Liaoqi
01 · Historical Records
The works of “Putao Chang” won the appreciation of Empress Dowager Cixi, who bestowed a plaque inscribed “Tianyi Chang”; they later won an award at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, United States.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
“Putao Chang” glassware refers to glass artworks in the shape of grapes made by the Chang family using techniques handed down from its ancestors; it is one of the traditional fine-art forms unique to Beijing. In the twentieth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1894), Chang Zai, a descendant of Mongols living in the Huashi area outside Chongwenmen in Beijing, created a unique technique for making glass grapes on the basis of improving his mother's skill at making clay grapes. The glass grapes he produced became famous throughout the capital for their vivid likeness, and the family came to be known as “Putao Chang” (Chang the Grape Makers). For family reasons, the Chang family laid down the rule: “transmit it to women, not to men; within the family, not to outsiders.” Putao Chang glassware uses low-temperature glass as its raw material. In production it passes through eleven process steps: batching the glass, blowing, making the stems, making the leaves and tendrils, coloring, waxing, applying “frost”, and final assembly. Among these, the coloring and frosting of the grapes are secret techniques passed down within the family. The glass grapes made by the Chang family are vivid in both shape and color, representing the highest level of folk glass-grape making. As the only glass-grape making technique in Beijing, and indeed in all of China, it has circulated since the Qing dynasty, has had wide influence nationwide, and is a typical representative of traditional folk craft.
Archival Record of the Process Steps
Putao Chang glassware uses low-temperature glass as its raw material. In production it passes through eleven process steps: batching the glass, blowing, making the stems, making the leaves and tendrils, coloring, waxing, applying “frost”, and final assembly.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Putao Chang glassware originated and circulates in the Huashi area outside Chongwenmen, Beijing. Chang Zai was a descendant of Mongols, and his workshop was long housed in his own courtyard in the Huashi district; the works flowed through the temple fairs and shops around Huashi and Longfu Temple to all parts of the capital. Because the old family rule restricted the technique to women surnamed Chang, outsiders could learn little of its details, which kept Putao Chang glassware in a uniquely single-family, single-surname form for a long time. Its fame spread far and wide after it won an award at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, United States.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Liaoqi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With the changing times, “Putao Chang” has risen and fallen several times, and has now reached the fifth generation. Owing to the limitations of its transmission method, only two people currently master the technique of making glass grapes; a succession crisis has arisen that urgently requires protection. Chang Hong (related inheritor's official archival record): female, of Mongol ethnicity, born in September 1962; a native of Beijing. Her works are fresh and natural, with realistic visual effects in form, color, and texture; her coloring and frosting techniques are especially outstanding. Representative works include “Everlasting Fragrance” (Xinxiang Changzai) and “Auspicious Dragon and Phoenix” (Longfeng Chengxiang). She has long taken part in cultural and artistic exchange activities at home and abroad, actively displaying and publicizing the Putao Chang glassware technique. She is a representative inheritor of Glassware (Putao Chang Glassware), a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Since 2004 she has taken on apprentices and taught the art, passing it to the sixth-generation inheritor Chang Kaixin.
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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