*Guangzhou Olive Core Carving

77.*Guangzhou Olive Core Carving

Nominating Unit: Zengcheng Municipality, City of Guangzhou

Guangzhou Olive Core Carving is one kind of traditional Chinese micro-carving. Now it is mostly distributed in the downtown areas of Guangzhou and Xintang Township of Zengcheng City under Guangzhou’s jurisdiction. As early as the Ming Dynasty, there were already monks selling olive nut carved boats to the temple goers to indicate the relief of mortal souls from purgatory. The Qing Dynasty witnessed the peak period of Guangzhou Olive Core Carving, in which numerous masters made their names, and their works were presented to the imperial court as treasures. Its craftsmanship cannot be surpassed even today. In the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938), the Japanese army invaded Guangzhou, Guangzhou Olive Core Carving lost its prosperity ever since, until the founding of People’s Republic of China. In the 70s and 80s of the last century, it even regained a booming period with Xintang Yi Carving Factory alone producing as many as 70 thousand pieces in a year.

Guangzhou Olive Core Carving uses the Wu Lan olive nut as its raw material, which is big and hard with a tight texture, and can only be found in Zengcheng City. The making techniques include draft drawing, base making, carving, polishing, seating, etc. The tools used are various kinds of files. Guangzhou Olive Core Carving belongs to the solid micro carving, mainly with relief and hollowed out techniques. The products are not intentionally colored, but to maintain its original colors so as to achieve a simple and primitive look. The products can be divided into seated pieces, pendants, and strings, etc. Traditionally, seated pieces mainly uses figures as their styles, like Guan Yin, the Eight Immortals, God of Longevity, historical heroes, even fishermen. The strings are made with a string of carved pieces, mainly of god’s or Buddha’s heads, animal heads or fruits. Hung pieces are fine carved pieces which can be hung with delicate strings, the main themes of which include articles of auspices, like fan pendant, belt hooks and other garment ornaments. After 1958, the types of products increased to over 50, many of which, like multi-layered flower boat, crab cage, fishing boat, hung lantern, etc., made new breakthroughs in styles and techniques.(https://www.daowen.com)

Among the seated pieces, boats are the outstanding representatives of Guangzhou Olive Core Carving. Chen Zuzhang, the imperial craftsman of Emperor Qianlong who came from Guangzhou, created an olive nut boat called “Dong Po Moonlight Boat Ride in Chi Bi” (now in Forbidden City Museum of Taibei), which is only 1.6 cm tall and 3.4 cm wide, but with seven figures in the boat and the whole set of furniture. On the back of the boat there is also the whole article of “Hou Chi Bi Fu”. Marvelous still, the windows on both sides can be opened on a hinge only 1mm wide. Another piece of work with similar theme (now collected by Zengcheng City Museum) was carved by a famous craftsman, Zhan Gusheng in the reign of Emperor Xianfeng of Qing Dynasty. This boat has a boy serving tea on the head of the boat, and a sailor on the tail of the boat steering the boat. Inside the boat, Su Dongpo and two other people sit at a table with three tea cups on it. On the back of the boat there is also the whole article of “Chi Bi Fu”. There are eight windows on both sides of the boat that can be opened and closes. This masterpiece is named “Treasure of Guangdong Province”. The marvelous carving skill is an icon of southern China’s carving achievements, and was enlisted into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Under the impact of market economy, a lot of olive trees around Zengcheng are felled down, which depleted the supply of olive core to almost zero. Besides, the making techniques are very complicated and the turnover is very low with its limited sales. There is also traditional bias to viewing it as hoax. All of the above pushed it on the verge of extinction. Urgent protective measures are called for.