Sugar Sculpture

01 · Historical Records

Tianmen lies on the Jianghan Plain and was long a key hub for land and water transport; its town markets and temple fairs flourished, and sugar-sculpture artists mostly traveled with opera troupes and temple fairs, setting up roadside stalls to blow and shape their wares on the spot for sale. Artists competed with one another on their two skills of "blowing" and "modeling", and over time a complete set of trade jargon and practices took form, including "large pieces" (da wan yi), "head work" (tou zi huo), and "hollow work" (pao huo).

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Sugar sculpture is a distinctive category of traditional Chinese folk modeling art, one that primarily exploits the plasticity of sugar to shape it into forms. Unlike Western sculpture, Chinese folk modeling incorporates rich formative elements such as painting, sculpture, carving, seal-engraving, and decoration, reflecting more strongly the aesthetic inclinations and technical character of its own tradition. Sugar sculpture generally uses malt syrup and corn sugar — the malt syrup being colloquially known as "tang xi" (sugar syrup) — as its raw materials, and completes its pieces through a combination of shaping techniques: pinching, piling, pasting, cutting, blowing, rubbing, pulling, pressing, pouring, and stretching, together with decorative methods such as painting, dyeing, carving, scratching, dotting, poking, stamping, inserting, and attaching. Sugar-sculpture pieces can be appreciated and played with, and can also be eaten directly. In Chinese folk life, sugar sculpture is found throughout the north and the south, with a broad popular base, and is closely bound up with everyday customs. Tianmen sugar sculpture, colloquially known as "blowing sugar figures" (chui tang ren), is a folk sculptural art popular in the area of Tianmen City, Hubei Province. It evolved from the sacrificial "sugar offerings" (tang gong) recorded in Tang- and Song-era classical texts; it has a long history and a rich accumulation of secular cultural content. The "large pieces" (da wan yi) of Tianmen sugar sculpture, such as Dragon-and-Phoenix Candles and the Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity, still preserve the basic form of the sugar offering as used in sacrificial rites, birthday celebrations, and wedding ceremonies, providing important physical evidence for the study of traditional sacrificial customs. Tianmen sugar sculpture uses specially boiled and processed malt sugar as its raw material and shapes its images through "blowing" and "modeling" techniques distinct from those of sugar painting; its forms are exaggerated and full, its colors bright and warm, and its traditional subjects are mainly human figures and animals, flowers, birds, fish, and insects, carrying the auspicious meanings of inviting fortune and averting misfortune. Sugar-sculpture artists skillfully use "hollow work" (pao huo) to expand the volume of a piece, "head work" (tou zi huo) to enrich its details, and springs to connect components so as to create a delightful sense of movement; these ingenious artistic devices fully display the aesthetic taste and creative wisdom of the folk. As the times have advanced, social life has undergone enormous change, and under these conditions Tianmen sugar sculpture has gradually declined, its technique steadily deteriorating.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Tianmen sugar-sculpture artists are concentrated in the urban center of Tianmen and in the riverside market towns of Yuekou, Zaoshi, and Qianyi; in former times they mostly set up performance stalls at temple fairs, market days, and wedding or birthday celebrations. When blowing and shaping, the malt sugar is kept warm over a charcoal brazier; the artist blows air into the sugar blank through a bamboo tube while pinching and pulling with both hands, and the piece takes shape within tens of seconds. Large pieces require two people working together, one blowing and one modeling.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Sugar Sculpture · Sugar Sculpture.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present this traditional craft can no longer attract the attention of young people; it lacks inheritors, is on the verge of being lost, and urgently awaits rescue and protection. Luo Zhaoying (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1932, from Tianmen City, Hubei Province. His technique is consummate: he can both blow and model, is familiar with more than a hundred subjects, and excels especially at capturing the expression of figures. The sugar figures he creates depict folk legends and the customs of everyday life, with full and rounded forms, rich detail, bright colors, and clear texturing; with the addition of decorative sequins, his human and animal figures become still more vivid. His representative works include Two Lions Vying for the Embroidered Ball, Kui Xing Pointing at the Dipper, the Taibao Lion, and Jiang Taigong Fishing. He has participated many times in cultural exchange activities and sugar-sculpture exhibitions organized by provincial and municipal cultural departments. He is a representative inheritor of Sugar Sculpture (Tianmen Sugar Sculpture), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project, in the fifth national-level batch.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Fan Deran 03-1297
• Luo Zhaoying 05-2699

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Sugar Sculpture (Tianmen, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Luo Zhaoying · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