Puppet head carving (jiangjiazou puppet head carving)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: puppet head carving (jiangjiazou puppet head carving)

Applicant: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Item No.: 343

Project No.: Ⅶ - 44

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Fujian Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Protected by: cultural center of Licheng District, Quanzhou City

Brief introduction of puppet head carving (jiangjiazou puppet head carving)

Applicant: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Quanzhou puppet head is a popular folk art treasure. The carving of puppet head originates from the traditional carving of puppet gods.

There have been many sculptors in Quanzhou history, among which Jiang jiazou, who rose in the first half of the 20th century, is a modern sculptor. Jiang jiazou (1871-1954), whose name is Changqing, was born in Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. His father, Jiang Jinbang, was a folk artist who carved the head of a pink puppet. At the age of 11, Jiang jiazou began to learn art with his father. At the age of 18, he inherited his father's career and developed 285 kinds of puppet head portraits with different personalities. Among them, 250 kinds have titles. In addition, he also made more than 10 different styles of bun and braid. Since then, Jiang jiazou has been working hard in the field of puppet head sculpture for a long time. He has carved more than 10000 pieces of pink puppet heads all his life.

Jiang jiazou summed up a rule of puppet carving through his keen observation and careful study of the characters. He believed that the beauty, ugliness, loyalty, treachery, virtue, stupidity of the images and the joy, anger, sadness and joy of the expressions would cause complex changes in the "five shapes" of eyes, ears, mouth, nose and eyebrows and the "three bones" of eyebrows, cheekbones and chin bones. According to the plot and character, we can generalize, exaggerate and deform the facial bone and muscle structure, and turn the motionless puppet head into a vivid character.

The puppet head made by Jiang jiazou is a perfect combination of sculpture and pastel. His works are characterized by subtle brushwork, skillful carving, refined knife technique and exquisite skills. It has the characteristics of beautiful shape, rich image, rigorous structure, accurate carving, harmonious color, beautiful pattern and color, vivid appearance and full of wit. It is a rare treasure of perfect combination of sculpture and painting.

Jiangjiazou's puppet head carving and pastel art are complicated, purely manual, with limited income and long learning period, which is difficult for most young people to accept. Therefore, inheritors can only choose from their children. In the new situation of rapid social changes, jiangjiazou's puppet head carving technology is in development dilemma because it can't meet the needs of market economy, and its inheritance is facing crisis. It is in urgent need of support from relevant parties, so as to overcome the obstacles as soon as possible and inherit smoothly.