Xu Qianshen

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1956 he was admitted to the Quanzhou Arts and Crafts Cooperative, where he studied under the master Li Yaobao. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lantern Art in Quanzhou, Fujian: Their main area of distribution is the Licheng and Fengze districts of Quanzhou City, extending to the neighboring Jinjiang, Hui'an, Nan'an, and Yongchun counties. Quanzhou festival lanterns have a long history and distinctive local characteristics; they are representative of the festival lanterns of southern China.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in June 1942 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. In making flower lanterns he values tradition and is especially skilled in frameless glass-silk flower lanterns. From design and drafting to painted decoration he has his own distinctive approach; he innovates boldly in the use of new materials and employs electrical, lighting and pneumatic technologies to give the lanterns movement. His lanterns are graceful in form, finely carved, fluent in line, harmonious in composition and durable. He works actively at mentoring and hands-on transmission so that the traditional craft is carried on. Within the documented technical tradition of Lantern Art in Quanzhou, Fujian: Quanzhou festival lanterns are world-renowned for their unique paper-engraving and needle-pricking techniques and their skill of inlaying glass threads (liaosi). When making the traditional Quanzhou colored-ribbon (caizha) lantern, artists first bind bamboo strips with paper twists into the lantern's frame, then spray water on the cut paper or silk cloth and stretch it tight over the frame, paste on decorative borders, paint in designs, and hang silk tassels - and the caizha lantern is complete. The paper-engraved (kezhi) lantern technique appeared later; its originator was Li Yaobao (1892-1983), the Quanzhou master of paper engraving. All the patterns of the lantern are designed by the maker himself and then engraved on cardboard with a graver. The paper-engraved lantern uses no frame; it is assembled entirely from cardboard panels engraved with the patterns. Later, Li Yaobao inlaid glass threads into these openwork patterns, creating the exquisite paper-engraved glass-thread lantern. The patterns of this lantern are all densely pricked with steel needles on drawing paper; the light shines through the pinholes, appearing crystal-clear and dazzling. Once flourishing, the making of Quanzhou festival lanterns has now shrunk markedly in its area of distribution, and the number of practitioners has dropped sharply; lantern making has become a 'poor trade' whose sales are strongly tied to particular seasons. Under these circumstances, the production process has been simplified, skills have been lost, and urgent rescue and protection are needed. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Tying and stretching the coloured lantern": For a tied lantern the maker binds bamboo splints with paper twine, then stretches dampened paper or silk over the frame before adding borders, painting and tassels. "Li Yaobao and the cut-paper glass-silk lantern": The cut-paper lantern was created by Li Yaobao; its patterns are cut from card with no frame at all, and later he inset glass threads into the openwork. "Light through pierced holes": Cai Binghan created it in 1978: the pattern is pricked densely with a steel needle so that the light seeps through and the lantern glitters. "Li Zhuqin's Embroidered Ball and Two Dragons": Born in 1941, Li Zhuqin designed over a hundred cut-paper patterns and in 2004 edited her father's cut-paper anthology.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Lantern Art (Quanzhou Flower Lanterns), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. His glass-silk flower lanterns have taken part in many exhibitions and won awards, and have travelled with exhibitions of traditional Quanzhou lanterns to Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, the United States and Canada.

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. Xu Qianshen · National Representative Bearer Archive