Artists turn Shanxi heritage into new stories

Visitors tour the Hanging Temple in Datong's Hunyuan county, Shanxi province, on July 17. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

German illustrator and new media artist Anja Nolte opened her sketchbook to show a small drawing of the Hanging Temple, alongside sketches of traditional rooflines, dragon motifs, decorative animal figures and dougong – a system of interlocking wooden brackets used in traditional Chinese timber architecture.

Her drawings were created during the 2026 Discovering Shanxi's Ancient Chinese Architecture program, jointly organized by China Daily and Shanxi Daily. The six-day journey brought Chinese and international creators to temples, grottoes, ancient cities and other heritage sites across Shanxi province.

Nolte said the Yungang Grottoes and the Hanging Temple were among the places that impressed her most. Rather than attempting to reproduce an entire site, she often focused on architectural and decorative details that caught her attention.

At Yungang, Nolte sketched a decorative element featuring a dragon motif, as well as people she encountered during the visit. At the Hanging Temple, she made a small drawing of the wooden complex built along a cliff.

Chinese painter Li Zhengming, a member of the China Artists Association, said Shanxi’s ancient buildings conveyed a strong sense of solemnity and historical depth. Li was particularly struck by the relationship between the Hanging Temple and its mountain setting.

Seeing the buildings in their physical surroundings revealed connections among architecture, geography and culture that could not be fully understood through books or screens, Li said.

Speaking at a cultural salon held during the journey, Song Yi, dean of the School of International Journalism and Communication at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said international creators often brought visual languages, narrative rhythms and perspectives that differed from those of domestic storytellers.

Their individual perspectives could help overseas audiences approach unfamiliar cultural heritage through images and stories that were easier to follow and relate to, Song said.

The photographs, sketches and videos created during the journey reflected those different ways of seeing. Some participants focused on the scale and setting of ancient structures, while others recorded a roofline, a wooden bracket, a decorative motif or the relationship between a building and the surrounding landscape.

Together, their work showed how firsthand encounters and artistic interpretation could reveal details of Shanxi's heritage that a conventional description alone might overlook.