs an embroidery studio in the capital, says people today are keen to include traditional handicrafts as part of their daily decorations. That gives artisans the opportunity to keep the crafts alive.
“Before making an embroidery piece, for example, one has to consider where it can be used,” she says, adding that in the olden days, artisans usually didn’t design but just followed certain patterns or paintings.
“But today, we need more expertise to design the patterns at the very beginning, and make the clothes in the end.”
According to Zhong Liansheng, a national-level master of cloisonne enamel, the exhibition represents a revival of Beijing’s traditional craftsmanship, which once endured difficulties.
“Those articles used to only be exported and had low domestic consumption in the 1980s,” Zhong recalls.
When export demand fell, the skills lost appeal.
“The old master-apprentice model was in crisis.”
It is therefore necessary to train potential inheritors when they are young, he says.
“A good thing is that many exhibits today are actually works by students in schools,” he says.
Wang Shijie, head of the Beijing Senior Technical School of Arts and Crafts, says his school now has more than 1,500 students honing their skills in traditional craftsmanship.
“If people want to be handicraft masters, they must try to excel in their work and create something newon the basis of older models,” Wang says.
Inheriting craftsmanship doesn’t mean stubbornly sticking to old ways, he says. And, in some cases, a change of course is inevitable. For instance, ivory carvers have to switch to other fields because elephants should not be hunted.
“Since the Beijing handicrafts are rooted in daily life, they can also gradually evolve with changes in people’s aesthetic tastes, but the traditional skills need to be maintained.”
Nevertheless, some practical problems persist.
“Though an exquisite article will fetch a good price, the process of making it consumes both time and energy,” Hou says.
“When making a complicated item, we have to stay fully focused for months or even years, leaving no room to do anything else. That is perhaps something that discourages young people from entering the industry.”
Wang also points to economic concerns among inheritors.
“Someone who gets distracted by the market can’t be a master,” he says. “We’re still looking to find a balance, but education rather than money is the key to letting tradition continue.”