From: Yuncheng Urban Collective Industrial Association
Issue Time: 2020-05-15 11:12
Huanghe Cloud Carving Craft Factory in Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province, has a history of nearly 30 years. It is the protection unit of the national intangible cultural heritage “Jiangzhou Rhinoceros Carving” (Cloud Carving). The factory director and provincial arts and crafts master, HE Junming, is the only national representative inheritor of the project. With deep cultural connotation and high taste, this craft is full of rich local style and distinctive oriental craft characteristics. It is not only a flashy art display, but also a high-grade practical item, integrating practicality, artistry and value preservation.
“Jiangzhou Rhinoceros Carving” is commonly known as “Cloud Carving”. The technique is to use more than two kinds of natural lacquer on a certain body to accumulate to a certain thickness and then use a knife to carve. Because the knife section is clear, and the layers of lacquer are mostly made up of vivid and flowing cloud patterns, it is called “Cloud Carving”. In Japan, it is called “Qu Lun”. The process originated in the Tang Dynasty and has been refined through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, making it one of the most precious types of lacquerware in China’s cultural heritage. Because of the complexity in its complicated process, difficult production and long production cycle, it’s hard to master the unique manual skills, thus there are only a few technicians engaged in this field, the craft facing the danger of extinction.
This craft began in Tang Dynasty, flourished in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, where in Zhejiang province, the famous artists include ZHANG Cheng and YANG Mao. Later, it was introduced by ZHANG Fanwa, an artist from Jiangzhou, who elaborately developed and combined the characteristics of local lacquerware to create a rhinoceros lacquerware with northern characteristics. It has been handed down from generation to generation by skilled craftsmen. In the Republic of China, there were famous artists such as WANG Sigong, XUE Xianji and ZHAO Puyuan. But before liberation, it was almost lost in war. In 1958, with the discovery and development of the old artists in Xinjiang County, the special lacquer art of rhinoceros carving in Jiangzhou was revived, with representative artists as Ning Siegen, Jiang Patrick, Cai Xiugang, Wang Buguang, etc. In 1979, HE Junming began to learn the art. In 1997, HE Junming invited veteran artists to establish Huanghe Cloud Carving Craft Factory, specializing in the production of rhinoceros carving in Jiangzhou. In 2009, HE Junming passed it on to his son, HE Pengfei, to promote the development of this traditional craft heritage.
Huanghe Cloud Carving Craft Factory has a registered trademark of “Jiangzhou”. In 2012 it established the Jiangzhou Lacquerware Research Institute to specialize in the protection of Jiangzhou rhinoceros painting techniques, and in 2017 it registered the trademark “HE Lacquer Workshop” to fully launch the innovation and branding of rhinoceros painting techniques. At present, it has developed more than 100 apprentices and has cooperated with distributors in Beijing, Taiyuan, Pingyao, Qinhuangdao, Chengdu, Mianyang, Fujian, Suzhou, etc. The products are sold to all over the country, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as Russia, Japan, Korea and other countries. After years of development, based on restoring all he products of the former arts and crafts factory, and inheriting the special art of lacquerware from the ancient Jiangzhou period, Huanghe Cloud Carving Craft Factory innovated science and technology, and produced a batch of new products with new appearance by using new materials, new technology and new techniques.
Huanghe Cloud Carving Craft Factory has been cooperating with Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, School of Fine Arts of Shanxi University, Taiyuan University of Technology, Shanxi Early Childhood Teacher Training College, Taiyuan Institute of Science and Technology, Jinzhong Universtiy, Datong University, etc. to design product styles. The factory has become the internship base of many art colleges and universities, and has taken the initiative to link up with national colleges and universities, training nearly 10,000 lacquerware enthusiasts. At the same time, through grasping trend of the times, the factory is trying to accelerate the development of new products, and vigorously promotes the protection and development of traditional crafts to achieve a double harvest of economic and social benefits.
