Lantern Art
01 · Historical Records
As one of the important schools of traditional Chinese lantern art, Qinhuai lanterns objectively reflect the historical evolution of folk lanterns from fire of nature, to fire of daily life, to fire of ceremonial sacrifice, to fire of art.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qinhuai lanterns, also known as 'Jinling lanterns' or 'Nanjing lanterns', are among the most representative folk arts of the Nanjing area. They have a very long history; as early as the Eastern Jin period, written records of lanterns already appeared in this region. Qinhuai lanterns draw on the strengths of traditional Chinese arts such as paper-molding, painting, calligraphy, papercutting, shadow puppetry, embroidery, and sculpture, and in their making combine many craft techniques - carpentry, lacquering, colored painting, carving, clay sculpture, and knotting - to form their own technical character. In modern times Qinhuai lanterns have developed further in variety: besides traditional lanterns such as lotus lanterns and lion lanterns, a series of festival lantern works closely tied to the times have been introduced, such as ocean-going ships, carrier rockets, urban construction, and mountain forest scenery. As an important source of the Qin River - the mother river of Nanjing - Jurong City in Jiangsu Province has historically had folkways very close to those of Nanjing. Heqiao Village in Jurong, on the bank of the Qin River, adjoins Nanjing; the local custom of making festival lanterns in the off-season is of the same lineage as Nanjing's. Judging from the lanterns made by the septuagenarian artist Li Yifu, their style and technique appear to spring from the same source as those made by artists at the Confucius Temple in Nanjing. It integrates local traditional folk customs and develops, from the time-honored folk crafts of the Qinhuai region, new cultural products rich in attraction, emotional power, and commercial value, providing an excellent model for the modern transformation of traditional culture. Young people also lack interest in the making of lanterns, so the transmission of the craft cannot proceed smoothly. The prospects for the development of Qinhuai lanterns are not yet optimistic; to consolidate the achievements already made, people in all quarters need to make further efforts.
Lotus and lion lanterns
The lotus and lion lanterns are the classic types, joined in modern times by ocean liners, rockets, cityscapes and mountain scenery.
Drawing on paper craft, shadow puppetry and embroidery
It borrows from paper craft, painting, calligraphy, paper-cutting, shadow puppetry, embroidery and sculpture, and combines carpentry, lacquer and clay work.
Lantern making at Heqiao village, Jurong
At Heqiao village in Jurong the slack-season lantern making follows the same tradition as Nanjing's Confucius Temple craftsmen.
Chen Bohua's lantern style
Making lanterns since 1978, Chen Bohua developed a bold, bright and elegant personal style that won the seventh Shanhua gold award.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the lantern art of the Nanjing area moved from the court to the people, and the Lantern Festival became a traditional seasonal festival in the Qinhuai River basin that takes lanterns as its custom, uses lanterns to create scenes, and relies on lanterns to inspire dancing.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, owing to a lack of funds, Qinhuai lanterns have no fixed venue for preservation, development, and display. Chen Bohua (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1957, from Jurong City, Jiangsu Province. Master of arts and crafts of Jiangsu Province. He began working on the making and study of Qinhuai festival lanterns in 1978. Over more than forty years of making festival lanterns, he has devoted himself to studying the craft, exchanging and learning with lantern artists year after year, taking up others' strengths to make up for his own weaknesses. The festival lanterns he makes have grand forms, clean and bright colors, and an elegant style, forming the distinctive Chen-style lantern idiom and demonstrating the fusion of traditional art with modern aesthetics. Representative inheritor of Lanterns (Qinhuai Lanterns), a third national-level intangible cultural heritage project. His works have participated in cultural exchanges on festival lanterns at home and abroad and have won such awards as the gold prize of the 7th China Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award, jointly held by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Folk Literature and Art Association.
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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