Wuchuan Clay Sculpture

Wuchuan Clay Sculpture

Nominating Unit: Wuchuan Municipality, City of Zhanjiang

Wuchuan clay sculpture is distributed in Meilu city proper in Wuchuan as well as several villages and towns under the jurisdiction of the municipality.Legend has it that during the transitional period between the late Tang and the early Song Dynasty, the inhabitants in Liaoling, Foshan brought in the ceramic art of Shiwan, which gradually evolved into today’s clay sculpture. It is also said by the local people that during the early Ming Dynasty, the villagers were disgruntled with the then emperor who dispatched officials to select beauties everywhere so that they made ugly images of both the emperor and empress out of clay sculptures while celebrating the Lantern Festival. The images that turned out no less ugly than ghost were therefore termed as “clay ghost” to be driven away. Wuchuan clay sculptures are locally named as “clay ghosts”. It has now become a unique local pageant to make, display and appreciate clay sculptures in the Lantern Festival. This practice of so doing all comes from this folk story.

With the clay and straw that abound in local places as the basic material, Wuchuan clay sculptures are made through a series of procedures: building framework, applying clay, molding, fine carving and polishing, integral adjustment, as well as coloring. The coloring features in painting, and the opening painting mostly adopted the approach of New Year painting with attractive colors. Wuchuan clay sculpture is characterized by the molding of characters. These models are almost as large as or even bigger than real men, some of which are even several metres in height. They are made most swiftly, within an average of about three days. Given special circumstance, they can also be made in an impromptu manner, such as “Nezha Conquers the Dragon King”, “ the Eight Immortals going across the sea” which are made above the water; “The Monkey King - Quest for the Sutra” made in the big banyan trees, from which we can see monkeys sitting, squatting, climbing, and suspended in the trees, live and interesting. Wuchuan clay sculptures craftsmen are good at molding a set of images in particular, vivid and impressive as it were, including the 30 colorful sculptures of “Female Chinese celebrities of all dynasties” for Leizhou, 100 colorful sculptures of “Chinese historical figures” for Guangzhou; the “Country Land Is Money” made for Zhanjiang, “Emperor Qianlong Touring the Daqinggu Valley” for Hangzhou;“Cucurbit Mummy” for Xishuangbana in Yunnan, etc. They seem like vivid and real scenes of drama. One magnum opus named as “Returning with the Scripture” won the golden prize in the first Chinese Folk Arts and Crafts Exhibition in the year 2003, and was treasured up by Fu Jen School of Arts of Beijing Normal University as the teaching example.

Wuchuan Clay Sculpture, Wuchuan Parade of Float and Wuchuan Flower Bridge are reputed as“Three Marvels” of folk art well recognized by the local people. In Meilu city proper alone, over 300 clay craftsmen can be identified making over 100 clay sculptures studding all over the bustling streets every year in the Lantern Festival. A swarm of visitors from all places also add to the extraordinary liveliness of the scene. Recent years has also witnessed some new breakthroughs in Wuchuan sculpture arts. Some dynamic movements with superior difficulty such as fighting on the horse, flying up and down have come into being. Others are even set against the backdrop of light and music, giving a vivid interpretation of feelings blended with the natural setting.(https://www.daowen.com)

Due to the impact of the market economy and some concept of value nowadays, there has been a great lack in the number of people who are able to design Wuchuan clay sculptures and inherit this traditional art, which badly needs the attention and support from relevant departments.