Ningbo culture expo to showcase local lacquerware

Yan Haibin paints a section of the drum pavilion. [Photo/IC]

Yan Haibin, a craftsman living in Qiantong town, Ninghai county, Ningbo, plans to attend the 2020 Maritime Silk Road Culture and Travel Expo to be held in the city from Sept 25 to 27. He will bring his recently completed masterpiece – a carved wooden gold-painted cinnabar lacquer, or "drum pavilion".

Ningbo Carved Wooden Gold-painted Cinnabar Lacquer, a traditional art form dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), is a national-level intangible cultural heritage item. Only a highly skillful craftsman talented in both carving and painting can make one, and the manufacturing process involves 20 different procedures.

Qiantong town has a long tradition of carrying "drum pavilions" made of carved wooden cinnabar lacquer in parades during rituals. 

It took Yan two years and 500,000 yuan ($73,350) to complete his extremely complex masterpiece, which required around 7,000 sheets of gold foil paper.

Yan, who is 43 years old, has been practicing this art form for 25 years and has been officially named an inheritor of the cultural heritage item.