Editor’s Note: This article is produced in collaboration with the Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies, as part of a series of ongoing reports exploring the city’s abundant resources in intangible cultural heritages.
If you know the Jingdezhen porcelain in Jiangxi, the Suzhou embroidery in Jiangsu, and the Hangzhou silk in Zhejiang, I guess you probably know about the Chengkou lacquerware in Chongqing. Surrounded by mountains and rivers, Chengkou County is well hidden in the hinterland of Chongqing's Daba Mountains. The favorable climate resources make it possible to produce the best and natural wood logs here.
Lacquerware is a classic of Chinese traditional craftwork and artwork. The surfaces of different everyday utensils are coated with a thin layer of raw lacquer. Chinese lacquer arts enjoy a long history, which could be traced back as far as Shang and Zhou dynasties. With constant development and innovation, today’s Chinese lacquer arts have achieved a fairly high level.
Chengkou is known as a land of raw lacquer in China. It has given birth to lacquerware which is famous for its exquisite craftwork. The big lacquer here is mostly produced at an altitude of more than 1500 meters. Compared with ordinary small lacquer, the big one has better ductility, durable wear resistance, and wouldn’t fade easily. Consequently, the price of woodware made in Chengkou, which is around 260RMB per kilogram and even reaches 800 RMB after processing, is much more expensive than that in other places.
Chengkou lacquerware was named Ba State lacquerware before. It has a history of around 3000 years based on the excavation of the Xiuqi Danping Site. After the founding of New China, more than 10 lacquer works were sent to display in the Palace Museum, the National Museum of Victoria in England, and the China Museum of Arts and Crafts. They are also known for being used as the national gifts to foreign prime ministers and international friends.
The most representative artwork of Chengkou lacquerware is “Shanshen (God of Mountain) lacquerware.” As the national intangible cultural heritage of Chongqing, Shanshen lacquerware was listed into the “Twelve Representative Local Products of Bayu Area.” The production department of Shanshen lacquerware is among the national industry standard certification departments.
“Wood-based, lacquer-souled” is the cultural spirit of Chongqing Shanshen lacquerware. With the natural log, Chongqing Shanshen lacquerware is painted with high-quality raw lacquer. It combines folk lacquer and modern technology to refine its art. The lacquerware pursues the diversity and brightness of color which forms its unique style and shows the excellent traditional Bayu culture with distinct local characteristics.
Shanshen lacquerware can be made into bottles, plates, screens, ornaments, and calligraphy supplies with the advantages of fast color, fine gloss, and smooth tactility. The production of Shanshen lacquerware is quite complex, containing nearly 80 different steps like lacquer cutting, raw lacquer filtering, and lacquer embryo production, etc. The whole process generally takes more than one month even for a very professional craftsman.
Inheriting lacquerware arts is to keep the pride of history, the essence of Chinese culture, and the spirit of craftsmanship.
(The original article comes with a Chinese version authored by Zhang Yu (advisor/Jing Xi) as well as an English version translated by Wan Kang (advisor/Liu Jun, Wei Jingjun), and was later narrated by Zhang Zikang (advisor/Ren Yi), all of whom are students (and teachers) from Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies.)