Yangzhou Arts and Crafts Art Museum

Yangzhou Arts and Crafts Art Museum

The arts and crafts of Yangzhou originated in the Qin and Han dynasties, flourished during the Tang and Song dynasties, and reached their peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has long been an important production center and distribution hub for handicrafts in China. There are 18 traditional craft varieties under the protection of the Jiangsu Provincial Government, 16 national, provincial, and municipal intangible cultural heritages, and over 120 master artisans. Among them, national and provincial masters account for one-fifth of the total number in the province.

The Yangzhou Arts and Crafts Art Museum was established in 2003, covering an exhibition area of 3,970 square meters. It is divided into five exhibition areas: lacquerware, jade ware, paper-cutting, embroidery, and folk crafts. It displays more than 500 sets of intangible cultural heritage items (including 20 categories such as lacquerware, jade ware, embroidery, paper-cutting, lanterns, rice-paper flowers, and metal crafts), presenting a dazzling and colorful array. The museum has become a comprehensive, multifunctional arts and crafts venue integrating premium exhibitions, treasure collections, academic exchanges, and derivative product development.

Among them, the museum’s prized treasure is the carved lacquer inlaid with jade large wall hanging titled “Ode to Peace, Magpies on Plum Branches.” This pair of wall hangings is an unparalleled masterpiece in terms of design, materials, and historical value. Created in 1959, they were a celebratory gift from the Yangzhou Lacquerware Factory for the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. They were displayed in the Jiangsu Hall of the Great Hall of the People for over 20 years, and China’s first-generation Party and state leaders often took photos with foreign dignitaries in front of these wall hangings. In 1984, new display pieces were designed for the Great Hall of the People, and these wall hangings were returned. The designer of the wall hangings was Chen Zhifo, a renowned Chinese meticulous flower-and-bird painting master and then professor at the Nanjing Academy of Art. After multiple exchanges with veteran Yangzhou lacquerware artisans and several drafts, he finalized the designs of these two pieces with auspicious meanings. The materials used for the wall hangings are particularly precious, including natural jadeite, hibiscus jade, coral, and black ink jade.

The flat-ground mother-of-pearl inlay “Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge,” designed by Master Zhang Yu, was created to commemorate the completion and opening of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. It was later presented to Beijing by General Xu Shiyou, then Commander of the Nanjing Military Region, and received high praise from Chairman Mao. It was also given as a state gift to Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Over a decade later, when the prince revisited China, he specifically requested to visit the Yangzhou Lacquerware Factory, demonstrating the profound and memorable impression this piece left on him.

The representative paper-cutting work of Master Zhang Yongshou, “Hundred Chrysanthemums,” enjoys widespread fame across China. Mr. Zhang Yongshou had a lifelong passion for chrysanthemums and cultivated many rare varieties. It was precisely because he had “a thousand chrysanthemums in his heart” that he could “cut a hundred blossoms.” His summarized creative philosophy is: realism for truth, variation for beauty, generalization for vitality, and exaggeration for spirit. For every chrysanthemum he cut, the thickness of the petals, the size of the leaves, and the thickness of the stems all conformed to reality; yet the orientation, angle, and curl of the blossoms were never identical; and the ups, downs, twists, and graceful postures varied with the seasons. It is precisely because they originated from life and were refined with artistic ingenuity that the “Hundred Chrysanthemums” now before us have earned widespread admiration and praise.

The Yangzhou Arts and Crafts Art Museum has become a place where friends from all over the world linger and revisit.