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Eye-catching Folk Arts Like Han Embroidery

Release time:2017-08-10 15:55

  

  Fascinating artistic performance on event site

  Making cotton candy

  Han embroidery

  Time of creation: August, 2013

  Size of artwork: maximum side no less than 220 cm

  Materials: stainless steel material/ bronze material

  Expert comments: Wushu of Wudang Mountains in Hubei province is of distinctive Taoist cultural characteristics, a natural combination of Kongfu and health preserving methods, in which lie profound cultural deposits of traditional Wushu as well as masterly scientific reasons. Inspired by the Phoenix Culture and the legend of the “Nine-headed bird” which root deeply in the Hubei culture, the sculpture adopts the theme of the image of a phoenix, and incorporates the essence of the Tai Chi diagram from Wushu originated in Hubei’s Wudang Mountains, creating a tripartite sculptural image implying a nine-head phoenix.

  On the 9th, the second site event, of the serial events of “Pay homage to Intangible Cultural Heritage China Tour ∙ Changqing Heritage in Memorial of Intangible Cultural Heritage Relics”, jointly initiated by Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, Changjiang Daily Newspaper Office, and New World Changqing Residential Community, was launched at the sales center situated at the central park of the Changqing Residential Community. Visitors were mesmerized by site performances of folk arts such as Han embroidery, gourd pyrography and cotton candy making.

  Disciple of Han embroidery master performs and brings viewers back to “ancient times”

  Embroidery frame opened, embroidery cloth spread, and needle threaded… During the morning of the 9th, the sales center at the central park of the Changqing Residential Community was crowded with visitors attracted by the Han embroidery performance of Huang Xiaofang, who was directly taught by Ren Benrong, the Han embroidery master.

  Han embroidery is a national-level intangible cultural heritage. Master Ren Benrong aged 79 is a typical provincial-level inheritor of the “intangible heritage”, whose Tanhualing studio was once called “a tiny embroidery museum”.

  The 28-year-old Huang Xiaofang told reporters that prior her taking Master Ren Benrong as her teacher to learn Han embroidery she had worked in marketing. “I’ve always loved drawing ever since I was little. After learning Han embroidery I fell in love with this ancient technique. ”

  It is learned that Han embroidery only employs natural materials, for instance its embroidery cloth and threads are made of real silk, and even the colors on the embroidery threads come from natural dye-stuff. Huang Xiaofang added that “Han embroidery is best sewn on real silk.”

  Madam Zhang, new house owner at the Changqing Residential Community, made the special trip taking her daughter to watch the “intangible heritage” performance. She said that she was fond of cross stitching herself in her spare time and was truly amazed by the super high level of artistry and the sense of historical heritage of the Han embroidery after watching the performance. “You take a look at the colors, and the exquisite stitching skills. It took my breath away. Watching her performing here, I feel like I time-travelled back to ancient times.”

  Gourds pyrography by public transportation worker appeals to young people

  During site demonstration, Hu Junfang’s performance of gourd pyrography aroused the interests of the audience.

  51-year-old Hu Junfang had worked in Wuhan’s public transportation system before her early retirement. In March 2005, the newly laid-off was captivated by a landscape pyrography in the Museum of Arts and Crafts, and started considering wood broad pyrography. In September 2007, Hu Junfang began learning about gourds and found that pyrography worked better on gourd shells. She said that “Gourd is one of the auspicious items for the Chinese people because gourds have many seeds in them implying many offspring and blessings. Besides it is also a natural piece of artwork in itself.”

  The smooth exterior of a gourd avoids excessive burn marks. To enhance graphic effect, after numerous tests Hu Junfang has self-created the shallow carving technique and scraping technique, which create a more three-dimensional visual.

  On the 9th, Hu Junfang brought gourd pyrography works including ornaments of varying sizes, and exquisite grasshopper cages. Zhao Yun, 22 years old, who has just started working, was captivated by gourd pyrography and said: “Never thought that gourds can be made into such refined artworks. I especially like this one with the peony flowers. It looks very Chinese.”

  Zhao Yun said that both she and her parents admire the “Chinese style” that their interior design was also Chinese in style, and she recommended that her parent should buy a gourd pyrography and place it in their living room as an ornament.

  “Versatile collage maker” puts together landscape painting out of used stamps

  Gao Lang, a 6-year-old boy, was led by his father to the sales center of the Changqing Residential Community. He liked cotton candy making the best for it was both delicious and fun. After buying him a white cotton candy, his father took him to watch stamp collage performance, where he was more than happy to see used stamps cut into little pieces “turning into” landscape painting bookmarks.

  Yao Shaowu, the performing collage maker, works in the Wuhan Water Group, and is nicknamed the “versatile collage maker”. Given his background in the fine arts, even without pigment and brush, he can still create beautiful paintings using only scissors and paste with materials such as some shredded cloth, old newspaper, tree skin, pencil shavings and even stamps and butterfly wings.

