Zhao Wei
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Zhao Wei, Male, Han, from Baodi, Tianjin, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Hulu Making Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-265). The tradition is documented in Baodi, Tianjin. Within the regional tradition and school record of Hulu Making Craftsmanship in Baodi, Tianjin: The Tianjin gourd-making craft centres on the Zhao family of the Baodi area, carrying on the old court methods of mould-forming, and the craft later spread to various places in Beijing and Hebei. The mould-forming stakes handed down in the Zhao family date from the Qing dynasty to the present day; more than 1,300 of them survive, along with more than 300 varieties of gourd. More than one line is transmitted: mould-forming is the most complicated, pyrography uses incense sticks and branding irons to draw brown patterns, and impressing uses blunt-edged agate to press out relief. The craft has now been passed down to the fourth generation. The craft of making decorative gourds took shape in the Tang dynasty and has a history of more than a thousand years to the present day.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Zhao Wei is anchored in the documented technical standards of Hulu Making Craftsmanship in Baodi, Tianjin. Within the documented technical tradition of Hulu Making Craftsmanship in Baodi, Tianjin: The gourd-making craft is found in many parts of the country, and the Tianjin gourd-making craft is one of its representative examples. In terms of the natural environment, Tianjin lies at the lower reaches of nine rivers and close to the Bohai Sea, with varied soil types suitable for growing gourds; in terms of its human setting, Tianjin is a major commercial centre in northern China and also the centre of northern curio and collectible culture. All this provided favourable conditions for the development of the Tianjin gourd-making craft and related industries. The Tianjin gourd-making craft refers chiefly to the Zhao family's gourd craft: by techniques such as constricting, mould-forming, pyrography, carving and painting, gourds that are natural to begin with are made to grow exactly as desired and become marvellously wrought art treasures. The craft requires 36 process steps, mainly mould-forming, pyrographic drawing, impressing and colour painting, with mould-forming predominant. Mould-forming means placing a growing gourd into a mould carved with intaglio designs; as the gourd grows it gradually fills the space inside the mould, and once the gourd has lignified it is taken out, whereupon the incised designs of the mould appear on the gourd in relief. It is the most complicated and the most technically demanding part of the gourd-making craft. Mould-formed decorative gourds include scholar's desk items, tea-ceremony utensils and incense-ceremony utensils, as well as snuff bottles, display pieces and cricket containers. These works are strict in composition, well proportioned in layout, clear in grain and exquisite in workmanship. Pyrography is a technique that uses incense sticks, branding irons and the like to leave brown patterns on the surface of the gourd. Colour painting is a technique that fills in colours on the basis of the pyrographic drawing. Impressing is a technique in which agate, jade or ox horn is ground to a blunt edge and used to press, burnish, squeeze and push the gourd surface until patterns in the manner of relief appear. Carving is a technique that produces relief or openwork effects by cutting, chiefly openwork carving, pierced carving and relief carving. In Tianjin the gourd-growing and processing craft transmitted in the Zhao family has a history of at least a hundred years. The Tianjin gourd-making craft follows the old court methods of mould-forming gourds and, on that basis, keeps refining and developing them. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival Records of Process Steps": The craft requires 36 process steps, mainly mould-forming, pyrographic drawing, impressing and colour painting, with mould-forming predominant.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The craft requires 36 process steps, mainly mould-forming, pyrographic drawing, impressing and colour painting, with mould-forming predominant. Mould-forming means placing a growing gourd into a mould carved with intaglio designs; as the gourd grows it gradually fills the space inside the mould, and once the gourd has lignified it is taken out, whereupon the incised designs of the mould appear on the gourd in relief. It is the most complicated and the most technically demanding part of the gourd-making craft.
Core Technique I
The gourd-making craft is found in many parts of the country, and the Tianjin gourd-making craft is one of its representative examples.
Core Technique II
In terms of the natural environment, Tianjin lies at the lower reaches of nine rivers and close to the Bohai Sea, with varied soil types suitable for growing gourds;
Core Technique III
in terms of its human setting, Tianjin is a major commercial centre in northern China and also the centre of northern curio and collectible culture.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Zhao Wei was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Hulu Making Craftsmanship, with Baodi, Tianjin as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Hulu Making Craftsmanship in Baodi, Tianjin: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Baodi, Tianjin as its declared area, and Hululu (Tianjin) Culture Chuanbo Co., Ltd. as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The craft of making decorative gourds took shape in the Tang dynasty and has a history of more than a thousand years to the present day.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhao Wei | Baodi, Tianjin | — | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。