Beijing Juanhua
01 · Historical Records
Beijing silk flowers, also called "jinghua" (capital flowers), are a traditional paper-framing (caizha) art circulated in Beijing, which originated earliest in the Huashi (Flower Market) area outside Chongwen Gate. During the prosperous Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing dynasty, there were many flower villages, flower bureaus, and flower workshops outside Chongwen Gate; most nearby households made their living from framing silk flowers, and a large-scale, one-stop service of flower production and sale gradually took shape.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
This area thereby became a distribution center for "jinghua," and came to be called "Huashi" (Flower Market), a name that has continued to this day. Beijing silk flowers use silk, damask, dianlifang spun silk, yangfang silk, and creped satin as raw materials; in making them, many process steps are required, including sizing, chisel work, dyeing, petal forming, joining, assembling, and packaging, and the finished products are finely crafted, lifelike in form, and of unique ornamental value. Beijing once had famous silk-flower houses such as "Hua'er Jin" (Jin the Florist) and "Hua'er Gao" (Gao the Florist), of which "Hua'er Jin" is the collective name for the four generations of Jin Gui, Jin Wenguang, Jin Baoshun, and Jin Yulin. The Sketch of the Antiquities of the Old Capital records: "During the Guangxu reign there was a man surnamed Jin who made paper potted flowers and vase flowers of unsurpassed ingenuity; people called him 'Hua'er Jin,' and to this day none in this trade has surpassed the Jin family."
Archival Record of Process Steps
Beijing silk flowers use silk, damask, dianlifang spun silk, yangfang silk, and creped satin as raw materials; in making them, many process steps are required, including sizing, chisel work, dyeing, petal forming, joining, assembling, and packaging, and the finished products are finely crafted, lifelike in form, and of unique ornamental value.
The making sequence of silk flowers
Working from silk, damask, voile and crepe satin, the maker sizes, punches, dyes, shapes the petals, pastes, assembles and packs the flower.
The silks used for Beijing flowers
The material system of the craft: each fabric chosen for its sheen, body or drape goes to petals, leaves or stems in the pursuit of lifelike effect.
The Jin flower family
Four generations from Jin Gui to Jin Yulin were collectively known as the Jin flowers; a late-Qing source records that no one surpassed the Jin family in the trade.
The record in the old capital gazetteer
The gazetteer's note that a man surnamed Jin made potted and vase flowers of unmatched refinement is the key document for tracing the craft's famous lineage.
The flower market and the capital flowers
Under Kangxi and Qianlong many workshops and shops around the Chongwen gate lived by silk flowers, creating an integrated production-and-sale district known as the flower market.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Beijing silk flowers were centered on the Huashi (Flower Market) area outside Chongwen Gate; in former times, most merchants in this area made their living from framing and selling silk flowers, and the name "Huashi" arose from this and has continued to this day. Famous silk-flower houses such as "Hua'er Jin" and "Hua'er Gao" once appeared in the trade, of which "Hua'er Jin" is the collective name for the four generations of Jin Gui, Jin Wenguang, Jin Baoshun, and Jin Yulin. After the Beijing Silk Flower Factory was disbanded in the early 1990s, Jin Tieling insisted on making every flower and every leaf purely by hand, and frequently went deep into communities, schools, and enterprises to display, publicize, and teach the craft of silk flower making.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Beijing Juanren.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, affected by circumstances, the silk flower industry is extremely depressed; the Beijing Silk Flower Factory has declared bankruptcy, the artists who master the technique of framing silk flowers are very few, and the once-renowned art of Beijing silk flowers faces the crisis of being lost, urgently awaiting rescue. Jin Tieling (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Manchu ethnicity, born in July 1956, from Beijing. Upholding the principle of "Hua'er Jin" of pursuing beauty and imitating freshness, his craft is adept and his works are remarkably lifelike in form. After the Beijing Silk Flower Factory was disbanded in the early 1990s, he persisted in silk flower making, crafting every flower and every leaf purely by hand. He frequently goes deep into communities, schools, and enterprises to display, publicize, and teach the craft of silk flower making, actively carrying out transmission and conservation work. He is a representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Beijing Silk Flowers. In 1982 he won the gold award of the Hundred Flowers Award for Chinese Arts and Crafts, and in 2013 the gold award of the Chinese Arts and Crafts Exhibition.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jin Tieling 03-1291
- Huashulin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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