Lacquerware Decoration Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Chongqing lacquerware decoration craft developed in the Qin and Han dynasties, peaked in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and continued through the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, possessing a distinctive local style. After 1954, Chongqing lacquerware such as the "Golden Tray" and the "Eggshell-Inlaid Phoenix Tray" won international and national awards many times.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Chongqing lacquerware-making encompasses a great variety of types, mainly including transparent lacquer, black polished lacquer, thick-material lacquer, glossy lacquer, and other decoration techniques; by use, the products are divided into six major categories—daily life, entertainment, decoration, tourism, collection, and weapons—with several hundred varieties. Its craft is complex and exquisite, with dozens of steps such as body-making, lacquering, and polishing, plus original special techniques such as ground painting, eggshell inlay, and gold-silver powder light-separation. Chongqing lacquerware products were once exported to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, participated many times in international cultural exchange activities in Europe and the Americas, and were presented as national gifts to foreign heads of state. The Palace Museum in Beijing, the Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK, and the China National Arts and Crafts Museum all collect Chongqing lacquerware works. Due to social development and change, lacquerware products have gradually faded from people's daily lives.
Building the base
Bases are formed to suit each vessel, light and even, since a heavy body cannot be lifted.
Applying black polished lacquer
Black lacquer is built up and polished until the surface sinks to a deep, reflective black.
Ground-pigment painting
Pigment is ground into lacquer while still soft so colour and film become one layer.
Coloured eggshell inlay
Eggshell thinned, coloured, cut into pattern and inlaid — the technique Chen Sibi pioneered.
Split-lustre metal powder
Metal powder is oriented under a gloss coat, reading as a single sheen with fine relief under the finger.
Grinding to a finish
A final all-over grind takes the surface from dull to lustrous, and tests patience more than any earlier step.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Chongqing lacquerware has its own path: it began in the Qin and Han, peaked in the Sui and Tang, and continued through the Song, Ming, and Qing; the objects it produces carry the crispness unique to the mountain city, with simple and vigorous forms and plain colored lacquer, winning not by heavy carving and piling but by the number of lacquer layers and the feel of polishing. The trade's classification is clear: transparent lacquer, black polished lacquer, thick-material lacquer, and glossy lacquer each constitute a separate line, and the objects are further divided by use into six categories—daily life, entertainment, decoration, tourism, collection, and weapons—with several hundred varieties; from body-making and lacquering to polishing there are dozens of process steps, but the truly outstanding are the original techniques of ground painting, eggshell inlay, and gold-silver powder light-separation. A single "Eggshell-Inlaid Phoenix Tray" takes several months from forming the body to the final sheen.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Moreover, the Chongqing lacquerware decoration craft is complex, time-consuming, and costly, with insignificant economic returns; this ancient handicraft now faces the danger of being lost and urgently needs protection and rescue. Chen Sibì (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born December 1924, from Chongqing Municipality. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Lacquerware Decoration Craft" (Chongqing Lacquerware Decoration Craft). Senior arts-and-crafts artist, Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts, and an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council. From 1942 to 1947 she studied in the five-year lacquerware program at the Sichuan Provincial Art College until graduating with a bachelor's degree, later working as a professor of lacquerware and arts and crafts. Inheriting tradition and continuously innovating, she pioneered the lacquerware "colored eggshell inlay technique." Her making skills are exquisite; she excels at lacquerware design and lacquer painting, with high artistic attainments. Her works feature ingenious conception, fresh imagery, novel composition, a unique style, splendid refinement, and a strong sense of the times. Her representative works include the "Eggshell-Inlaid Phoenix Tray," the "Silver-Wire Hundred-Flowers Wine Set," the "Eggshell Phoenix-Pattern Large Tray," the "Eggshell-Inlaid Peacock Tray," and the lacquer painting "Three Gorges." She has won international and domestic major awards many times.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gan Erke 03-1389
- Chen Sibi 03-1390
- He Junming 04-1891
- Li Bosheng 04-1892
- Zou Dexiang 04-1893
- Li Aizhen 05-2823
- Ding Guokun 05-2824
- Fu Yizhou 05-2825
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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