Hu Xinming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Hu Xinming, Male, Han, from Fengxiang, Shaanxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Clay Sculpture (Ⅶ-47). The tradition is documented in Fengxiang, Shaanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Clay Sculpture in Fengxiang, Shaanxi: Fengxiang painted clay sculpture is a folk art of Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province, known locally as 'nihuo' (clay wares). In recent years Fengxiang painted clay sculpture has been distributed mainly in Liuying village of Chengguan town and the surrounding area. Legend has it that in the Ming dynasty six battalions of troops were stationed here, and the soldiers later settled as local residents; some of them returned to the pottery-making trade they had followed before enlistment, mixing and pinching the highly sticky local 'banban' earth into clay figures, casting them in molds and painting the figurines, which they then took to sell at the great temple fairs. Local people buy clay sculptures to keep in their homes, using them to pray for sons, protect life, ward off evil, guard the dwelling and bring in good fortune.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1965 in Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province. He was cited as a literary and art worker of both virtue and art in the third national selection of outstanding young and middle-aged workers, and is an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. In 1976 he began learning the Fengxiang painted clay sculpture technique from his parents. From 1983 to 1985 he was engaged as a designer and creator at the arts and crafts factory of Jintai District, Baoji City, after which he worked at home on traditional clay sculpture. The painted clay sculptures he creates comprise more than one hundred and twenty types in over thirty sizes. His works have plain, concise and graceful, expressive forms, with bright and festive colours full of folk flavour. He improved traditional materials and innovated clay sculpture moulds, solving the problem of Fengxiang clay sculpture being easily damaged and raising both production efficiency and product quality. His works have been exhibited and have won awards many times at home and abroad; representative works include Twelve Zodiac Animals and Sitting Tiger. Within the documented technical tradition of Clay Sculpture in Fengxiang, Shaanxi: Fengxiang County lies in the western part of the Guanzhong Plain; pottery funerary figurines made of clay have been unearthed from tombs of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and of the Han and Tang dynasties within its territory, testifying to the long history of its clay-sculpture craft. It was through these that the painted clay figurines of Liuying village, released from the mold (tuotai), became famous, and they have been handed down from generation to generation, becoming distinctive masterpieces of Chinese folk art and enjoying renown at home and abroad. Fengxiang painted clay sculpture has three main types: the first is clay toys, mostly animal forms, frequently modeling the twelve zodiac animals; the second is hanging plaques, including opera masks, tiger heads, ox heads, lion heads, the qilin bringing a son, and the Eight Immortals crossing the sea; the third is standing figures, chiefly images of characters from folk legends and historical stories. Fengxiang clay sculpture comprises more than 170 patterns and varieties, ranging from giant crouching tigers half a person's height and hanging tiger-face plaques down to rabbits and lions only a few inches square. Black clay, white powder and hide glue are used in its production; the form is fixed by molds, the modeling is concise and exaggerated, the ornamentation lavish and dense, the colors gloriously festive, and the shapes charmingly naive, giving the craft a distinctive place among the many folk clay sculptures of China. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The “clay goods” of Liuying village": Locally called “clay goods”, the craft centres on Liuying village, said to have been settled by Ming soldiers who returned to their pre-army pottery trade. "Toys, wall plaques and standing figures": Three types: animal toys mostly of the zodiac, wall plaques such as tiger heads and the Eight Immortals, and standing figures from legend and history. "Local clay, whiting and hide glue": The clay figures are built on very sticky local soil with dark clay, whiting and hide glue, mould-formed and brightly painted. "The clay horse and seated tiger": The first-batch national inheritor Hu Shen makes archaic, boldly exaggerated and vividly coloured work, including the clay horse and seated tiger.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Clay Sculpture (Fengxiang Clay Sculpture), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Hu Xinming · National Representative Bearer Archive