Liaoqi
01 · Historical Records
During the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, the emperor ordered the Board of Works to establish an imperial factory at Liulichang in Beijing to manufacture liaqi (paste-glass) wares for presentation to the imperial court; they were known at the time as "guanliao" (official paste) and "yuliuli" (imperial glaze). After the Qing dynasty declined, the manufacture of liaqi shifted from the court into the hands of the people, taking on a strong Beijing character.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Beijing liaqi is a kind of glaze art that has been handed down in Beijing. The production of Beijing liaqi makes great demands on the artisan. Using low-melting-point glaze as the raw material, it employs no moulds and no draft designs; the artisan works entirely by hand with tweezers and scissors, forming each piece in a single operation. Liaqi wares are moist and lustrous in texture, finely made, richly coloured and exquisitely transparent. Beijing liaqi comes in several thousand varieties, ranging from everyday ornaments such as jewellery to decorative art objects such as carvings of birds and animals, flowers and fruit, and human figures — everything one could wish for. Among them, the imitation-jade pieces are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, which is truly astonishing. At present the number of practitioners of Beijing liaqi is extremely small; there is only one master craftsman. The signature skill of Beijing liaqi lies in combining blowing and pinching: holding a paste rod in the left hand, the artisan softens the glaze over a flame, then shapes it with tweezers and scissors in the right hand while it is still hot, reheating it from time to time to keep it warm; a small piece is usually formed in one go within a few minutes and is not reworked once cooled. The imitation-jade wares seek to reproduce the warm, moist quality of jade by using paste colours of varying depth; set beside real jade, they are almost impossible to tell apart.
One-shot forming without mould or sketch
The work needs no mould and no drawing: the low-melting glass is shaped once and for all by tweezers and shears.
Tweezers and shears
Tweezers pinch, draw and press, shears cut and vein; from two simple tools the whole form is coaxed out by hand.
Glass imitating jade
Among thousands of products from jewellery to carved birds and figures, the jade-imitation pieces are almost indistinguishable from the real stone.
Official glass and palace glass
In the Kangxi reign the Board of Works set up a palace glassworks at Liulichang for wares called official glass and palace glass.
Xing Lanxiang's figurative glass
The inheritor Xing Lanxiang brought legendary figures into glass with fresh forms and delicate work, notably in Lian Nian You Yu and Peacock.
Baicai as a state gift
Her piece Baicai was given as a state gift at the 2006 Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In former times the workshops of Beijing liaqi were concentrated in the Liulichang and Huashi area. After the imperial factory ceased firing at the end of the Qing dynasty, the artisans scattered into the urban workshops south of the city, producing in small quantities on a family basis, and their products circulated through temple fairs and jewellery shops. In this way Beijing liaqi changed from a court tribute into a genuinely popular urban craft; to this day the number of practitioners remains extremely small, with only one master craftsman.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Liaoqi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Because of the high level of technical difficulty and the long apprenticeship, few people take up this traditional folk craft, which is in danger of dying out and urgently needs protection and revitalisation. Xing Lanxiang (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in May 1945, a native of Beijing. Senior arts-and-crafts artist and Master of Beijing Arts and Crafts. She broke with traditional design concepts, created new varieties of liaqi, and applied figures from folk legends to the material; her work is novel in form, delicate in workmanship, rich in colour and refined in style. Her works come in many types, including large figures, freehand-style pieces, crystal-glass candlesticks and small pendant ornaments; her representative works include "Abundance Year After Year", "Pearl Chicken" and "Peonies". Her work "Wealth", presented as a state gift to foreign guests during the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, was highly praised. She has passed on her skills to her sons Liu Yu and Liu Xing. She is a representative inheritor of Liaqi (Beijing Liaqi), an item of national-level intangible cultural heritage included in the third batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xing Lanxiang 03-1294
- Changhong 05-2698
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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