Ruanmuhua
01 · Historical Records
It took shape in the early 20th century, its place of origin being Xiyuan Village in the eastern outskirts of Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Cork painting is rooted in nature, and the brush spirit of Song painters is often evident in its pictures; its scenes are vivid and true to life, its conception lofty and profound, and its style fresh and elegant, presenting the artistic realm in which "hundreds of li of mountains are contained within a single frame". It is acclaimed as "silent poetry and painting in three dimensions". Since 1959 the Great Hall of the People in Beijing has four times invited cork-painting artists to Beijing to decorate the Fujian Hall and the Taiwan Hall, publicly displaying a group of fine cork-painting works including "Scenery of the Wuyi Mountains", "West Lake in Fuzhou", "Scenery of Egret Island", "The East and West Pagodas of Quanzhou" and "Wonders of the Earthen Houses".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Cork painting, also known as "wood painting", is a popular name for a cork-carving handicraft current in the Fuzhou area of Fujian Province. At that time certain works similar to "wood painting" flowed into China from Germany; inspired by them, Chen Chunrun, chief instructor of the Fuzhou Craft Apprenticeship Institute and a famed woodcarving master, together with the woodcarving technician Wu Qiqi and the architectural-panel technician Zheng Lixi, fully absorbed the strengths of Western art and combined them with traditional Chinese woodcarving techniques, devoting themselves to research that produced the entirely new art of cork painting. It uses as raw material the cork of the cork layer of the oak, imported from Spain, Portugal, Arabia and other places. In production this light, loose, elastic and finely textured cork is first cut into thin slices; then, using the knife in place of the brush, the artisan applies the various traditional carving techniques and finely carves and engraves by hand to build up complex pictures of delicate texture, embellishing them with pavilions and towers in the national style, and at the same time making use of the limited space within the frame to create a three-dimensional effect for the scenery.
Xiyuan village and the three founding craftsmen
Developed in Xiyuan village after German 'wood pictures' inspired three Fuzhou craftsmen to combine Western art with local carving.
Cork from the cork oak
Its raw material is imported cork oak bark — light, springy and finely grained, cut into slices for the finest foliage and eaves.
Wuyi Scenery, Fuzhou West Lake, Marvel of the Tulou
Since 1959 artists have four times decorated the Fujian and Taiwan halls of the Great Hall of the People with such works.
Wu Xuebao's Song-style cork pictures
In the 1960s the inheritor Wu Xuebao created Song-style pieces using the scattered perspective of Chinese painting.
Carving as brushwork, layered insertion
Sliced cork is carved by hand as if with a brush, then pavilions are added and the box itself used to create depth.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Cork painting is centred on Fuzhou; its early workshops were mostly concentrated around Xiyuan Village in the eastern suburbs and the Craft Apprenticeship Institute within the city, and the Fuzhou Xiyuan Cork Painting Association is the protecting unit. The finished products are mostly hanging screens, folding screens and three-dimensional ornaments: mountains and water, trees, pavilions, boats and bridges are carved from thin cork slices and inserted in layers within wooden frames, the depth of the scene being created through the layering front and back; a single complex hanging screen may contain several hundred small components. The subjects are mostly local scenes such as the Wuyi mountains, West Lake in Fuzhou, Gushan and the Min River.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wu Xuebao (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1940, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. His works are composed by means of the scattered-point perspective of Chinese painting — level-distance, deep-distance or high-distance — with a long, lingering resonance of meaning. In the 1960s, imitating the brush spirit of Song painters, he created cork paintings in the Song style, raising the artistic quality of cork painting. His representative work "The Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li" won the special prize in the first Fuzhou Arts and Crafts Competition, and "Scenery of the Earthen Houses" and "Scenery of Egret Island" were used to decorate the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He is a representative inheritor of Cork Painting, an item of national-level intangible cultural heritage included in the fourth batch. He has always taken on apprentices and passed on his art, devoting himself to training successors in cork painting.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Xuebao 04-1814
- Chen Guoxian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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