Zhangtian Cake Stamp

87.Zhangtian Cake Stamp

Nominating Unit: City of Shaoguan

Cake stamp is also named as cake making model, which is not only a model for making moon cakes or other bridecakes but also a traditional folk art in carving. Zhangtian cake stamp was initiated by the ancestors with the surname of Zhang in Zhangtian Village, Xinfeng County, City of Shaoguan. It has been passed down for generations ever since the transitional period between the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty. Out of the need for the folk tradition of eating cakes during festivals, the annual number of Zhangtian cake stamps’ production amounted to over 10,000 during the years of the Republic of China (1912-1949). During the 1980s, the number of people who carved the cake stamps and the practitioners reached about 400 with an annual production of cake stamps totaling 500,000. Zhangtian cake stamps have been sold in a great number of major cities in China, and other places such as Hong Kong, Macao SARs, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, America, Europe, etc. Zhangtian Village, as the most time-honored and the biggest cake stamp production and sale center, has been world renowned as “Cake Stamp Village”.(https://www.daowen.com)

With hawthorn wood that abounds in local places as the basic material, Zhangtian cake stamp boasts tender and slender wood grains, firm woodiness, solidity and great durability. It is convenient to carve and unload the model, nonetheless it can never be readily applied until it is jagged, chopped and dried in the shade for one year. The carving technique procedures include: model making, pumping air into the gas hole, carving, polishing, etc. Among them, carving is of vital importance since all the pictures and words should be carved in a reverse manner, posing great challenges for one’s command of carving tools and knife skills. After all, no draft is made before carving so that the craftsmen should have a clear-cut layout of the whole picture in mind beforehand. Besides, they should also have a perfect command of over 30 carving tools including dental chisel, sweep blade, cutting knife, bent chisel, groove chisel, corner chisel, blossom chisel. Their composing, mature and powerful knife skills produce a well-balanced layout of the stamp model with brief picture lines, clear decorative patterns with the degree of strength, depth, thickness, yin and yang appropriately arranged.

Various types of Zhangtian cake stamps can be used to make moon cake, Buddhist cake, almond cake, pork cake, money cake, fried rice cake, etc. The pictures of people, animals, and flowers are often painted on the stamps representing auspiciousness, peace, harmony, reunion, health, and wealth. Also painted on the stamps are names of places and shops as well as words of auspicious signs. Zhangtian cake stamp boasts a variety of patterns tinted with strong native flavor and folk colors, such as double dragon on the cloud; harmonious celestial being couple; mandarin duck swimming across lotus; butterfly on the lotus; the Eight Immortals in the legend; eighteen arhat; Good fortune, ample salary, longevity; plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboos; etc., providing valuable material evidence for the study into traditional Chinese custom of cake eating during festivals.

With the advancement of science and technology, the making of cakes nowadays mainly relies on industrial equipment for mass production so that the need for the traditional handicraft carving has gradually decreased. A large number of carving craftsmen have thus changed their profession so that Zhangtian cake stamping is now steeped in the dire situation that this handicraft is on the verge of getting extinct with almost no inheritance, which badly needs the attention and protection from relevant departments.