Teochew woodcarving

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Chaozhou woodcarving

Applicant: Shantou City, Guangdong Province

Project No.: 339

Project No.: Ⅶ - 40

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Guangdong Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Shantou City, Guangdong Province

Protection unit: Shantou arts and Crafts Society

Introduction to Chaozhou wood carving

Applicant: Shantou City, Guangdong Province

Chaozhou wood carving has a long history. It was built in Kaiyuan Temple of Chaozhou in the 26th year of Kaiyuan reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (738). Guangdong's woodcarving skills are mainly concentrated in Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang, which is historically known as "Chaozhou woodcarving".

Chaozhou wood carving is highly skilled, and is known as the four major wood carvings in China together with boxwood carving, Dongyang wood carving and Fujian wood carving. It is well-known at home and abroad for its wide range of subjects, full composition, fine carving, multi-layer hollowing out, resplendence and other characteristics.

Jieyang wood carvings usually exist in the form of buildings, furniture and ornaments or components for gods, and are often decorated with gold paint or painted. It has a wide range of themes, and mainly shows the historical legends and opera stories of flowers, birds, insects, fish and people's favorite music. There are many kinds of carving forms, such as sunken carving, relief carving, through carving, round carving, Tuodi carving and so on. Jieyang woodcarving generally adopts the flexible modeling method, using perceptual and dynamic lines and surfaces, and the modeling is composed of arcs, curves and the throwing surface and curved surface produced by them. The composition is full, the layout is symmetrical, and the knife technique is complex but not chaotic, reflecting the beauty of rhythm and rhythm. Jieyang wood carving is also known as "golden lacquer wood carving". When it is made, rough wood is chiseled on camphor wood or fir wood, then it is carefully carved, polished, painted layer by layer, and finally pasted with gold foil, which can achieve the brilliant artistic effect.

Shantou has a long history of wood carving, which began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is widely used, rich in themes, folklore, ancient and modern characters, flowers, birds, insects and fish, birds and animals, river and sea aquarium, drama stories and so on are its common themes. There are many famous wood carving masters in Shantou, and their works have won many awards in national competitions.

At present, the development of wood carving in Chaozhou is hindered. Due to the low income, most young people are reluctant to learn. The surviving craftsmen are all over 50 years old, and there is no successor. If we do not rescue them as soon as possible, the prospect is worrying.