Chinese Contemporary Handcrafts in the view of the intangible cultura Heritages
12 min readAs the old saying goes, “Each place has its own way of supporting its own inhabitants. For China, an agricultural country backed by the agriculture and handcraft industry in the history, is nowadays permeated with traditional lifestylesoriginated and derived from the natural conditions in farming society. As an outcome of people’s life and customs, an enormous variety of traditional handcrafts are anchored among the folk. Characterized by cultural features differing from other birthplaces of civilization, such practical, simple and warmhearted arts have always demonstrated China’s national economy and people’s livelihood from ancient to modern times. Speaking of court crafts serving rich and powerful ones, scholar bureaucrat crafts highlighting the fun of literati and folk crafts spilling local flavor, all the intentions to invent and create have come from Chinese’s daily needs in certainnatural conditions. All of these crafts, acting as the important carrier of Chinesecivilization, contain the wisdom of creation accumulated during production and life
Double Happiness Bamboo Banner, 37 6cm in diameter, made in Anhui Province during the former Republic of China period. It has a bottom woven with bamboo chips to increase load-bearing capacity, low cuts woven with bamboo threads and bound off with rattan strips, and an interior woven with processed thin bamboo strips. Its horizontal bamboo strips cross and intertwine with vertical strips to shape a cluster presenting the Chinese character =s right at the center, implying happiness and luckiness
In the context of modernization and globalization, people are eager for new ifestyles. Consequently, increasingly of them began to reflect the relationship between humans and the nature Exactly as the biological diversity, cultural diversity also means a lot to the humans. To permanently guard the internationally common agreements on tangible and intangible cultural heritages, the UNESCO adopted the Convention Concerning the protection of the world cultural and Natural heritage(1972) and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural heritage(2003). Both of them, step by step, set out the common agreements on understandingand conservation of tangible and intangible heritages of humanity. Successively in 1985 and 2004 China acceded to them
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that took effect in 2006 is aimed at conserving the intangible cultural heritages represented bytraditional, verbal expression, festival etiquette manual skills, music and dance. the intangible cultural heritages can be divided into five categories, among which the traditional handcrafts shall be counted as one. With a long history and rich variety, uch hereditary arts are precious intangible cultural heritages in China. Upon an ever running-in with the modern society and featured by cultural traits compatible with the conditions, they have gradually developed with increasing vitality. Driven by a vision to conserve the intangible cultural heritage, inheritance of Chinese traditional handcrafts and those in innovation and development is rooted in the needs for diversified modern lifestyles. Increasingly, we can see its unique and irreplaceable modern value
In 2006, the State Council released the first batch of the national intangible cultural heritage list. Among the selected 518 items, folk arts(New Year pictures, embroidery and sculpture, etc. ) represent 51 while traditional handcrafts(ceramics, lacquer, printing and dyeing, stationery production, etc. )89. In 2008, the State Council issued the second batch of the national intangible cultural heritage list with 510 items in total, including 45 traditional arts(folk arts) and 97 traditional crafts. In two batches of the list, traditional crafts accounted for 1/4 of the total. In addition thecraftsmanship tales were included into the folk literature. In 2011, the third batch of the national intangible cultural heritage list of 191 items was released by the State that the traditional crafts play an extremely important part among the intangible r Council, covering 32 traditional arts(folk arts) and 54 traditional crafts. It is thus clear cultural heritages. As to the tangible and intangible ones, the former mean materials, products and other apparent physical cultures, while the latter refer to their process engineering, method process, creation tales, design inspiration, spiritual symbol and cultural value, etc. Promoted by the state and concerned by the community, the traditional crafts have been conserved and developed under the favorable social conditions
Purple Pottery Boiler，produced in Jianshui，Yunnan Province，designed and made by Wang Dingyi and Xiang Fengchun in the 1920s.The boiler’s cover and body are decorated in different calligraphic styles，either with incised characters or incised backgrounds filled with colored mud
In China such a traditional country the vast majority of inhabitants are peasants who work from sunrise to sunset，farming for food and dig wells for drink Surrounded by the gifts of nature，they lived and worked hard from generation to generation.Thus，one can only say that he/she knows nothing about a real China in the event that Chinese peasants and countryside or cultures rooted in the local societies are quite strange to him/her
To both comply with and change the nature in the process of work，people have made and used various kinds of tools，machineries and equipment，like ancient plough，ater mill，jacquard，compass and seismograph；to live and work in contentment，they have inherited and created crafts to build own houses，which were decorated with sculptures made of wood，stone and mud，equipped with furniture mortised by bamboo and wood，and highlighted with folk custom through paper-cut，New Year pictures，kites，puppets，shadow figures and masks；to meet the day-to-day and made porcelain for use as well as appreciation; in addition, they have taken cotton alaesthetic needs, they have carved jade, fired ceramic, lacquered coating, smelted meta hemp, silk and fur as raw material to make clothes, shoes and hats through printing and dyeing, clipping and sewing; and employed ordinary materials like grass, bamboo, cane and paper to skillfully knitting and develop containers; also passed the civilization with papermaking and printing. Widely applied in the daily life of generations of Chinese people, these traditional handcrafts have formed a folk system to pass on the knowledge and competencies In the long Chinese history, it is the living cultural part made by numerous villages and the people living in them Besides, it is also an important element of intangible cultural heritages in China
