Nanhu district, the place where ships of the red army entered service, integrates “red” factors into traditional culture

By Xiujuan Yang Source:Globaltimes.cn Published: 2019/12/20 21:03:00

Overseas "fans" came for the colored eggs painted by the community


"Getting an egg is so hard." In the Wenxing Community, a scene of 38 Japanese visitors competing for the painted eggs were seen recently. Because of the limited number, there were only eight from the audience who were lucky enough to get the prize. In Wenxing Community of the Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, East China's Zhejiang Province, the painted eggs produced by the residents are not only famous in the local area, but also have attracted "fans" from many countries such as Japan, Korea, the United States, Portugal and the United Kingdom. 

On an egg of six to seven centimeters diameter, the bright peonies are in blossom, the birds are as vivid and almost capable of singing. The red ships in the rippling blue wave, with windows which are as tiny as nearly not visible, but still have the appearance of being three-dimensional, as if could be opened at any time. While in the Calligraphy and Painting Club of Wenxing Community, in addition to the works hanging on the wall, the most striking scene must be the painted eggs in the display cabinet of the hall. Smaller than a fist, these painted eggs are exquisite works of calligraphy and painting.

"In recent years, many tourists from home and abroad have come to visit our community. Shan Zhao, Party Secretary of the Community is quite proud of this. Speaking of painted eggs of Wenxing Community, a key figure must be mentioned, Fu Haiming, who is a community resident, folk artist of Zhejiang Province. Under Fu's initiative, the art of painted eggs has been included in the second batch of Intangible Cultural Heritage Directory of Jiaxing City.

At the same time, the community has developed a painted eggs organization composed of calligraphy and painting lovers. After the death of Fu Haiming, who was more than 80 years old, a team led by Tu Shunqi , the head of the community painting and calligraphy agency, innovated the content of the painted eggs.              

The city of Jiaxing is the starting place of The Chinese Revolution. The Communist Party of China was born in 1921, on a red boat on the South Lake located in Nanhu district which is the most prosperous district of Jiaxing from then on. Tu Quanfeng, Tu Shunqi 's father, is a famous also outstanding Chinese comic-strip painter. In addition to flower-birds and landscapes these traditional Chinese secular themes, Shunqi also incorporated a revolutionary spirit  into the paintings on eggs, taking Red Boat and South Lake as important creative elements. Meticulous painting also the unique beauty of the South Lake soon attracted attention from native citizens also a large number of friendly foreigners.

The 83-year-old retired Japanese teacher Suzuki Keizhi is the one of the most obsessed foreign fans of Chinese egg painting. Which eggs can be used for egg painting? How to punch then take egg yolk and egg white out? How to make tempera color more solid and bright? Despite his less-than-fluent Chinese creating a communication barrier, Suzuki asked very clearly and detailed questions.

When Suzuki was leaving, Tu selected some well-designed eggs as gifts, which surprised Suzuki. 'Chinese traditional culture is so charming!' The old man couldn't stop praising. Suzuki, who loves Chinese culture, has been teaching Chinese exchange students Japanese for free for nearly 15 years.

Exquisite colored eggs, profound culture of calligraphy and painting, magic paper-cut, traditional Chinese dumplings... Every time foreign friends come to Jiaxing for a visit, Wenxing community will present brilliant performances, attracting tourists who will certainly be immersed in Chinese culture and then take photos of the transient but memorable moments.   The community now has more than 10 traditional performance teams, including calligraphy and painting, waist drum dance, shadowboxing and paper cutting, with more than 1,000 members.



Posted in: CULTURE & LEISURE

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