-- An ordinary lump of flour, kneaded and worked between a craftsperson's fingertips, is transformed into lifelike human figures, endearing animals and auspicious flowers. This is dough figurine art, known in Chinese as miansu — a fingertip craft passed down for a thousand years. In Heze, Shandong Province, the dough figurines of Juancheng are stepping into the public eye in a fresh new light.
In April 2023, the government of Juancheng County officially released the fourth batch of county-level representative intangible cultural heritage items, and Juancheng dough figurine art was on the list. With that formal designation, this folk craft, rooted in the local soil, received its official stamp of recognition — and a powerful boost for the preservation and transmission that would follow.
Juancheng dough figurines share a common origin with Heze's celebrated "Caozhou dough figurines," named for the historic designation of the Heze area. Caozhou dough figurines were inscribed on the second batch of China's national intangible cultural heritage list as early as 2008, and are prized for their exquisite shapes and brilliant colors. Juancheng dough figurine art carries on this lineage: with wheat flour and glutinous rice flour as the main ingredients, blended with glycerin and honey, the dough is steamed and colored, then shaped through techniques of pinching, rolling, kneading, pressing, lifting and binding. Working with nothing more than bamboo skewers, combs and scissors, the artists give concrete form to whatever their minds conceive — their finished pieces combining the suggestive expressiveness of Chinese freehand painting with the plain, unpretentious charm of folk art.
Within the transmission lineage of Juancheng dough figurine art, a cohort of representative inheritors is keeping the craft alive through action. The Li school, carried forward by Chen Sujing — a national-level representative inheritor of Caozhou dough figurines — and her son Li Bin, has long devoted itself to education and outreach in the craft. Chen Sujing began studying the art in 1986 under her father-in-law Li Fangqing, breaking with the old convention that the craft be passed only to sons and not to daughters. Today she has helped draw more than 2,000 local people into the dough-figurine industry, and her works are sold in more than a dozen countries overseas. Li Bin, for his part, is pushing beyond the traditional framework, weaving the cartoon characters and cute, playful forms favored by young people into his creations — and, in doing so, attracting a large young following to this ancient craft on social media.
"Tradition is not static; it should be carried forward through innovation." These words capture the contemporary mission of Juancheng dough figurines — and of intangible cultural heritage at large. From toys traded in the streets and lanes to formal recognition on the intangible heritage list; from temple-fair performances to hands-on lessons in school classrooms — Juancheng dough figurine art is weaving itself into modern life in ever more diverse ways.
A lump of dough shapes the myriad world; a craft carries the cultural roots. Through the daily kneading and sculpting of its artisans, the fingertip art of Juancheng dough figurines is writing its own chapter for a new era. (Liu Zhaokui)
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Name: Liu Xiao
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Organization: Foreign Media Co., Ltd.
Website: https://www.chinanews.com/sh/2025/03-10/10380869.shtml
Release ID: 89207460
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