Dough Figurines
01 · Historical Records
In 1957, Lang Zhili, the daughter of Lang Shaoan, began to study dough figurine modeling under her father.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Dough figurines, also called “miansu” (dough modeling) or “jiangmiren” (glutinous rice figures), are a traditional plastic art that uses edible wheat flour and glutinous rice flour as its main materials. Popular throughout China, they are deeply loved by the people. Dough figurines mostly take animals and figures from mythology and legend, historical stories, and local opera as their subjects, and the two basic forms are the “qianjushi” (stick-held) type and the “anzhishi” (table-display) type. The former are mostly edible playthings for entertaining children, with simple but lively forms; the latter are refined display artworks, meticulously made and exquisitely modeled, and additives must be mixed into the raw materials to guard against cracking, insects, and mildew. Dough figurine making generally begins by using pinching, rolling, kneading, and pressing gestures to shape the overall form; a bamboo knife is then used deftly to dot, cut, carve, and score such local details as the hands and feet, the head and face, and the expression. Finally, hair ornaments, garments, and related attachments are added, and the work is complete. Dough figurine art relies mainly on the improvisation of itinerant artists who wander the streets. Having mastered skilled modeling techniques and keeping the process conventions of subject, form, and coloring firmly in mind, they can turn a ball of dough into a vivid, radiant artistic image in a moment. The Beijing Lang School of dough figurines is a folk dough-modeling art unique to Beijing. The technique was created by Lang Shaoan (1909–1992), who once studied under Zhao Kuoming, the “King of Dough Figurines”, and later developed his own artistic style of dough modeling. The Lang School of dough figurine art covers a wide range of subjects and emphasizes the depiction of real life, vividly reflecting the circumstances of all trades and professions and the various folk customs of old Beijing. In his long artistic practice, Lang Shaoan developed the consummate modeling skill of “sharp eyes and quick hands” and “accurate vision, steady grasp”. His works feature simple technique, accurate form, lifelike shape, and refined ornament, occupying a distinctive place in the art of Beijing dough figurines. For more than fifty years in the art, she has inherited her father’s technical characteristics and added innovations, further developing the dough figurine art of the Beijing Lang School.
Stick-held and desk-set figures
Made from wheat and glutinous rice flour, figures come as stick-held playthings for children or as refined desk ornaments treated against cracking and insects.
Pinching, rolling and the bamboo knife
The form is pinched and rolled by hand, then detailed with a bamboo knife through dotting, cutting, carving and scoring, before hair, robes and props are added.
Zhao Kuoming and Lang Shao'an
Lang Shao'an studied under the dough-figure king Zhao Kuoming and developed his own concise, accurate and lifelike style.
Donations and museum collections
Lang Zhili donated thirty-four works to the 101st IOC session; her Guan Gong and Dream of the Red Chamber series are held in American and Chinese collections.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Beijing Lang School of dough figurines is a folk dough-modeling art unique to Beijing, created by Lang Shaoan (1909–1992). His daughter Lang Zhili was born in 1942 and began to study dough figurine modeling under her father in 1957. She has both inherited the Lang family’s consummate modeling skill of “sharp eyes and quick hands” and “accurate vision, steady grasp”, and expanded the art into new media such as shell and tridacna dough modeling. In recent years she has founded the Mianren Lang Art Studio in Haidian District, dedicated to the inheritance, research, and development of Beijing dough figurine art.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Dough figurine art, inherited and developed among the people, embodies the aesthetic sentiments and life ideals of the general public, and provides important material evidence for research on Chinese folk history, customs, and art. At the same time, she has also taken care to summarize her father’s artistic experience, compiling and publishing the book My Career in Dough Modeling — Lang Shaoan. In recent years, Lang Zhili founded the “Mianren Lang Art Studio”, dedicated to the inheritance, research, and development of Beijing dough figurine art. The dough figurine works of the Beijing Lang School have not only considerable artistic appreciation and collection value, but also provide important reference for the study of old Beijing folk customs and folk handicraft techniques. Lang Zhili (recorded in the official files of the associated inheritor): Female, of Manchu ethnicity, born in September 1942, from Beijing. Specially appointed folk art creation researcher at the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Her representative works include The Eighteen Arhats, Shell Dough Modeling — A Boy Paying Respects to Guanyin, and Tridacna Dough Modeling — Blessings Filling the World. Her works have been exhibited and awarded many times. She donated thirty-four dough figurine works for the activities of the 101st Session of the International Olympic Committee. Her works Guan Yu, The Old God of Longevity, and Mu Guiying Takes Command are collected by the Science Exploration Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, and Characters from Dream of the Red Chamber is collected by the Chinese National Academy of Arts. She has taken on apprentices including Li Mengmeng and Gao Yaqi. Representative inheritor of Mianren (Beijing Mianren Lang), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lang Zhili 03-1268
- Zhao Yanlin 03-1269
- Li Jincheng 03-1270
- Tang Suguo 04-1795
- Chen Sujing 05-2647
- Wang Xijin 05-2648
- Wang Di
- Chen Yu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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