Related stories

Amusing and Astonishing Stilt at Temple Fairs Outside at 798 2006 'Arts from Our Land' Competition Painting and Caligraphy Main Galleries

Opera and Life

Zongren is a folk art form unique to Beijing. Even there, you can find it nowhere else but at Bai Dacheng's studio. But what is Zongren?

Zongren are Peking Opera figurines made of clay and colourful paper. Their bottom sides are affixed with bristles that cause them to "dance" when placed on a copper plate and when the edge of the plate is tapped. The head of the figurine is of clay and its body of paper. A figurine's arms are connected with flexible steel, which allows them to sway. To complete an opera, the figurines are generally made two or three to a group, but large-scale operas may use more than 30 figurines. Though the figurines resemble the actors in a real opera, they do not move with the precision of real actors. Instead, they move irregularly on the plates when they are tapped; so an artists' personal skill decides the quality of a "performance."

Zongren was created during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and were popular attractions at temple fairs. The first well-known Zongren folk artist was Wang Chunpei, who passed the skills to his son Wang Hanqing. In Wang Hanqing's time, he could not make a living with Zongren and had no successor. Bai Dacheng was an enthusiastic lover of this folk art and was determined to inherit and spread Zongren. When the two met, Wang decided to adopt Bai as his apprentice.

Bai mastered this skill and made great improvements. Wang's figurines were six to seven centimetres high, but Bai's works are 16-17 centimetres in height. All the details, such as helmets, make-up, weapons, mimic the real. The costumes of the figurines had been made of paper, but Bai changed them to silk. Some figurines have a raised leg.

To make one intricate Zongren figurine, Bai must execute tens of procedures. The most difficult is drawing facial make-up and the patterns of the costumes. In one of Bai's best works, he made eight distinctive hammers as weapons for his figurines. Each of these hammers has its own style and features, just like the original opera has described.

Bai is often invited to participate in overseas folk-art exchanges and his works are appreciated and collected overseas. He sometimes even organizes such events, with a goal of "improving the social status of Chinese folk art and letting more people know about it," as he said to Beijing This Month.

Want to know more? Contact: lastword@btmbeijing.com.