  Although the tools and procedures may appear simple, Yao Shaowu has created decorously lifelike works of various patterns and types. Some of the best stamp collage and butterfly collage he created have not only been popular in China but have been collected by a number of Japanese art academies. Breaking away from the conventional graphic composition technique of the traditional Chinese realistic painting, Yao Shaowu’s stamp collage employs spreading and overlapping techniques, making the painting distinctively multi-dimensional and smoothly natural while appealingly preserving features unique to the stamps such as stamp perforations, face value, “China Post” logo, and date mark.

  National- and provincial-level “intangible heritage” inheritors show their skills together

  Apart from site demonstrations of folk artists, there were also fascinating artistic performances, including performances by Zhang Mingzhi, a national-level “intangible heritage” inheritor of Hubei drum, and by Gu Yaozong, a provincial-level “intangible heritage” inheritor of drama playing by a single-string bowed instrument.

  On the 9th, Zhang Mingzhi and his disciple Cai Wei performed before the audience Hubei drum accompanied Marriage of the Fairy Princess in Huangmei opera melody. It is understood that this funny version of Marriage of the Fairy Princess created in 2005 was Wuhan’s first “comic parody” of traditional theatrical drama. It not only incorporated Hubei drum with Huangmei opera, but also added “seasoning” of modern-styled witty language, creatively contributing to traditional theatrical drama.

  Many in the audience were pleasantly surprised that it was their first time watching Hubei drum “grafted onto” Huangmei opera, but they felt it was “pretty natural”.

  Gu Yaozong, the provincial-level “intangible heritage” inheritor of drama playing by a single-string bowed instrument, performed three programs: aria Zhidou from modern Peking opera Shajiabang, Taiwan ballad A Little Birdie, and selections of Says Who Women not As Good As Man from the Yu Opera Hua Mulan.

  The single-string bowed instrument is played using only one bow, one string and one finger, with the left hand nimbly pressing the string at different positions, thus producing a sweet and agreeable sound and a resonant tone. Building on the basic techniques of three-stringed bowed instruments, drama playing by a single-string bowed instrument has developed singing methods for various types of roles in traditional Chinese operas including Peking opera, Han opera, Chu opera and Huangmei opera. Gu Yaozong has been hailed as the master of “an exclusive artistic technique” and “putting up an entire performance using a single string”.

  After his performance, the audience praised highly of Gu Yaozong playing aria Zhidou from the modern Peking opera Shajiabang, where he wittily played three different roles. The other two programs were also skillfully lifelike.

  Enjoy shadow puppetry at Changqing Residential Community on Saturday

  On November 16th, the third site event of serial events of “Pay homage to Intangible Cultural Heritage China Tour ∙ Changqing Heritage in Memorial of Intangible Cultural Heritage Relics” will be held at the sales center situated at the central park of the Changqing Residential Community as well as at the K11 Art Village, where fascinating programs will be performed including site demonstrations by four folk artists and national-level “intangible heritage” Han opera performance.

  It is reported that the four folk art programs attending this event would include paper cutting, bamboo carving, cotton candy making and caricature.

  Paper cutting and bamboo carving are both municipal-level “intangible heritage” projects. Shen Songbai, the municipal-level “intangible heritage” inheritor, hailed as “Paper-cutting Shen”, is the one and only “Eight Masters of the River City” awarded the title of “Artisan of Chinese Folk Arts” by the UNESCO. Xu Haiqing, the bamboo carving performer, who had spent two years carving on a bamboo trunk about 20 centimeters long and whose work “Sack Rat”, skillfully lifelike, was exhibited at the Hubei Pavilion during the Expo.

  Among all the artistic performances, Han opera, the national-level “intangible heritage” project, was the most fascinating. Han opera is a local theatrical genre of symmetrical singing methods with many varieties featuring the two major systematic tunes of Xipi and Erhuang in traditional Chinese drama. Han opera had an enormously large list of plays which was said to total 800. Currently, there remain only 650-odd plays, among which around 300 plays based on historical incidents and folk legends are rather well-received. Han opera had affected and catalyzed the birth of Peking opera and had by varying degrees affected other local traditional Chinese theatrical genres such as Sichuan opera, Yunnan opera, Guilin opera, Hunan opera, Cantonese opera and Jiangxi opera throughout the historical development of Chinese operas. Disciple of Han opera master Chen Bohua will perform at Changqing Residential Community on Saturday.

  In addition, there will also be shadow puppetry, magic and dance performances. Some performers are members of the Changqing Residential Community Art Troupe. It is learned that Changqing Residential Community on one hand continuously continued to create comfortable urban living spaces and on the other hand committed itself to support the development of art organizations so as to improve mass spiritual and cultural awareness of the community, thus promoting and building a fine urban eco-environment for arts and culture. Founded in 2001, the Changqing Residential Community Art Troupe is comprised of dance troupe, chorus, folk music troupe, theatrical drama troupe, as well as gong and drum troupe. It was given gold awards at “Chutian Stars Award” and at Macau “Golden Lotus” Cup Art Grand Prix for the middle aged and elderly people. It has staged performances and attended exchange events on many occasions in countries such as Malaysia and Hungary at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture.

