When I was 16,
my grandfather Wang Jinsheng introduced me to wood carving.
He was nationally recognized for
the tradition of Huizhou woodcarving.
In 2007, when he was 82, we carved this work,
“Along the River During the Qingming Festival,”
on a 9 meter-long piece of redwood. It took us 3 years.
My name is Fang Feng.
I’m a wood sculptor from Huizhou.
Our city is known for its history of carving arts.
The art of wood carving has
over 600 years of history in China.
Historically, Huizhou was a merchant city.
As its people prospered, they could fund the arts.
When wealth grew,
people demanded more decorative art on their buildings.
In the past,
people mainly carved on structures,
like house beams, windows, doors.
You can see wood carvings everywhere.
We usually carve nature, still life,
and depictions of classical stories and myths.
There are 5 steps to carving a piece of art.
First, we sketch on the wood.
The second step is to do a rough carving.
There are many kinds of chisels and tools.
Round or flat ones, or those with textures and lines.
Which ones we use depend on what we’re carving.
We use different techniques
based on the wood’s thickness.
It looks three-dimensional because the wood is very thick.
We chisel and remove parts of the wood
to make it look lifelike.
Thirdly, we try to bring out the details.
It’s difficult to carve facial features
because a person has many types of expressions.
If you make a mistake on the eyes, nose,
or a tiny part of any feature,
it can ruin how real it looks.
The fourth step is to polish the sculpture.
The fifth step is to paint colors on it.
My grandfather has many works he can be proud of.
Many people bought works from my grandfather
and tried to copy him.
We would practice carving from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., he taught us how to draw.
In the first 3 years,
he didn’t let us carve the complicated patterns.
Because he didn’t want us to practice
with the expensive materials.
I was carving the same pattern on chairs every day.
It was very boring and frustrating.
I was still very young then,
only 17 years old. I was rebellious.
Sometimes I lost my patience
and really wanted to go out and have fun.
I was only able to finish a piece independently
after 2-and-a-half years.
Now I worry about succession myself.
Not many people are into this.
And this craft has passed its peak.
I had 2 apprentices before.
But one worked only for a year, another for half a year,
and then they both left.
Because they didn’t understand
why we need to put so much time carving by hand
when machines nowadays can do them too.
Art carved by machines all look the same,
but those carved by hand are unique.