>[!NOTE]+ Meta Author:: [[Anying Chen]] Reference:: https://garlandmag.com/loop/anying-chen-craft-revivals-in-todays-china/ Date:: 2021-08-04 Tags:: #warp/talk #China #lacquer WeftLinks:: [[Reinventing the Wheel]] [[Cultural value of craft]] ### Summary Professor Chen discussed the craft revivals that are occurring in China today, with particular reference to lacquer. He told how important lacquer was during the Chu dynasty 2,000 years ago, which was unfortunately defeated by the Qin dynasty. Today their lacquer culture is being revived, particularly in the city of Jingzhou, on the Yangtze River. This is quite fitting, as the Chu admired the Phoenix bird which arose from the ashes, much more than the dragon. According to Professor Chen, many crafts were negatively affected by the cultural revolution, which sought to break with the past. The subsequent focus on economic growth also led people away from nature. But now that Chinese people have acquired a level of prosperity, they are drawn back to crafts for their emotional needs. Lacquer offers a strong connection to nature in its smell and touch particularly. The "workstation" was a rich topic of discussion. The workstation offers a place where the specialist academics of the university can collaborate with craft masters and the public. The China Lacquer Alliance has gathered specialists in this field to work together in the Jingzhou workstation. They have revived ancient techniques, developed new products and literally paved the way for a new lacquer city, which will attract many visitors. Since 2016, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism has developed more than 20 workstations to help develop the cultural fabric of towns across the country. There was much interesting discussion of the activities of craft scholars in China today. [Zuangshi journal](http://en.izhsh.com.cn/) has been publishing articles on the decorative arts for 40 years. Discussion also opened up comparison between mingei in China and Japan. Professor Chen recommended the book [Superfluous Things](https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/superfluous-things-material-culture-and-social-status-in-early-modern-china/) by Craig Clunas. [Presentation](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/firescript-577a2.appspot.com/o/imgs%2Fapp%2FWheel%2Fng3hJYW7Hi.pdf) <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tMWas0h2HTw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> ### Text Craft revival in today’s China 04 Aug. 2021 CHEN Anying According to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the safeguarding includes identification, revitalization and so on. ICH Safeguarding in China went through two stages, the first stage focused on identification (2004-2014) , the second stage focused on revitalization(2015-2020). Since 2015, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism took two measures to revitalize the traditional crafts. The first, brought craftsmen from their community to university. Since 2015 there are over 100 universities has been involved in this project, and over 100 thousand craftsmen were benefited by this project. Take my university as a stance. The craftsmen will study for one month in the campus, listening to lectures, visiting museums and studios, making crafts show and communicating with teachers and students, group discussions for graduate exhibition, which helps them understand their tradition more deeply, and understand the contemporary world to improve their innovation ability. After one month’s study, they will go back home and make their works. Then there will be a graduation show. During this process, we know each other, and be best friends. Then we will go to their community, visit their workshops, and keep contacts with them for a long time. These are some of the works they made, which use traditional materials and skills but integrate into modern life in function. The second measure to revitalize the traditional crafts, is to bring universities or other institutes to craft community, help to build a local ecology.Take an example of what we did in Jingzhou Traditional Crafts Workstation. Lacquer art originated in China 8000 years ago. It developed to the first peak in Jingzhou, which once was the capital of CHU-state. 2000 years ago, CHU was the largest state in China, which represent a culture from Middle and Lower Yangtze River area. As you know, there are two big rivers in China, one is Yellow River, the other is Yangtze River, they gave birth to two different cultures. Unfortunately, the CHU state has been defeated by Qin in 223 BC. Lacquer art of CHU has been lost for 2000 years, until 21century, it developed from reproduce of antiquities to CHU-style lacquer art, which has been identified as a national ICH. Jingzhou Workstation focused on CHU-style lacquer art. It was authorized by Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2017 and is run by three parties. It is directed by Tsinghua University, managed by a local art school, and supported by Jingzhou Bureau