Bamboo Carving
01 · Historical Records
The fanhuang (applied-veneer) technique was already popular in bamboo-craft workshops in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang and Hunan regions in the mid-Qing Dynasty. Huangyan began creating its local fanhuang bamboo carving in the ninth year of the Tongzhi era of the Qing Dynasty (1870); it is one of the earliest regions in China to develop fanhuang bamboo carving, and one of the regions where the complete process of this handicraft is most fully preserved today.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Huangyan fanhuang bamboo carving is a traditional folk craft of the Huangyan area of Zhejiang Province; it was first created in the ninth year of the Tongzhi era of the Qing Dynasty (1870) and has a history of more than a hundred years. Huangyan is one of the earliest regions in China to develop fanhuang bamboo carving, and one of the regions where the complete process of this handicraft is most fully preserved today. Fanhuang bamboo carving is named for carving on the veneer surface of the inner wall of moso bamboo; it is also known as “tiehuang” (applied veneer) or “fanhuang” (turned veneer). The technique removes the green skin from moso bamboo to obtain the veneer; after boiling, pressing, planing, and drying processes, the veneer is glued or inlaid onto wooden bodies or bamboo strips and then sanded smooth. With decorative materials such as mahogany added, it is made into various craft objects — vases, tea caddies, brush pots, table screens, and elegant fans — on which landscapes, figures, and flowers and birds are then carved, yielding finished products with a smooth, glossy, ivory-like color and luster. Low relief and line carving are the main decorative techniques of fanhuang wares; the lines are fine amid bold, dense and sparse in combination, capable of expressing different pictorial levels on a veneer less than half a millimeter thick — exceedingly refined. Huangyan fanhuang bamboo carving has a distinct national style and strong local character; within China it can be called a unique art. In making fanhuang, retaining the bamboo node when turning out the veneer and carving with a triangular-section knife are techniques unique to Huangyan fanhuang bamboo carving.
Archival Records of Process Steps
Huangyan is one of the earliest regions in China to develop fanhuang bamboo carving, and one of the regions where the complete process of this handicraft is most fully preserved today.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huangyan fanhuang takes workshops and craft factories within the city as its transmission bases; together with Baoqing fanhuang of Shaoyang, Hunan, and the bamboo veneer of Jiang'an, Sichuan, it belongs to the same fanhuang family while each has its own distinct character. Artisans remove the green skin from moso bamboo, keeping the veneer, and use a triangular-section knife to carve low relief and line engraving on the veneer surface. The Huangyan Fanhuang Research Institute of Taizhou City, founded in 1998, has become the principal institution for transmission and research, and artisans such as Luo Qisong take on apprentices and teach the craft.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With the development of the market economy and changes in people's attitudes toward employment, Huangyan fanhuang bamboo carving has fallen into an awkward situation in which veteran artisans are advanced in years while young people are unwilling to learn and inherit the craft; it urgently needs vigorous support from the relevant quarters for its protection and transmission. Luo Qisong (from the official archive of associated inheritors): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1935, a native of Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. Senior Arts and Crafts Artist and Master of Arts and Crafts of Zhejiang Province. Through many years of exploration, he inherited and developed the art of fanhuang carving, forming a style that is graceful, beautiful, and exquisite; his works are deeply prized by collectors in China and abroad. His works have won more than fifty gold, silver, and bronze prizes at or above the provincial level, and some have been collected by the China National Museum of Arts and Crafts, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, and other institutions. In 1998 he founded the Huangyan Fanhuang Research Institute of Taizhou City and serves as its director; alongside fanhuang bamboo-carving creation, theoretical research on the craft, and external exchange and exhibitions, he actively takes on apprentices and teaches. Representative inheritor of bamboo carving (Huangyan fanhuang bamboo carving), a project of the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Cengjiantan 01-0107
- Qiao Jinhong 03-1248
- Xu Bingfang 03-1249
- Luo Qisong 03-1250
- Zhang Zongfan 04-1790
- Wang Wei 05-2619
- Hong Jianhua 05-2620
- He Huayi 05-2621
- Baijianren
- Gu Qiwang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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