Dough Figurines
01 · Historical Records
Lanxian dough modeling has a long history: murals related to flour flowers (mianhua) were discovered in a Yuan-dynasty tomb in Lanxian County, and the Gazetteer of Lanxian County, compiled during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, records that 'Lanxian's winters are long, and its people delight in steaming flowers.'
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lanxian dough modeling is a folk flour-flower art in which wheat flour is steamed and shaped to express wishes for blessings and good fortune; it is used mainly in various folk customs, seasonal festivals, and wedding and funeral rites. Lanxian dough modeling is distributed across Lanxian County, Shanxi Province, and neighboring counties. A folk legend is also associated with Lanxian dough modeling. It is said that in North Street of Lancheng there was a filial daughter-in-law who, in seeking a cure for her mother-in-law, underwent eighty-one ordeals. When Guanyin Bodhisattva learned of her good deeds, she was deeply moved and transformed her into the White-Robed Great Being (Baiyi Dashi), devoted to healing the common people. The White-Robed Great Being lived up to her mission, overcoming all manner of difficulties to aid those in distress and to practice medicine in the countryside throughout her life. To commemorate the White-Robed Great Being, the people of Lancheng hold an offering festival on the nineteenth day of the second lunar month each year, carrying dough-modeled offerings on raised tables to lay them before the Temple of the White-Robed Great Being. The display of offerings stretches as long as two kilometers, with several hundred varieties vying in splendor — a magnificent spectacle. The production process of Lanxian dough modeling is complex, with strict requirements governing every stage from kneading the dough and shaping to steaming, inserting the floral elements, and coloring. The technique is consummate and the methods varied, making full use of finger modeling while also deftly employing tools such as scissors, combs, bamboo skewers, cutting knives, and chopsticks, along with auxiliary materials such as red dates, wheat grains, gaoshan huahuang (a wild-flower seed used in Lanxian folk practice), and red beans. Its shaping methods number in the dozens — rolling, pinching, pressing with a rod, patting, pulling, and more. Its more distinctive technical characteristics are the combination of raw and steamed dough and of leavened and unleavened dough; the skill is ingenious, producing an artistic effect of overall exaggeration and distortion with delicately lifelike detail in the parts. Colored flour offerings, with their brilliant colors and beautiful forms, are an important element of Lanxian dough-modeling offering festivals.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The production process of Lanxian dough modeling is complex, with strict requirements governing every stage from kneading the dough and shaping to steaming, inserting the floral elements, and coloring. The technique is consummate and the methods varied, making full use of finger modeling while also deftly employing tools such as scissors, combs, bamboo skewers, cutting knives, and chopsticks, along with auxiliary materials such as red dates, wheat grains, gaoshan huahuang (a wild-flower seed used in Lanxian folk practice), and red beans.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
By color, Lanxian dough modeling falls into two major categories: colored and plain (uncolored). Plain flour offerings are further divided, by size and mode of presentation, into hanging offerings (diaogong) and displayed offerings (baigong). Hanging offerings are small, their subjects chiefly small animals such as swallows, frogs, caterpillars, and snakes. Displayed offerings are larger, generally falling into types such as crawling children (pahaihai), luohan figures (luohanhan), dough tigers, and dough lions, with simple, bold forms. Thanks to the annual offering festival, Lanxian dough modeling has a deep and broad popular base locally. 'Shaping the heart for the offering' — Lanxian dough modeling is an important offering in the folk activities of the Lanxian people, such as seasonal festivals and life-cycle rituals. It carries the plain, sincere emotions of the local people: it both expresses their wishes for blessings and good fortune and promotes the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty; it strengthens community cultural identity, and it has socio-cultural, aesthetic, and folkloric value that cannot be underestimated.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lanxian dough modeling is transmitted in a living manner in the local countryside: girls learn from family elders and skilled dough modelers in the village from an early age, and the craft has been passed on and developed from generation to generation to the present. Li Chengxiu (from the official file of the associated representative inheritor): From childhood she was fond of handicrafts such as papercutting, embroidery, and dough modeling; in her teens she began learning dough modeling from her maternal grandmother and her mother, and continued modeling into her later years. Her creative inspiration drew on ancient myths and legends, as well as bold borrowing from and experimentation with various traditional handicrafts; she was especially skilled at modeling figures. Her works are plain, archaic, and freehand (xieyi), inheriting the characteristics of the local dough-modeling tradition. Female, Han ethnicity, born June 1942, died December 2017, a native of Lanxian County, Shanxi Province. She was a representative inheritor of Flour Flowers (Lanxian Dough Modeling), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth batch. Her award-winning works over the years include Date Mountain, Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Journey to the West, An Immortal Riding a Crane, and Flying Cranes in Dance. Year after year she taught publicly at folk art festivals, and she also brought dough-modeling art into the classroom through the platform of the Lanxian County Vocational Middle School. For students who loved folk art she offered free courses in flexible formats — regularly scheduled classes and short-term trainings — devoting herself wholeheartedly to cultivating successors for the art.
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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