Gu Yeliang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of eight he learned lantern making from his father, and later took the veteran lantern artist Li Guisheng as his teacher. Within the regional tradition and school record of Qinhuai Lantern Fair in Nanjing, Jiangsu: Historically the Qinhuai Lantern Fair was mainly distributed along the Qinhuai River basin in Nanjing; after the twentieth century it became concentrated mainly in the Fuzimiao (Confucius Temple) area, and it has now expanded to the five-li stretch on the eastern side of the ten-li Qinhuai. The core area includes Fuzimiao, Zhanyuan Garden, Egret Isle Park, the Wu Jingzi Former Residence Exhibition Hall, the Jiangnan Examination Hall Exhibition Hall, the Zhonghua Gate Barbican Exhibition Hall, and the area along Zhonghua Road, Pingjiangfu Road, Zhanyuan Road, and Pipa Road. The history of the Qinhuai Lantern Fair is long and deep; according to documentary records, as early as the Southern Dynasties period the capital Nanjing already had the custom of holding traditional Lantern Festival fairs, whose splendor was regarded as the finest in the whole country.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in December 1962 in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. From 2001 he organized the Nanjing Confucius Temple lantern fair for eight consecutive years. He frequently gives lectures and classes in primary and secondary schools and in colleges and universities. He has travelled to more than forty countries for cultural exchange, promoting Qinhuai lantern culture. Within the documented technical tradition of Qinhuai Lantern Fair in Nanjing, Jiangsu: The Qinhuai Lantern Fair is a folk cultural activity historically transmitted in the Nanjing region, also known as the Jinling Lantern Fair; it is held mainly during the period from Chinese New Year to the Lantern Festival each year. Since the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang promoted Lantern Festival activities in Nanjing in the early Ming dynasty, Nanjing gradually came to enjoy the reputation that the lanterns of Qinhuai are the finest under heaven, and the painted barges hung with lanterns along the Qinhuai River — commonly called lantern boats — became renowned throughout the world. In order to pray for favorable weather, family happiness, and peace under heaven, the people of the Nanjing region, during the Qinhuai Lantern Fair, continuously create through making lanterns, hanging lanterns, viewing lanterns, playing with lanterns, and making merry with lanterns the beautiful conception of ten thousand stars flooding the heavenly thoroughfares and vast squares churning with human tides, expressing their good wishes and their aspirations in life. Other folk cultural and artistic categories that shine in tandem with it — such as Nanjing paper-cutting, diabolo, rope knots, carving, shadow puppetry, beast dances, yangge, and stilt-walking — have likewise developed rapidly, in turn exerting a positive influence on folk culture and folk activities in other parts of China. Native and imported cultural and artistic elements of Nanjing run through the fair, constituting its artistic substance. Each year's Qinhuai Lantern Fair attracts numerous visitors from home and abroad; while appreciating the fair and experiencing the folk culture of Jinling, they also promote the economic development of the region. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Making, hanging, viewing, playing and livening the lanterns": Lantern making, hanging and viewing form the successive stages: frames are built and papered, lanterns go up along the Qinhuai, then the all-night play begins. "Lantern boats on the ten-li Qinhuai": Painted boats hung with lanterns on the river became the emblem of the fair, pairing water-borne lights with the stalls ashore. "Praying for fair weather and peace": Residents made, hung and played with lanterns to pray for good weather, family harmony and peace, turning the fair into a shared act of devotion. "The Lu school: form, colour and accessibility": Inheritor Lu Youchang, who began making lanterns in 1954, sums up his craft as form, colour and accessibility.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of the Qinhuai Lantern Fair, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. His Cloud Dragon Lantern, made in 2004, won a silver award at the first Jiangsu Provincial Da Afu Awards, and his Qinhuai Children Celebrate Spring, made in 2005, won a silver award at the Shanhua Award of Chinese Folk Literature and Art. In 2013 he received the honour of a cultural talent of the Five Ones Batch programme, and in 2017 he was named a Face of Nanjing and a Three Leads celebrity among Jiangsu provincial rural talents.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Gu Yeliang · National Representative Bearer Archive