Kite Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
In the Qing dynasty, kite treatises such as Nanyao Beiyuan Kaogongzhi (Records of the Craft of Southern Hawks and Northern Swallows) provided rich imagery aesthetics for the Beijing "zayan" (pinned-swallow) kite, incorporating literary features and deepening its connotation. Building on his predecessors, Fei Baoling studied and collated the Nanyao Beiyuan Kaogongzhi in the 1960s and comprehensively mastered the pinned-swallow kite-making craft. In 1973, Fei Baoling's works began to be exhibited throughout the country and won recognition from experts in various fields, making him the most representative inheritor of the Beijing pinned-swallow kite.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Beijing pinned-swallow kite-making craft is divided into four arts: framing, pasting, painting, and flying. The kites made have bright colors and striking lines, and are both easy to launch and easy to fly. As works of art, 97 pieces made by Fei Baoling have been collected by the National Art Museum of China. The first set of special kite stamps issued by our country depicted the Beijing pinned-swallow kites painted by Fei Baoling. Nanyao Beiyuan Kaogongzhi is both an illustrated manual and an operating handbook, its mnemonic verses making it easy to memorize. When Fei Baoling reproduced it from a handwritten fragment, he first enlarged the patterns to full size, then checked the proportions and positions of the bamboo frame against the verses, so that the restored piece's frame kept its true measurements. The framing-and-pasting verses and painting verses he collated were later published with illustrations, turning the pinned-swallow kite from a master-to-apprentice oral tradition into a procedure that could be followed by the book. In the pinned-swallow kite, the swallow form is treated as a characterful image: eyes wide open, wings spread aloft, with stylization and personification coexisting. A set of works linked together becomes an emotional series of paintings rather than a mere pile of individual kites. This is also why it is more suitable for collection and for depiction than ordinary playthings.
The four tasks
Framing, papering, painting and flying are the four tasks of a swallow kite; missing any one leaves the bird unstable.
Frame diagram beside the colour drawing
Every swallow kite is documented with a frame diagram, a colour drawing and the framing and painting formulas in verse.
Reconstructing the manuscript kites
In 1963 Fei Baoling and Kong Xiangze rebuilt the kites drawn in a surviving manuscript by following its diagrams and songs.
The first special kite stamps
In 1980 China issued the first set of four special kite stamps, all based on Fei Baoling's swallow kites.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Beijing pinned-swallow kite takes the swallow as its form, has a rich humanistic connotation, and is an important school of Beijing kites. Every kind of Beijing pinned-swallow kite is drawn with a frame diagram and a color painting, and is accompanied by framing-and-pasting verses and painting verses—illustrations and text together—making it the kite school with the strongest Beijing character.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Kite Making Craftsmanship · Kite Making Craftsmanship · Kite Making Craftsmanship · Kite Making Craftsmanship · Kite Making Craftsmanship · Kite Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Beijing pinned-swallow kite craft, with Fei Baoling as its main inheritor, frames swallow works that are patterned and personified, combining form and spirit, forming a series of pinned-swallow kite works full of individuality and emotion. Fei Baoling (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): A representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage items, for the kite-making craft (Beijing kite-making craft). A Chinese master of arts and crafts. He loved kite-making from childhood. In 1963, together with Kong Xiangze, he studied the handwritten fragment of Nanyao Beiyuan Kaogongzhi. Based on the kite illustrations and verses it contained, and using the traditional framing, pasting, painting, and flying procedures, he successfully reproduced the kites in that handwritten fragment. In 1980, the China Stamp Company issued a set of stamps (four in total) based on his works. Ninety-seven kite works were collected by the National Art Museum of China, and eighteen works by the Capital Museum. In 1998 he compiled and published Cao Xueqin's Kite Manual, Cao Xueqin's Pinned-Swallow Kite Illustrations, and Cao Xueqin's Pinned-Swallow Kite Illustrations Kaogongzhi; in 2008 he authored Cao Xueqin's Kites. Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1928, died in September 2021, a native of Tianjin. He trained disciples including Zhao Kun, Li Guoshuai, Gu Wenhua, Wu Jinmao, Yang Liping, Sun He, Wang Chunnian, Liu Yi, Xu Mei, and others.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Guo Chengyi 01-0197
- Han Fuling 03-1345
- Wei Yongzhen 03-1346
- Hayiqi 04-1867
- Fei Baoling 04-1868
- Wei Guoqiu 04-1869
- Kong Lingmin 05-2781
- Zhang Xiaodong 05-2782
- Yang Hongwei
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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