Learning to draw and write丨Kungfu Chaozhou blooms the charm of Chinese aesthetics
Chaozhou, a cultural ancient city with a history of over two thousand years, has been known as the "first city of Lingdong" since ancient times. It is surrounded by three mountains and the Han River, with a continuous cultural heritage and profound heritage.
Gongfu is the dialectics of life for Chaozhou people, which is extremely subtle and extensive. Embroidery needles pick out countless worlds, and beneath the carving knife lies the universe. The fragrance of Gongfu tea is imbued with the traditional cultural connotations of "harmony, respect, refinement, and joy".
17 national intangible cultural heritage projects, 47 provincial intangible cultural heritage projects, 139 municipal intangible cultural heritage projects...Chaozhou, this hot land carries a profound historical and cultural heritage.
Chaozhou embroidery belongs to the Guangdong embroidery school among the four famous embroidery styles in my country. Its biggest feature is the three-dimensional raising. It is famous for its exquisite and delicate embroidery, balanced and full composition, bright colors and three-dimensional effect.
The Chaozhou embroidery screen "One Hundred Children" has a full, balanced and symmetrical composition. The one hundred children are either frowning or happy, fighting crickets or playing football, or beating gongs and drums. They have different postures and are vivid and lifelike. It is a noble and elegant folk art treasure.
Chaozhou woodcarving, which originated in the Tang Dynasty, has exquisite craftsmanship and is particularly famous for its multi-layered hollow carving techniques and gold lacquer decoration techniques, giving people a delicate and interesting artistic enjoyment.
The shrimp and crab basket is the essence of Chaozhou woodcarving art. It depicts the perfect combination of lobsters, crabs and bamboo baskets with multi-level openwork and round carving techniques, which is lifelike. The spirit and spirit can be seen in the big picture, and the ingenuity and refinement can be seen in the small details, which is breathtaking.
From traditional porcelain bottles to modern household porcelain and then to electronic ceramics, the ceramics industry has developed into Chaozhou's first pillar industry.
The hollowing out of openwork porcelain can reach up to 5 layers, or it is painted on the glaze, or combined with relief or standing sculpture, or decorated with colored soil, etched gold, etc., which is exquisite, graceful and beautiful. Some porcelain petals do not sink in water and do not break when they fall to the ground.
The characteristic of Chaozhou arts and crafts is that skills never tire of being refined, and straw painting best reflects this.
The feathers on the peacock's tail in the painting required thousands of cuts. The feathers on the neck were cut as thin as hair, making them vivid. It took nearly a year to complete such a work.
Clay sculpture is one of China's ancient folk arts. Among the three major clay sculptures, Chaozhou Dawu clay sculpture is unique.
The clay sculpture in front of you has both spirit and form. It is mainly composed of characters from drama stories, and the sculpture tells the joys and sorrows in the history books of the stage. The biggest feature of Chaozhou clay sculpture is pasting. The craftsman first makes the clay figure, and then makes clothes for it, pressing the clay into pieces, folding the pieces into clothes, and "wearing" the clothes on the clay figure layer by layer, making the figure three-dimensional and textured, and finally achieving the effect of "coming alive".
Chaozhou is a city full of tea fragrance. "Sit down and have tea." This is the most popular phrase in Chaozhou Ancient City. In ordinary families, there is a tea table, two moves of "Guan Gong patrolling the city" and "Han Xin reviewing the troops", and three cups of tea are placed, the fragrance is the most soothing to ordinary people's hearts.
Chaozhou Gongfu tea is a typical representative of Chinese tea art culture. In November 2022, Chaozhou Gongfu tea art was successfully included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO as an important part of the "Traditional Chinese Tea Making Skills and Related Customs" project.
"Chaozhou craftsmanship is very particular, disregarding materials and working hours, with rich characteristics that run through the entire social life of Chaozhou people. It is the inheritance of refinement and refinement in traditional Chinese culture, the materialization form of Chaozhou cultural spirit, and an important medium for Chinese culture to convey the charm of Chinese aesthetics to the world." said Chen Xianwu, a Chaozhou cultural and historical scholar.
The Han River surges, the tides flow back and forth, and a thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye. After a thousand years, the ancient city's intangible cultural heritage is still young. Standing at the gate of the ancient city, we can still hear the thousand-year-old ancient rhyme and the eternal pursuit of art told in the wind. As spring comes and autumn goes, Gongfu is integrated into the lives of Chaozhou people. The ancient city is more glorious in the creative transformation and innovative development of culture. We are also constantly writing a new chapter of Chinese aesthetics with intangible cultural heritage.
