Yangjiang Lacquer Art

96.Yangjiang Lacquer Art

Nominating Unit: City of Yangjiang

Yangjiang Lacquer Art, distributing in the city proper of Yangjiang in southwestern Guangdong Province, started in the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties. Till the mid-Qing Dynasty, it already gained reputation and reached its peak in the 30s of the last century when products were exported to Southeast Asia as well as European and American countries. Ever since the Anti-Japanese War broke out, many skillful craftsmen became destitute and homeless in the chaos. Till 1949, the lacquer industry was moribund. Then in the mid-50s, with the establishment of Lacquer ware Producers Cooperative and Lacquer Factory in the original Yangjiang County, Yangjiang Lacquer Art regained vigor and vitality. The colors and designs of the lacquer wares then totaled more than 500 and were especially popular abroad.

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Yangjiang Lacquer Art boasts a great variety, including leather-body lacquer, wooden-body lacquer, hemp-body lacquer, metal-body lacquer, paper-body lacquer and porcelain-body lacquer. At first, Yangjiang Lacquer Art mainly used natural lacquer which, however, could not meet the need. Later, cashew nut lacquer, known as the alternative coating, was developed. The process flow of the manufacture of lacquer ware is extremely complicated. The main techniques are as follows: inlaying colorful board, mother-in-pearl, shell, gold tracery and embossed lacquer, patting and printing, etc. Traditionally, finishing coat Xiushi (decorations) are black and Zhu red (vermeil). The adoption of cashew nut lacquer brought some changes to the decoration technology, adding the following decorative techniques: grinding, covering gold, covering silk, covering copper, covering tin, etc, which enable the lacquer ware become much more colorful. Most of the Yangjiang Lacquer Art wares are practical products, such as leather suitcase, tea set, jewelry box, seal box, spectacles case and so on. They are characterized by light weight, tightness, moisture-proof, heat-resistance, alkaline-resistance, deform-resistance, non-fading. Among them, the leather-body lacquer products reflect the traditional characteristics most. With the exquisite handiwork, simple and elegant style, graceful bird-and-flower relief sculpture, leather work “Wanshou (long life) Golden Lacquer Box”, one of the representatives, was awarded gold medal in the 1936 South Pacific International Cargo Games.

Yangjiang Lacquer Art attaches great importance to Xiushi. Through meticulous painting, inlaying, covering gold, grinding, many practical products turn out to be colorful, distinguished and dazzling brilliant with high value of appreciation and collection. In the 1950s and 1960s, Yangjiang Lacquer Art developed the traditional fl oral paint technique and produced a new sort of wood lacquer painting. Lacquer paintings need to use special paint vehicle, paint and foil material. Its manufacture process integrates many techniques such as color painting, inlaying, painting covering, carving-filling in, rubbing, etc. The products have strong characteristics of Lingnan style. The representative work “Goshawk” has been choosen as a national gift to the foreign senior VIPS. “Zhua Ye Mei” (plum blossom shaped like claw) is kept by China’s National Art Gallery. The lacquer-fresco painting Kui Xiang (the village of the sunflower) is on display in the Great Hall of the People.

With the emergence of daily necessities made of various new materials, practical lacquer products have been violently influenced. The production has gradually shrank with the artistic lacquer wares being cold-shouldered. Today there are very few lacquer masters still engaged in lacquer art. With very few successors of it, Yangjiang Lacquer Art is on the edge of being lost and is in great need of protection.