  “Wuhan ‘Intangible Heritage’ Art and Culture Exhibition” continues at the K11 Art Village of Changqing Residential Community. In the 200-odd exhibiting items, 50 items are typical artworks of national-, provincial- and municipal-level “intangible heritage” inheritors, featuring works of Han embroidery, paper cutting, ship model woodcarving, bamboo carving and traditional natural dye, among which are some exceptionally exquisite pieces such as the long-scroll paper cutting of “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” by “Paper-cutting Shen” and the Han embroidery of “Five Blessings at Plum Blossom”.

  The exhibition will close on November 30th, and free admission can be collected at the sales center at the central park of the Changqing Residential Community.

  According to its organizer, the fascinating site performances as well as the gathering and exhibition of “intangible heritage” works are not only a grand feast of Chinese traditional folk culture but are also conducive to young people learning and understanding traditional Chinese culture.

  Hubei phoenix culture blends with Tai Chi diagram of Wudang Mountains

  Auspicious tripartite phoenix sculpture settles down in Changqing Residential Community

  It is learned yesterday that in the “New World∙ Urban Heritage—Pay homage to Intangible Cultural Heritage China Tour” Wuhan Roadshow Feature Event of “Changqing Heritage in Memorial of Intangible Cultural Heritage Relics”, the auspicious tripartite phoenix image stood out from five competing entries as the best work and it was also the most popular in online voting.

  According to Gu Jing, public art PhD of the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, deputy dean of the Arts Institute of Guizhou Normal University, and one of the designers of the sculpture, Wudang Wushu with its origin in Wudang Mountains in Hubei province is of distinctive Taoist cultural characteristics and is a natural combination of Kongfu and health preserving methods, incorporating profound cultural deposits of traditional Wushu as well as masterly scientific reasons. Inspired by the Phoenix Culture and the legend of the “Nine-headed bird” deeply rooted in the Hubei culture, the sculpture adopted the theme of the image of a phoenix, and incorporated the essence of the Tai Chi diagram from Wushu of Hubei’s Wudang Mountains, creating a tripartite sculptural image implying a nine-head phoenix.

  Designers drew inspiration from Wudang Wushu and were reaffirmed by Wuhan “intangible heritage” experts. Meanwhile, experts suggested that the element of phoenix could be added given the close connection between the “nine-head bird” and the Hubei province.

  “Nine-head bird flying in heaven, Hubei fellows thriving on earth” is a nationally widespread catchphrase, which implies that he Hubei people are as smart as the nine-head bird known for its vitality and tenacity. On both historical and contemporary terms, Hubei has taken education seriously and has brought forth large numbers of outstanding figures such as Qu Yuan from Zigui, Songyu from Zhongxiang, the three Yuan brothers from Gong’an, Luyu from Jingling, Cao Yu from Qianjiang, and Li Shizhen from Huanggang, as well as Li Siguang, Wen Yiduo and Dong Biwu.

  Gu Jing said that “we heard the suggestions from Wuhan experts, and incorporated Hubei phoenix culture with Wudang Tai Chi diagram to fully show the intelligence and vital tenacity of the Hubei people.”

  Further readings:

  Han embroidery is most popular in Jingzhou, Jingmen, Wuhan, Xiantao, and Qianjiang areas in the Hubei province. Works of Han embroidery have been repeatedly exhibited in Beijing and have been very well-received in international exhibitions held in places such as Paris and Warsaw. In 1910 and 1915, Han embroidery won gold awards in the Southeast Asian Games and in the Panama International Exposition. Han embroidery was among the second batch of the national-level intangible cultural heritage list released by the State Council. In 2013, Wuhan Han Embroidery Museum, the first private Han embroidery museum in Hubei province, was opened in the Jiangxinyuan Community of Hangyang.

  Gourd pyrography also known as xylopyrography or fire painting refers to the painting technique of creating burn marks on objects by pressing against it heated electric soldering iron. Patterns created on the exterior of gourd shells can be preserved permanently and are good for collection. While paying attention to heat control and strength altering, pyrographers also need to understand that “artistic conception should be formed prior application so that the artwork takes shape upon the first touch”. Pyrography employs Chinese painting techniques such as drawing, inscribing, dotting, staining, scraping and line drawing, and is capable of creating rich dimensions and hues. It looks rather three-dimensional and is similar to brown sketch and lithograph. Therefore, pyrography not only maintains the national style of traditional Chinese paintings but is also able to achieve the realistic preciseness of western paintings.

  Stamp collage is a painting-like artwork created by pasting stamps of various patterns and colors on white silk through cutting and combination. Stamp collage is rather popular in Wuhan, and is also produced in places such as Shanghai and Suzhou. First created by Wu Jiang in the 1920s, the Wuhan stamp collage was made by cutting and arranging hundreds and even thousands of stamps according to their different themes and shapes for the desired colors and patterns by following patterns previously designed on plain-colored silk. Throughout his lifetime, Wu Jiang created over one thousand stamp collages featuring bookmarks, New Year cards as well as large-, medium- and small-sized collage works, and time and again he attended the National Arts and Crafts Exhibition through which his works were exported.

  http://cjrb.cjn.cn/html/2013-11/13/content_5249814.htm