Senior inheritor uses innovation to pass on traditional painted sculpture craft

Liu Huibin, a senior inheritor of a craft for making traditional painted sculptures in Jincheng city, north China's Shanxi Province, has gone all out to pass on the handicraft by embracing innovation.

Jincheng painted sculpture craft is a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage in Shanxi. The city is home to more than 600 painted sculptures that span a number of dynasties.

Liu Huibin works on a painted sculpture. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Liu is a fourth-generation inheritor of Jincheng painted sculpture craft and a master of Chinese traditional arts and crafts. He developed a passion for the craft during his childhood, and learned it systematically from Liu Beigui, a third-generation inheritor of the craft.

To master the craft, Liu had copied numerous outstanding murals in temples and portraits.

According to Liu, the traditional craft involves several steps, starting with modeling, from which a painted sculpture artist develops a human-shaped frame made of wood and adds layers of substances such as rice straw ropes and wheat straw. Other steps include adding clay on the frame, shaping the clay, and colored painting, the last two steps being the most demanding.

Liu Huibin works on a painted sculpture. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Over the past 30-plus years, Liu has created over 1,000 clay and painted sculptures, covering a range of subjects such as folk culture and sculptures in temples. One of his works won top prize in a national-level competition.

In recent years, Liu has tried to replace clay, the raw material for making traditional painted sculptures, with sandstone and coal refuse, so that his works can last longer.

Liu began to take on apprentices when he was 24 years old. So far, he has trained five municipal-level masters of arts and crafts.

"Simply protecting intangible cultural heritages is not enough. We need to inject new vitality into them and allow more people to engage in the cause," Liu said.

Liu Huibin copies a part of a mural. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)