Li Chengxiu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Chengxiu, Female, Han, from Lan, Shanxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Dough Figurines (Ⅶ-53). The tradition is documented in Lan, Shanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dough Figurines in Lan, Shanxi: By color, Lanxian dough modeling falls into two major categories: colored and plain (uncolored). Plain flour offerings are further divided, by size and mode of presentation, into hanging offerings (diaogong) and displayed offerings (baigong). Hanging offerings are small, their subjects chiefly small animals such as swallows, frogs, caterpillars, and snakes. Displayed offerings are larger, generally falling into types such as crawling children (pahaihai), luohan figures (luohanhan), dough tigers, and dough lions, with simple, bold forms. Thanks to the annual offering festival, Lanxian dough modeling has a deep and broad popular base locally. 'Shaping the heart for the offering' — Lanxian dough modeling is an important offering in the folk activities of the Lanxian people, such as seasonal festivals and life-cycle rituals. It carries the plain, sincere emotions of the local people: it both expresses their wishes for blessings and good fortune and promotes the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty; it strengthens community cultural identity, and it has socio-cultural, aesthetic, and folkloric value that cannot be underestimated. Lanxian dough modeling has a long history: murals related to flour flowers (mianhua) were discovered in a Yuan-dynasty tomb in Lanxian County, and the Gazetteer of Lanxian County, compiled during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, records that 'Lanxian's winters are long, and its people delight in steaming flowers.'

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

From childhood she was passionately fond of paper-cutting, embroidery, dough figurine making and other handicrafts; in her early teens she began learning dough figurine making from her maternal grandmother and her mother, and she continued to model in dough into her later years. Her creative inspiration came from ancient myths and legends and from bold borrowing from, and experimentation with, a variety of traditional crafts, and she was particularly skilled at making dough figures. Her works are simple, archaic and expressive in style, inheriting the characteristics of the local traditional dough figurine making. Within the documented technical tradition of Dough Figurines in Lan, Shanxi: Lanxian dough modeling is a folk flour-flower art in which wheat flour is steamed and shaped to express wishes for blessings and good fortune; it is used mainly in various folk customs, seasonal festivals, and wedding and funeral rites. Lanxian dough modeling is distributed across Lanxian County, Shanxi Province, and neighboring counties. A folk legend is also associated with Lanxian dough modeling. It is said that in North Street of Lancheng there was a filial daughter-in-law who, in seeking a cure for her mother-in-law, underwent eighty-one ordeals. When Guanyin Bodhisattva learned of her good deeds, she was deeply moved and transformed her into the White-Robed Great Being (Baiyi Dashi), devoted to healing the common people. The White-Robed Great Being lived up to her mission, overcoming all manner of difficulties to aid those in distress and to practice medicine in the countryside throughout her life. To commemorate the White-Robed Great Being, the people of Lancheng hold an offering festival on the nineteenth day of the second lunar month each year, carrying dough-modeled offerings on raised tables to lay them before the Temple of the White-Robed Great Being. The display of offerings stretches as long as two kilometers, with several hundred varieties vying in splendor — a magnificent spectacle. The production process of Lanxian dough modeling is complex, with strict requirements governing every stage from kneading the dough and shaping to steaming, inserting the floral elements, and coloring. The technique is consummate and the methods varied, making full use of finger modeling while also deftly employing tools such as scissors, combs, bamboo skewers, cutting knives, and chopsticks, along with auxiliary materials such as red dates, wheat grains, gaoshan huahuang (a wild-flower seed used in Lanxian folk practice), and red beans. Its shaping methods number in the dozens — rolling, pinching, pressing with a rod, patting, pulling, and more. Its more distinctive technical characteristics are the combination of raw and steamed dough and of leavened and unleavened dough; the skill is ingenious, producing an artistic effect of overall exaggeration and distortion with delicately lifelike detail in the parts. Colored flour offerings, with their brilliant colors and beautiful forms, are an important element of Lanxian dough-modeling offering festivals. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Process Steps": The production process of Lanxian dough modeling is complex, with strict requirements governing every stage from kneading the dough and shaping to steaming, inserting the floral elements, and coloring. The technique is consummate and the methods varied, making full use of finger modeling while also deftly employing tools such as scissors, combs, bamboo skewers, cutting knives, and chopsticks, along with auxiliary materials such as red dates, wheat grains, gaoshan huahuang (a wild-flower seed used in Lanxian folk practice), and red beans.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in June 1942 and deceased in December 2017, she was a native of Lan County, Shanxi Province. A national representative bearer of dough flower work (Lan County dough figurines), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Her award-winning works over the years include Jujube Mountain (Zao Shan), Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl (Er Long Xi Zhu), The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea (Ba Xian Guo Hai), Journey to the West (Xi You Ji), An Immortal Riding a Crane (Xian Ren Kua He) and Flying Cranes Dancing (Fei He Qi Wu). For years she taught her craft openly at various folk art festivals, and she also used the platform of the Lan County vocational middle school to bring dough figurine art into the classroom; for students fond of folk art she offered free classes in flexible forms such as regular sessions and short-term training, doing her utmost to cultivate successors for the art of dough figurine making.

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. Li Chengxiu · National Representative Bearer Archive