Clay Sculpture of Linhai in Southern Zhejiang

Clay Sculpture of Linhai is an intangible cultural heritage of Zhejiang Province It came to the notice of culture officials in July 2005 in a general survey across Zhe-jiang Province aimed to catalogue all the existing folk arts and crafts in the province Survey workers discovered Zhu Lugui， a folk artist in Linhai， and discovered his clay figurines modeled after characters in Peking Operas and other regional opera plays Experts from Zhejiang Adminis-tration of Culture and China Association of Crafts and Arts were amazed by the beauty of the figures They concluded it is a unique folk art form and they submitted it for inscription on the province’s list of intangible cultural heritage

It turns out that Zhu Lugui， now in his 70s， is the only artist in Linhai who makes such clay figurines That is why the Zhe-jiang Administration of Culture in June 2006 appointed him the artist responsible for carrying on his one-man’s show and passing it on to future generations

Zhu runs a studio on a street in Duqiao， a small town in Linhai With simple decora-tion， the studio does not look artsy at all A wood table stands in the center On the table are a set of tools such as an iron knife， hand chisels， brush pens， and paints On the left stands a cabinet displaying a full range of clay figurines

Zhu does not talk much， but as soon as the art of clay figurines becomes a topic， he becomes talkative

The clay for his small-sized sculptures comes from the soil layer 15 meters down the surface of the local coastal plain He uses clay only from this deep layer The clay must be kneaded for half an hour before it is ready for sculpting After clay is roughly heaped into shape of a future sculpture， sculpting begins Zhu uses wood and bamboo tools to carve minutely the facial expression and the clothing Occa-sionally he uses a sheep-hair brush to moisten the sculpture in the making It takes about 2 to 3 days to complete sculpting a figurine It will be left drying before it enters a kiln The figurine will stay in the fire for 15 days After the firing period， the figurine is painted in various colors and glued to a painted wood pedestal

As most of his clay figurines are char-acters of Peking Opera plays or Yueju Opera plays， Zhu has become an expert on theater costumes as a result of spend-ing a lot of time observing and studying and memorizing His knowledge of the costumes is amazing

The experts discovered the beauty of his clay figurines in 2005， but Zhu found the beauty as a teenager， that is， more than half a century earlier He started clay-sculpting at 13 when he tagged along with his elder brother to travel and make clay statues of gods The two craftsmen traveled around rural Linhai and even neighboring Sanmen County to find their village clients who might need a holy statue for a household shrine The younger brother began to create clay figurines modeled after the characters in Peking Opera plays and local opera plays In his long career， he created a style of his own His clay figurines are colorful， vivid， and lovely

His career halted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when he was prosecuted for making statues of gods， presumably symbols of superstition Dur-ing the years， he had to work as a cobbler to make a living He resumed making clay figurines after the chaos dissipated

Zhu Lugui has won a series of big honors for his unique clay figurines In 2008， he was awarded Tiangong Prize at Zhejiang Exposition of Folk Handicrafts Honors do not satisfy the maker of color-ful clay figures， however He wants badly to have a disciple to carry on the tradition He is eager to teach， but not many young people are willing to dedicate themselves to the art Some college students understand the art and they come to his studio during summer vacations Nowadays some are studying the art under his guidance Of his pupils， one from Zhejiang Normal Uni-versity has caught the master’s attention The young man is promising Zhu feels the disciple may one day become the next master if he persists □