LIN YIGUANG

Reviving old arts

When Xu was a small boy, he liked to see his grandfather and father sculpting dough in their leisure time. "I used to love watching them turn a plate of flour into colorful figures," he recalled. When Xu decided to make a living through dough modeling, he began to seriously specialize in the art, "I started by making the 12 Chinese animal [zodiac] signs," he explained.

Transforming dough is not an easy task. Xu said a good piece of sculpture can only be created when he is calm and fully concentrating. Sometimes he molds a dozen figurines and chooses the best among them. "What I am looking for is not likeness, but the life and spirit behind my creation. It's [their] value," he said.

Most Chinese traditional folk arts have been passed on for thousands of years from generation to generation, but some have witnessed slower growth during the past decades and are in danger of being lost.

"Some of them are dying because fewer people show appreciation for them, not to mention passing them down," Xu noted. "Now, fewer and fewer people learn to create these intricate works of art."

Xu opened his own workshop in Nanluoguxiang Alley in Beijing's Dongcheng District two years ago, after running an outdoor stand in another part of the city for eight years. There, he makes and sells dough figures and demonstrates the sculpting process to customers – his attempt to protect and revive interest in this ancient art.

"Dough figure sculpturing is part of our cultural tradition," he said. "I want to enrich the art, and hopefully, keep it alive."