In the recent hundred of years, China’s rural society has been steadily marginalized and weakened Along with the economic and social development, original functions of the traditional living spaces and objects within them that emerged in the manual era have gradually declined. That is to say, the objects themselves and things corresponding to their manufacturing have gradually passed away, and even run their own courses. Against the background of globalization, many young people are not only far away from home physically but also alienate from the local cultures mentally As a result, people, the most important element, is also missing in the chain of inheritance. Exposed to such society context and cultural situations, the renewed understanding of own homeland and derived handcrafts plays a role of profound driver in the development of traditional crafts in the present China
Measured from the New Culture Movement held in the early 20century traditional handcrafts research and folk custom education related to the intangible cultural heritages have lasted for almost one hundred years. Over the years, owing to the vigorous promotion by the government of china, the intangible cultural heritagehas become a term with extra high social recognition in a short period of time. The conversation and revitalization of traditional handcrafts turned into an organic component of chinese modernization construction Given this to safequard the tangible cultural heritages is to protect the common cultural belief of Chinese people
The traditional crafts developing under the ancient farming civilization such as silk weaving, printing and dyeing, ceramic, lacquer, furniture, jade, gold and silver ware, embroidery, New Year pictures, paper-cut and so on, are still valuable for people’s velihood, economy, academy, art and culture. Up to now, their artistic and use value are still admired and respected by people from all over the world. Abundant and China’s development in the midwest and new rural construction for example: the ng various handcraftsmanship resources distribute throughout China. take the ongoi traditional handcrafts are used to drive the development of underprivileged countryside.For instance，precision production trades in Yi County，Anhui，woodcarving in Dongyang，Zhejiang，folk batiks in Guizhou and bay tie-dyeing in Dali，Yunnan，etc.The value of people’s livelihood and economy resulting from production and use of these traditional handcrafts act as a power tool to drive the development of local economy，also reassure the people returning home to begin a lifestyle of new times in the familiar land as for the national development in the long run the intangible cultural heritages would gradually have an immeasurable impact on the villages during the transformation of civilization
Miao ethnic-style Batik Blouse for Women，40cmx47cm，made in Guizhou Province in the 1950s.This work adopting hand-made encaustic painting technique，is characterized by exquisite craftsmanship，powerful and simple colors，regular yet lively composition，dense but orderly patterns and rhythmic lines
Bamboo Pack Basket, Lijiang, Yunnan Province, 49cm in height, modern. The basket is woven with thick bamboo strips as skeleton and thin bamboo threads It’s both of aesthetic and practical value, and can be used as a transport vehicle for carrying medicinal herbs and mountain products
China is one of the countries with the most abundant intangible cultural heritages in the world. By now, the State Council has released totally three batches of “national tangible heritage, consisting of folk art, traditional crafts, folk literature, traditional music, dance, drama, theatrical arts, folk custom, medicine, sports, entertainment acrobatics and other cultural patterns. Among them, nearly 400 items concerning folk art and traditional crafts(covering craftsmanship tales under the folk literature) were included in the three batches of list in total. In terms of region, the intangible heritages mentioned above almost cover every corner of China, with processing and manufacturing industry supporting handcrafts as material basis
Bamboo Liquor Flagon, a lacquerware created by Lisu Ethnicity, 25cmx 6cm, circa 1960, Shanghai Museum This flagon is made of three joints of bamboo near the root, with the upside down first joint whittled intothe spout of the flagon, the middle joint hollowed-out with both sides carved into handles and with a small hole for liquor filling, and the bottom joint being the body of the flagon. The exterior is coated with black lacquer and the rim of the opening red lacquer and attached with rope and rod
Though the conservation and inheritance of intangible cultural heritages focuses on the manifestation of traditional cultures object the carrier at state level or the traditional folk environment and custom cultural space can never be separated at a Closely connected with daily life, the tangible and intangible cultures cover all aspects ranging from basic necessities to thoughts and actions. In the traditional society, theywere organically linked as a whole. As for festival celebrations and ancestor worship in the Tomb-sWeeping day, necessary apparel and accessories instrument and furnishings relevant etiquettes, procedures and rules as well as people’ s desires anticipations and beliefs constitute the unity of physical and mental culture. after a long-time accumulation of production and life, the lifestyle, code of conduct, valuesand attitudes and spiritual beliefs were shaped in a relatively stable region for its habitants In China, a multi-ethnic country, it is in this form combing tangible and intangible cultures that the intangible cultural heritages with traditional handcrafts as the carrier make the spirits and blood line of all peoples continue
