Clay Sculpture
01 · Historical Records
The Miao clay whistle took shape in the 1930s and developed further in the 1980s.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Miao clay whistle is a hand-pinched clay children's toy created and developed by the elderly Miao artist Wu Guoqing (Miao name "Guimie") of Zhaiyong Village, Jiuzhou Town, Huangping County, Guizhou Province, on the basis of traditional pottery and clay figurines. The lower part of the whistle body retains a return-air hole, allowing it to produce a clear, crisp sound, and it is much loved by children. Wu Guoqing taught more than a hundred apprentices, and individual workshops making clay whistles are distributed across villages such as Feiyunya, Jiuzhou Town, and Chong'an Town in Huangping County; the craft has been transmitted for more than eighty years to the present. Clay whistles are made mainly by hand-pinching clay into shape, then firing at low temperature, applying painted decoration, and coating with clear varnish to produce the finished article. Huangping Miao clay whistles excel at modeling animals: every creature in nature is represented — those flying in the sky, walking on the earth, swimming in the water, or climbing in the trees — with more than four hundred animal forms in all. There are also composite works such as the "Twelve Zodiac Animals" and "Bullfighting," which use the amusing expressions of various animals to reflect life and convey feeling, demonstrating a high level of artistry. Taking mountains, rivers, and folk customs as their mental draft, the whistle artists absorb features of Miao cross-stitch embroidery and women's dress: first smoking the clay whistles over a wood fire into a jet-black base, then painting on that base with red, yellow, blue, white, green, purple, and other colors, so that the whistle body is bright and eye-catching yet not lacking in solidity — plain and dignified, natural and lively — richly achieving the color effects of cross-stitch embroidery, with both a strong breath of life and a distinct ethnic character. In modeling, the artists of Huangping Miao clay whistles do not rigidly adhere to the objective outward form of their subjects but skillfully capture and refine their expression and inner feeling, boldly employing exaggeration, distortion, and freehand techniques, and emphasizing the distinctive parts of the modeled object to highlight its features, so that every clay-whistle work unites form and spirit in a seamless whole, achieving the superb artistic effect of "the wonder lying between likeness and unlikeness." Under the impact of the market economy and foreign cultures, the production of Huangping Miao clay whistles has been greatly affected.
More than four hundred animal forms
The whistles specialise in animals of every kind, air, land, water and tree, over four hundred forms in all, plus composite zodiac and bullfight sets.
Smoke-blackened ground and embroidered colour
The body is smoked black over fire, then painted in bright colours that recall the embroidery of Miao textiles.
Wu Guoqing and Wang Dengshu
Created by Wu Guoqing, the form was passed to the national inheritor Wang Dengshu, who makes over a hundred styles and has exhibited widely.
Between likeness and unlikeness
Carvers reject strict likeness, distilling an animal's bearing and emphasising one telling feature to reach a fusion of form and spirit.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huangping Miao clay whistles are centered on Zhaiyong Village in Jiuzhou Town, with individual workshops producing whistles in villages such as Feiyunya, Jiuzhou Town, and Chong'an Town. The whistle was founded by the elderly Miao artist Wu Guoqing (Miao name "Guimie"), who taught more than a hundred apprentices, and the craft has been transmitted for more than eighty years to the present; artists take local clay and shape it by hand, then after low-temperature firing smoke it over a wood fire into a jet-black base, apply red, yellow, blue, white, green, purple, and other colors, and coat it with clear varnish, the color scheme borrowing from Miao cross-stitch embroidery and women's dress.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present only about a hundred people in Huangping County are able to make clay whistles; some artists have changed professions, and transmission and development face many difficulties. If it is not protected in time, this rare and excellent folk art risks being lost and dying out. Wang Dengshu (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): Male, Miao ethnicity, born in March 1968, from Huangping County, Guizhou Province. In his early teens he became a disciple of Wu Guoqing, a locally famous Miao clay-whistle maker, and soon became familiar with and fully mastered the techniques and essentials of making the Miao clay whistle. His works cover a wide range of subjects, with flexible and varied forms, bright and lively colors, and fine, graceful lines, displaying strong stylistic character and high artistic value for appreciation. His modeled Twelve Zodiac Animals pay special attention to the shaping of animal head features, with exaggerated forms in which shape is lightly suggested but spirit fully present, exquisite workmanship, a plain and lovely quality, and a strong ethnic character. His clay whistles number more than a hundred styles, and in recent years they have been exhibited many times in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and elsewhere. He is a representative inheritor of Clay Sculpture (Miao Clay Whistle), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yu Xianglian 01-0108
- Wang Nanxian 01-0109
- Hu Shen 01-0110
- Wang Xuefeng 01-0111
- Wu Yucheng 03-1251
- Wu Guangrang 03-1252
- Xu Xingguo 03-1253
- Yang Qihe 03-1254
- Nie Xiwei 04-1791
- Shuangyan 05-2622
- Zhu Wenqian 05-2623
- Xu Shuzhang 05-2624
- Wu Weiqing 05-2625
- Wang Dengshu 05-2626
- Hu Xinming 05-2627
- Yang Jianian 05-2628
- Liu Chengyin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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