Dough Figurines
01 · Historical Records
The origin of flour flowers is closely related to the traditional dietary and belief customs of the people; Tang-dynasty dough-sculpture remains excavated from the Astana tombs in Turpan, Xinjiang, show that this folk art has a long history of development in China.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Flour flowers, popularly called huamo (flower steamed buns), wowohua, and gaohua, and also known as dough sculpture, are a traditional edible modeling art popular in the northern regions of Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, and at the same time a festival-custom art very closely tied to everyday life. In the northern regions, flour-flower modeling has deep roots among the people; at every traditional festival, each household makes flour flowers according to local customs and conventions. These flour-flower products come in a great variety of forms and postures; they serve multiple functions, including offering, display, and food, and can also be given as gifts to relatives and friends, becoming an important medium of social exchange among the people. The differing local conditions, customs, and ritual emphases of each region have given flour-flower art rich expressive forms and distinct regional characteristics; the distinctive shapes and brilliant colors of flour-flower products adorn the cultural space of traditional festivals with singular beauty. Wenxi huamo has no inherited pattern books to consult and no surviving templates to rely upon; it is shaped entirely by the deft hands of skillful women, and is therefore praised as 'the art of mothers'. In making them, one first kneads the dough into forms of ingenious conception, then applies water-based colors as decoration. The steamed huamo are full in form and bright in color, radiating vitality. Wenxi huamo are finely made and uniquely charming, and are deeply loved by the local people. With the deepening development of the market economy, Wenxi huamo have entered the commodity market as famous, high-quality local specialty products embodying the regional cultural character of Shanxi; they are sold at home and abroad, and their reputation grows with each passing day.
The mother's art
Wenxi flower buns are made without patterns or models, wholly by the maker's hand, and so are called the mother's art.
Festivals, sacrifices, weddings and house-raising
Wenxi flower buns serve festivals, sacrifices, weddings, birthdays, funerals and house-raising, and are exchanged as gifts.
Dong Qiaolan and her students
The inheritor Dong Qiaolan, born in 1954, learned from her grandmother and mother and has trained more than thirty villagers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Wenxi huamo is a traditional edible modeling art popular in the Wenxi County area of Shanxi Province. It has a long history and is closely tied to local traditional customs, and is widely applied in folk activities such as festivals and celebrations, sacrifices, weddings, birthday celebrations, funerals, the raising of roof beams, and moving house. By use, Wenxi huamo falls into three main categories: seasonal festivals, rites of passage, and sacrificial offerings. Weddings mostly use forms such as dragon and phoenix, pomegranate, and 'fish boring into the lotus'; birthday celebrations are modeled with longevity peaches, the God of Longevity, and 'five bats presenting longevity'. Local steaming emphasizes fully risen dough, stable forms, and sufficient firing; once out of the steamer, water colors are applied while the pieces are still hot, and the finished products serve both as food and as gifts.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This spontaneous flour-flower modeling activity fully demonstrates the aesthetic ideals and artistic talent of the people, allowing the cultural traditions contained in folk custom to be naturally transmitted and displayed. Dong Qiaolan (according to the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1954, a native of Wenxi County, Shanxi Province. From childhood she studied huamo making with her grandmother and mother, carefully working through every process step from mixing the dough and shaping the flowers to assembling the parts, and mastering the basic techniques of huamo making. After she started her own family, whenever the village held folk activities such as weddings and funerals, house moves, and roof-beam raisings, she would voluntarily make huamo for the villagers. She is able to design patterns from real living creatures and, employing traditional techniques, model dough works of flowers and plants, animals, and figures, meeting the various requirements of local folk ritual. At the same time, making use of the slack farm seasons, she gathers huamo enthusiasts from the surrounding villages to teach the process steps and essentials of huamo making; to date she has trained more than thirty people, some of whom are already able to work independently. She is a representative inheritor of Flour Flowers (Wenxi Huamo), 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:
- Zhang Hongxia 05-2649
- Dong Qiaolan 05-2650
- Li Chengxiu 05-2651
- Yuan Jianhua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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