of Culture and Tourism. Our mission is to revitalize the CHU-Style Lacquer Art in Jingzhou city; Benefit the related ICH items in Hubei province；Promote the lacquer industry and culture in whole China. Since 2018, each year there were one international conference, one exhibition and one competition for lacquer art in Jingzhou, attracted major practitioners in and outside China. Kevin Murray came twice. On the basis of the personal networks, we initiated a Lacquer Art Alliance, which includes 21 ICH items of lacquer arts in China, and has a strong connection with Japan and Korea. In the summer of 2019, we started a lacquer tour throughout China, visited the members of lacquer alliance, collected materials, tools and works to build a lacquer art museum in Jingzhou. Now we have a network, an active alliance, our target is to revitalize not only the CHU-style lacquer art but also the Chinese lacquer culture. After 3 years ‘running, the Jingzhou workstation got three core competences. • 1.Technology: lacquer tree planting, lacquer processing, lacquerware making, etc. • 2.Resources: lacquer alliance including Japan and South Korea • 3.Platform: ministry of culture and tourism And has 4 functions, • 1. talent training • 2. basic research • 3. design, produce and sales • 4. give assistance to local culture & tourism industry and rural revitalization As regards to the technology competence, we built one factory for testing and refining raw lacquer, which can help lacquer tree farmers raise their incomes. We built another factory for lacquer body production. We introduced master workshops, built lacquer classrooms, by which training students, organizing lacquer craft competitions. We promoted a new brand for CHU-style lacquer art, and established several living spaces for showing and selling lacquerwares. The Brand Image is a double-head-pig, which comes from a mythical beast of ancient CHU-state, the lacquer box of double-head-pig functions as a travel food container, which contains 8 wine bowls, 1 lunch box and 3 wine pots. We settle two Rural Revitalization Stations under Jingzhou workstation, one is in the Badong County, a lacquer tree planting mountain area, 3 hours‘ drive from Jingzhou. The other is a craft village belongs to Jingzhou. The village is famous for Bamboo Weaving and Woodworking. However, the craftsmen in the village have forgotten how to use nature lacquers to varnish and coat their products. We can help them. Not only teach the skills of lacquer art, but also help them develop rural tourism. In the outskirt of Jingzhou city, lies the Relic of Ji-Nan City, which was the capital of CHU-State for 400 years, and was destroyed by the army of Qin-state in 278 BC. The workshops for lacquerware and pottery were buried under the soil for over 2000 years. We are building a craft town just beside the Relic. The Jingzhou Workstation will move to the craft town in next year. The CHU-style lacquer art finally come back home after 2000 years. The revival of CHU-lacquer art, is like a Phoenix Nirvana. As you know, the ancestors of CHU didn’t like dragons, they worshiped Phoenix. That’s a story I share with you about Craft Revival in Today’s China. Question：the value of craft in contemporary China. Is it primarily about economic development? Is it seen as essential to the cultural life of Chinese people today? Does it bring happiness and satisfaction to people's lives? Answer：No, it is more about people’s feeling, about culture identity. Where we came from is an important question. However, as you know, the tradition has been deliberately destroyed especially in culture revolution. After the open and reform, in the last 40 years, modernization and urbanization went fast in China. People stayed away from nature and said goodbye to the past. With the improvement of economic growth and quality of life, the relationship between man and nature, between man and his past, became more and more important, more and more valuable. That is a question about feeling and culture identity. The traditional crafts use nature material, if you walk in a forest of lacquer tree and see farmers gathering the sap, you can smell and touch the nature. That’s the first contemporary value of traditional crafts. The second value of it is the relationship between ancient and modern contained in crafts. For example, the CHU-style lacquer art contains a feeling, a self-identity of people who believe that they are descendants of Chu, that is to say, the people live in Hubei and Hunan province. Scarcity leads to value. People will pay for what they lack and what they need. For the revival of traditional crafts, economy development goes after the cultural development. Furthermore, Crafts is not the most profitable business today, people do crafts mainly not for making money, but for emotional needs. Doing craft is today an artistic way of life. It brings happiness and satisfaction to people's lives, not all of them, but at least some of them are fascinated with it. [[Question - What is the role of the state in modern craft]]