Inheritance and development of Jinan dough sculpture

Jinan dough sculpture is a unique folk art of Han nationality in China, with a history of more than 300 years. It once spread widely and had a great influence in southwestern Shandong. Jinan dough sculpture is one of the most regional characteristics in Jinan arts and crafts. China modern dough sculpture art has been recognized as originating from Heze, Shandong Province, and Jinan dough sculpture is the authentic inheritance place of Heze dough sculpture, but it is not very prosperous now.

Located near the west gate of Jinan, Jinan Folk Art Museum has many dough sculpture artists from Jinan, and some dough sculpture artists from other cities in the province often come here to exchange ideas. According to Liu Xuebin, director of Jinan dough sculpture museum, there are more than 20 dough sculpture artists in Jinan who are famous in China, and some of them have been invited to perform abroad. He said that the creation of modern dough sculpture in Jinan began in the early days of the People's Republic of China. Two famous dough sculpture artists, Li Fangge and Fangqing Li, came to Jinan from Heze, set up the first dough sculpture organization in China, and began to teach and sell their works. Since then, Jinan's dough sculpture art creation has appeared with a unique look.

Zhang Fuli is the deputy director of the dough sculpture research institute of Jinan Folk Art Museum, and has been engaged in dough sculpture creation for more than 20 years. He said that most people who like noodles now are people over 30 and 40 years old, while younger children, such as primary school students and kindergarten children, like the images in cartoons, while young people in their twenties rarely like them. These people are the main consumers now, so this is the main reason why it is difficult for noodles to open a larger market.

Speaking of the creation of Jinan dough sculpture, Mr. Wen Wenjun, who is famous for creating Chinese Cabbage, said that the creation of dough sculpture pays attention to the quickness, accuracy and coordination of color matching. In the past, artists didn't pay much attention to proportion when creating figurines, but today's figurines have paid more attention to this point, and they are getting faster and more delicate, and the future development will be fine, fast and bright. He said that the "dough figurine" on the street is not the real Jinan dough figurine art, but has gone out of shape. These "dough kneaders" aim at making money, have no innovation, and their creative techniques and themes are vulgar.

Ms. Dong Fengqi, a senior arts and crafts artist, believes that dough sculpture is no longer a simple tool for making a living, but a work of art with artistic appreciation and collection value. When it comes to the development of dough sculpture, Mr. Dong thinks that dough sculpture should not stick to the old routine, but must be combined with people's life and market, so as to expand its influence and improve its popularity. At present, many hotels have introduced some special dishes, such as the banquet in the Red Chamber, the banquet in Jin Ping Mei and the banquet in the Eight Immortals. Wouldn't it be more distinctive if it could be matched with dough sculptures related to people or animals? It can not only attract more people, but also improve the cultural taste and grade of the banquet, and dough sculpture naturally becomes a unique scenery. Isn't this killing two birds with one stone?

To this end, some members of Shandong CPPCC put forward the following suggestions: First, organize and contact various foreign commercial performances, bring "dough sculpture" to the market, improve artists' living standards and economic income, and let more young people see the bright future of folk art, so as to be interested in learning dough sculpture art; The second is to set up folk art manual classes such as "dough sculpture art" in kindergartens so that children can learn folk art from an early age; Third, folk arts such as "dough sculpture art" are filmed into teaching films, which are broadcast by children's programs on TV stations to achieve the purpose of publicity and popularization; Fourth, folk art should be included in the compulsory course of labor skills or art teaching in schools at all levels, and students should be encouraged to learn folk art. At the same time, relevant departments should actively study and develop tourist handicrafts with folk art characteristics, open up the international tourist handicraft market, and form large-scale production while saving and developing folk art to solve the re-employment problem of laid-off and unemployed people. Tourism and related departments should support the establishment of "China Traditional Culture and Art Long Street" in tourist attractions, and implement preferential policies for folk art talents, encourage folk artists (masters) to open a museum to teach, cultivate reserve talents of folk art, and reward folk artists who have made contributions to the inheritance and development of folk art.

It is understood that because the level of dough modeling in Jinan is at a high level in the whole country, and the dough modeling technology in Jinan has never been interrupted since ancient times, it is said that this is rare in the whole country. At present, many first-class artists of dough figurines in China are in Jinan, and the birthplace of dough figurines is in Shandong. Therefore, curator Liu Xuebin thinks that Jinan should strive for the title of "Hometown of dough figurines" and "Capital of dough figurines".