Carved Lacquer Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
During the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns of the Qing dynasty, the Tianshui carved lacquer craft developed the carve-and-fill (diaotian) technique of lacquer decoration, becoming typical of traditional lacquer ornament in the northwest region; it has a history of more than one hundred years down to the present.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The carved lacquer craft of Tianshui City, Gansu Province, has a long history stretching back more than one thousand years. The Tianshui carved lacquer craft applies locally produced raw lacquer to the surfaces of objects made of pine, birch, linden and similar woods; after several coats of lacquering a lacquer body is formed, and once polished smooth, patterns are carved and filled with color, after which decorative materials such as beautiful stones and shells are inlaid into the lacquer surface. The finished products are of plain antique and beautiful form, with exquisite patterns and lustrous color, and are resistant to acids and alkalis, high temperatures, dampness and decay. The Tianshui carved lacquer craft relies mainly on manual labor and is transmitted through oral instruction and personal example.
Grounding, polishing, carving and filling
Local lacquer is laid repeatedly over pine, birch or basswood, polished, carved and filled, then inlaid with stone and shell.
Resistant qualities
The finished pieces resist acid, heat, damp and decay, and the great day-night temperature range of eastern Gansu keeps them from cracking.
A thousand years of lacquer
Lacquer has been worked here for over a thousand years, and Qinzhou's location on the Wei has long joined it to the local furniture trade.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Tianshui carved lacquer craft developed together with the wooden furniture industry of the Qinzhou area: Qinzhou District of Tianshui City, Gansu Province, uses locally produced raw lacquer together with pine, birch and linden as materials, and workshops of past ages were mostly distributed in the town seat and suburban villages. The Tianshui Feitian Carved Lacquer Craft Furniture Co., Ltd. is the project's protecting unit. The carved lacquer craft of Tianshui City, Gansu Province, has a long history stretching back more than one thousand years.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Carved Lacquer Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, with changes in people's lifestyles, sales of Tianshui carved lacquer products have fallen sharply and production has gradually shrunk; former carved lacquer factories have gone bankrupt or been restructured one after another, some inheritors have died and others have changed trades, and lacquer decoration techniques such as the old overlay-lacquer and leather-body techniques have already been lost. In the face of this grave situation, it is necessary to formulate protective measures as soon as possible and carry out the rescue of this ancient folk handicraft. Zhang Guodong (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): male, of Han ethnicity, born in March 1941, a native of Tianshui City, Gansu Province. He is a representative inheritor of the Carved Lacquer Craft, an item of the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He is a senior arts and crafts artist and a Master of Arts and Crafts of Gansu Province. While at school he went to the Tianshui Carved Lacquer Factory for practical training, learning decorative methods for various bodiless-lacquer (tuotai) wares and small lacquer objects. From 1965 he worked for more than thirty years in lacquer theory research and creation at the Tianshui City Carved Lacquer Craft Factory, successively serving as deputy factory director and chief technologist. He excels at form and pattern design, dares to innovate using modern design concepts, accurately grasps the characteristics of lacquer craft, and flexibly employs decorative techniques to create many outstanding works; his pattern and form design for the combined three-panel table serving as stools and the bronze-mirror pattern design for the six-panel folding screen won second prize for excellent creative design at the 1986 Hundred Flowers Awards for Chinese Arts and Crafts. He has devoted himself year after year to transmitting and spreading the Tianshui carved lacquer craft. His large folding screen Touring the Heavens won the gold prize at the Fourth China Arts Festival.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wen Qiangang 01-0167
- Zhang Guodong 03-1323
- Yin Xiuyun 04-1848
- He Jincheng
- Li Zhigang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。