Bai ethnic-style Tie-dyed Square Scarf, made in Dali, Yunnan Province in 1996. This work applies multiple techniques including by symmetric suturing and folding and made through the process of soaking the tied-fabric in the dye, drying it every other night, and dip dyeing again and again until the colors gradually deepen and show rich variations
Handcraft comes from life. It mainly exists in and is inherited through the mode of production “As the years wore on, there were substantial changes in the social conditions supporting the traditional cultures while the new conditions derived b cultures began to incubate. at the start of the national intangible cultural heritage list is issued, people took little attention to the conservation of objects”in which the intangible cultures exist. When the conservation movement grew vigorously, the contemporary handcraft manufacturing industry was developing in a diversified manner. In the modern society folk customs with less charm compared with the modern visual culture have gradually detached from people’s daily life. Moreover, artwork related to folk art and traditional crafts in the tide of marketization have become commodities with rough process and low price. Being out of people’s daily life with the most widely development conditions lost, the contemporary handcrafts encounter troubles. Thus, more and more researchers and handcrafts practitioners change as the transformation of times in order to adapt to the modern life Introducing modern design ideas to the form and shape, making the traditional handcrafts metabolous and reborn to rebuild the living crafts culture in the new era it is an important survival mode of Chinese contemporary handcrafts in the view of conserving the intangible cultural heritages
Since the 21 Century three approaches have been adopted to conserve chinese tangible cultural heritages and develop the contemporary handcrafts, which were gradually featured by oper
The first is to inherit the traditional crafts as a whole to avoid any regret of missing or lost, except for a few species of natural survival, artificially conserved the best varieties and protected masters from the perspective of cultural ecology, e.g ivory carving and other extremely rare crafts
The second is to combine the traditional crafts with modern design ideas Traditional handcrafts were recreated with modern aesthetic consciousness, becoming compatible with the modern living conditions. With regard to modern ceramics, modern arts and design styles are revealed in the shape painting and texture
The third is to separate the styles of traditional crafts from handcrafts and form the modern forms revealing ethnic styles with modern crafts adopted styles imitated but crafts abandoned. For example, Chinese-style partition wall of interior decoration and Western-style clipping of Chinese costume, etc
Exposed to an open system, Chinese contemporary handcrafts have achieved continuous innovation in the following three aspects innovation in concept is to concern for people’s livelihood and create as required by time-life, maintaining the practical character of handcrafts with advanced technology and relevant toolsemployed and featured by hand-made characteristics. Innovation in media is to integrate modern materials with natural ones give priority to resource consumption environmental protection and other issues associated with the natural environment and social ecology, respect rules and statutes naturally and historically accumulated in traditional crafts and safeguard the rational character of crafts. Innovation inaesthetic appreciation is to give full play to the beauty of wisdom and strength blending in handcraft work blur the boundaries between craft and art and shape thehumanized and personalized aesthetic character which is consistent with the visual appreciation features in the present era. nowadays it is still an age for both handcraft and non-handcraft With the natural and rustic charm, Chinese contemporary handcrafts may develop with modern design in parallel to make up the deficiencies of normally, convergently and impassively industrial products
As an attitude and a pattern of behavior the conservation of intangible cultural heritages would serve as a conscious modern lifestyle via accumulation at the chinese government level, “Project for Salvaging the heritages of Folk-Culture, “”Cultural andEcological Protection Plan of Traditional Crafts”and other large national key research projects have been launched nationwide. In the folk society, there was”Bishan Project initiated by Ou Ning and Zuo Jing in 2011. a group of intellectuals returned home from the urban to reconstruct the countryside and reform the society with handcrafts. Taking the magazine bishan as a platform, they from the perspective of modern people, were aimed at rearranging the position of traditional cultures in Chinese people’s life and production. “Bishan “not only a geographical name, but also a symbol of traditional and original homeland of soul, has an increasingly deep influence. With strong ethnic features, Chinese handcrafts existing in physical form is now inherited in a mobile and growing manner, lasting vividly in cities and villages
Classic-style Combined Glazed Pottery Jar, by Qiu Gengyu, made in 1994. It combines the shape of a vessel with the beauty of sculpture and blends abstract forms with concrete folds and pleats of clothes presenting an erect bearing with light and simple colors
Bishan Project: Bishan Village is located in yi county ancient huizhou Anhu Province. Initiated by ou ning and Zuo Jing in 2011, Bishan Project is the idea and practice that intellectuals return home from the urban to begin a common life in the countryside, dedicate their intellect to rural politics, economy and culture in a variety of ways and bring the countryside back to life for an agricultural homeland
Bishan Village is located in Yi County, ancient Huizhou, Anhui Province. Initiated by Ou ning and zuo jing in 2011, bishan project is the idea and practice that intellectuals return home from the urban to begin a common life in the countryside, dedicate their intellect to rural politics, economy and culture in a variety of ways and bring the countryside back to life for an agricultural homeland
