Lantern Art
01 · Historical Records
Tradition has it that the boneless lantern began in the Tang dynasty, commonly called the "Tang lantern," and that the technique matured in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1996, the Xianju needled boneless lantern won the Gold Prize of Chinese Folk Art Works and the gold prize of the Fourth Macao International Art Expo. In 2000, Xianju County was named a "Home of Chinese Folk Art" by the Ministry of Culture.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Xianju needled boneless lantern is named for its surface patterns, which are pierced with holes made by knife-chiseling and needle-pricking, and for its body, which has no ribs. It originated in Potan, Xianju County, Zhejiang Province, and later spread to the townships of Hengxi, Baita, Tianshi, Xiage, and Zhuxi. The Xianju needled boneless lantern integrates painting, embroidery, and architectural art; its forms are distinctive, its sense of space strong, its facade variations rich, and its structure fine and vivid — a masterpiece of traditional women's needlework. The patterns on the lantern surface are formed by light passing through the holes pierced by knife and needle, leaving shadows; its modeling method is also unique — not a single rib is used in the whole body, which is instead made by folding, joining, and gluing paper lantern panels of different sizes and shapes.
Patterns pierced with a needle
Its patterns are not painted but pricked with a fine needle, the candlelight showing through the holes as a picture.
Folding and gluing the boneless panels
No frame is used at all: paper panels of differing size and shape are folded and glued into the lantern body.
Baipu town and the villages of Xianju
It arose in Baipu and spread to Hengxi, Baita, Tianshi, Xiage and Zhuxi; there the lanterns serve as gifts and as house decoration.
Li Xiangman reviving the Tang lantern
Told by an octogenarian in 1983 of the old Tang lantern, Li began rescuing the craft in 1984 and brought back a technique lost for over fifty years.
Wang Rulan's watercolour decoration
Born in 1937, Wang has run a lantern exhibition hall on Baipu old street since 1985 and paints flowers, fish and insects in watercolour on the lamp faces.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Xianju locality, they are used both as gifts for presentation and as decoration for dwellings, and they occupy an important place in folk festival activities.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Single lanterns are outstanding in grace and bearing, and grouped lanterns are magnificent in momentum, giving them high aesthetic and ornamental value. The boneless lantern once had as many as eighty-plus varieties and designs; twenty-seven have now been rescued and revived, and further in-depth excavation and protection work remains to be done. Li Xiangman (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1944, from Xianju County, Zhejiang. In 1983 Li Xiangman learned from a man in his eighties that in the past the old town of Potan had a kind of lantern with a distinctive form, exquisite workmanship, and no ribs, which locals called the "Tang lantern" and traced to the Tang dynasty. In 1984 Li Xiangman began rescuing and excavating the Tang lantern and learned the technique of making it; through more than twenty years of effort, he brought the Tang lantern — lost for more than fifty years — back to brilliance. The Tang lantern's craft is unique: completing a single "needled boneless lantern" requires thirteen procedures; the whole lamp has not a single rib, being made entirely by pasting paper pieces pricked with various decorative patterns — its form graceful and elegantly classical. He is a representative inheritor of Lanterns (Xianju Lanterns), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the first batch. Wang Rulan (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): Female, Han ethnicity, born in August 1937, from Xianju County, Zhejiang Province. From 1985 to the present she has run a needled boneless lantern exhibition hall on the old street of Potan, transmitting the lantern-making craft. Carrying forward the finest traditions of the lantern, she has dedicated herself to the transmission, research, and development of Xianju lanterns, making improvements and innovations in form and decorative patterns, using watercolors to paint flowers, plants, fish, and insects, and strengthening the lanterns' artistic beauty. From October 2004 to April 2006, she was employed as a lantern performance artist at the Songcheng scenic area in Hangzhou. She is a representative inheritor of Lanterns (Xianju Lanterns), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth batch. Her works have won prizes many times in national competitions and exhibitions of all kinds.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Xiangman 01-0114
- Chen Weiyan 01-0115
- Li Zhuqin 01-0116
- Cai Binghan 01-0117
- Yang Zenggui 01-0118
- Zhang Jinpei 03-1260
- He Weifu 03-1261
- Chen Baihua 03-1262
- Deng Hui 03-1263
- Lin Hanbin 03-1264
- Yang Yurong 04-1793
- Ma Yuanliang 05-2631
- Wang Xiaowen 05-2632
- Wang Rulan 05-2633
- Hu Jinlong 05-2634
- Lin Shunkui 05-2635
- Xu Qianshen 05-2636
- Zhang Juntao 05-2637
- Zhang Shuqi 05-2638
- Liu Yaosheng 05-2639
- Li Banghua
- Chen Dizhen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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